Selling a home is a challenge if you don’t know what to expect. After all, homes are a large asset that requires time, attention, and perseverance for a proper sale. With no experience or supervision, you may face any of these seven common challenges when selling your home. These challenges include being too emotionally attached, setting unrealistic prices, drifting away from your expected budget, selling at the wrong time, selling to unprepared buyers, or even hiding major issues. Prepare yourself and read how to overcome these challenges, as these factors all affect the sale of your home. Being IndecisiveOne of the biggest issues many homeowners have when selling their homes is getting emotionally attached. While a home is a place to live, raise a family, and provide shelter and supporter, don’t grieve too much, as this can hinder the selling process. It’s okay to relinquish the memories made in your home. However, don’t let them get you down during the move-out. Keep any furniture and belongings to take with. Otherwise, leave, donate, or sell the rest. There’s plenty of time to make new memories in your new home. Remember that a house, townhouse, or condominium is just a building. If you don’t live there, someone else will. When selling, remember that the memories you made are now open for a new family to make, too. Underestimating Selling CostsAnother issue home sellers face is underestimating selling costs. Yes, selling a home is going to cost you, especially if you’re going through an agent. You’re likely to see six to ten percent of the sale price used for closing costs, repairs, agent fees, and other concessions. Moving furniture, finding temporary housing, and making necessary repairs and upkeep feed into this as well. Don’t forget that you’re still financially responsible for taxes and mortgage of that property until you sell it. The longer your home remains listed on the market, the longer you need to pay these fees. Add on additional taxes and mortgage if you already purchased or moved into a new house, too. Setting Unrealistic PricesOf course, setting unrealistic prices also puts you at a disadvantage. Consider the fair market value between what you—the seller—and the potential buyer agree upon. This sweet spot is perfect for you as the seller. It prohibits you from asking too much or too little. Obviously, asking too much will deter any buyers from your property, but asking for too little limits any profit opportunity. Have a general idea of your home’s value before listing. If you don’t know, look at what similar homes in your area sell for and base your listing price off that. As an alternative, have a licensed appraiser value your home for you. They have the knowledge, skills, and experience to give an expected price range based on your home’s features, condition, and the prices of other homes nearby. Selling During the Off-SeasonSort of like buying a car, there are better and worse times to sell a house. Winter is one of those bad times. While the house-hunting process is a 365-day cycle, significantly fewer people shop for homes in the winter. It’s cold, attitudes are bitter, and buyers typically haggle down, leaving you at a disadvantage. Also, it’s the holiday season, and people want to be with their families. Fewer buyers mean fewer selling opportunities and longer listing periods. Consider selling your home in the spring or early summer. Temperatures are higher, people are happier, and you can impress buyers with your stylish curb appeal. After all, aesthetics make a difference. Not Posting PhotosAlways post photos of your home on its listing. People want to see what they’re going to buy, and that’s especially true for larger purchases like a house. Importantly, do some renovations to spruce up the exterior and interior spaces. Brush up the landscaping, paint, and front porch on the outside. Then, tidy up the inside. Once you’ve completed all the necessary renovations, take some wonderful photos to show off. These photos should be crisp and clear with plenty of natural sunlight. A wide-angle lens offers the best view of what the entire room looks like. If you’re uncomfortable taking the photos, hire a professional photographer to do it instead. Not Screening BuyersAnother common challenge when selling your home is selling to unqualified buyers. You should always screen potential buyers before signing any paperwork. Make sure they bring all necessary documentation proving their financial responsibility for this purchase. This includes a pre-approval letter from a mortgage lender or pay stubs as proof of funds if they’re paying in cash. Since these are legally obligating contracts, it may help to have a lawyer present. Otherwise, be sure your buyers have the means to afford and move in without issues. Hiding Major ProblemsAlso, it’s never a good idea to hide major problems from prospective buyers. Any uncovered problem during a home inspection means issues. However, there are ways to avoid causing problems. Address any major problems ahead of time is the ideal option, yet this may set you up for additional, unforeseen costs. You could leave the issues alone and list the house under its expected value. Contrarily, you could list it under its normal price but offer a credit to the buyer to take care of the problem themselves. It’s still ethical to disclose any relevant issues before signing the contract. Disclose these to gain trust and respect from your buyer. Otherwise, you may turn away many perspectives if they get a third-party contractor to inspect the property. Still, if you want to avoid preliminary inspections, obligations, or closing fees, you could sell your home to a home buying company. At Direct Property Buyer, our mission is to help you sell your home as quickly and efficiently as possible based on your schedule and expectations. Based in the Chicagoland area, we want to help you sell your home fast in Aurora, Naperville, Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Elgin, Joliet, and other surrounding suburbs. Not to mention, we buy homes “as-is” with no repairs necessary. In a rush? We take care of any discarded belongings for you. Stop waiting and call us to sell your home now. We’ll buy it, no questions asked.
5 Comments
1/7/2022 01:28:44 am
Thanks for pointing out that homes are a large asset that requires time, attention, and perseverance for a proper sale. This is helpful because my husband and I want to sell our two-story house near the beach so we can collect more funds for his knee surgery. We are hoping to find experts on Monday who can sell our house with a 1% listing fee within two months.
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1/19/2022 12:20:54 am
Such a helpful article, I am so happy That I came across this amazing website, it would be really great if you post more such blogs, as they are super informational. Keep posting more.
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4/8/2024 04:19:35 pm
The wrong time, selling to unprepared buyers, or even hiding major issues. Prepare yourself and read how to overcome these challenges, as these factors all affect the sale of your home. Thank you for making this such an awesome post!
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4/30/2024 04:10:24 pm
If you don’t live there, someone else will. When selling, remember that the memories you made are now open for a new family to make, I truly appreciate your great post!
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5/6/2024 11:06:53 am
You may face any of these seven common challenges when selling your home. These challenges include being too emotionally attached, setting unrealistic prices, Thank you, amazing post!
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AuthorEric Strung and Direct Property Buyer Team Archives
January 2024
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