10 Big Home Selling Headaches (and How to Avoid Them)

10 Big Home Selling Headaches (and How to Avoid Them)

Oftentimes, people sell their house as a result of an exciting change, like getting a new job in a new city or preparing for a serious lifestyle upgrade. Other times, home sales are motivated by less positive circumstances, such as an impending divorce or financial troubles.

Whatever your motivation for selling your house, you should know that selling is associated with some big challenges – massive headaches that stand between you and your desired result.

What are these home selling headaches? And how can you avoid them?

Selling Strategically

First, understand how much control you have over the home selling process. You’re the one in the driver’s seat, making the decisions of how and when you’re going to sell. Every decision you make, from the real estate agent you hire to your initial asking price, will play a role in how your home sale goes.

Because of this, it’s important to understand all your options. Most people sell a house by working with a real estate agent and listing it in the open market, but another option is to sell your home directly to a cash buyer. In this arrangement, you’ll find an individual or organization interested in buying homes as is; they’ll make you a cash offer, you can choose to accept it, and if you do, you can complete the transaction in a matter of days. While this may result in a lower offer than what you would receive otherwise, the transaction is much faster, smoother, and less complicated. If you’re interested in eliminating all the headaches of selling a house, this could be the best path forward.

The Biggest Home Selling Headaches

These are some of the biggest headaches that sellers experience when trying to sell a house:

1. Timing the sale.

So, you’ve decided to sell your house. When do you actually do it? If you’re interested in maximizing the sale price of your home, you’ll need to think about timing the market; the real estate market, like all markets, fluctuates both seasonally and in unpredictable ways. If you sell during a bad time for sellers, it could take you weeks to get an offer, and your offer may be lower than average. If you sell during a good time, you could get a fantastic offer almost immediately. What’s the solution? Analyzing historical data with a real estate professional can help, but there’s only so much you can do, since real estate markets fluctuate in unpredictable ways.

2. Managing your emotions and biases.

Some home sellers struggle with managing their emotions and biases. Because you’ve lived in this house for so long, you’re tempted to overprice it. You may also be reluctant to accept an offer you view as unfair. The best way to calibrate your biases is to look at objective information, like the sale price of homes similar to yours in the same area.

3. Finding a reputable agent.

You can sell a home in cash without a real estate agent, but if you’re going to push for a higher sale price, hiring a real estate agent may be your best move. The problem then becomes finding the best person to represent your sale. Consider talking to a wide range of different real estate agents so they can demonstrate their expertise and convince you why they’re the best person for the job.

4. Choosing the right price.

What’s your asking price? If you set it too high, you’re going to scare people off and receive fewer offers. If you set it too low, you’ll run the risk of reducing your profitability. Strategizing with a real estate agent is the best move, as you’ll have to incorporate many pieces of data, including the sale price of similar homes, historical trends, and more. When in doubt, set the sale price slightly higher than you think you’ll get; you can always bring the price down in the future.

5. Handling paperwork.

There’s a lot of paperwork to organize and sign when you’re selling a house. Fortunately, your real estate agent and lawyer will guide you in how to handle these things. Better yet, if you choose to sell your house in cash to an organized buyer, you’ll get a streamlined process that requires very little on your part.

6. Issuing repairs.

In most cases, you’ll need to make some repairs before attempting to sell your home on the open market. Buyers generally want to purchase a home that’s ready for habitation; they don’t want to manage repairs on their own. But which repairs are worth making? And how can you do them affordably? One option is to sell the house as is. Otherwise, focus on issues that might be dealbreakers and issues that are very inexpensive to fix.

7. Staging the house.

Your home should be as neutral and beautiful as possible to attract higher bids from more buyers. Staging is the traditional way to accomplish this feat. If you have the budget for it, hiring a staging company can be a wise strategic move. If you’re selling a house on a budget, look to social media for inspiration and strive to make your home as neutral as possible.

8. Coordinating a move.

Coordinating the timing and logistics of your move can also be challenging, especially if you’re trying to move quickly. What happens if you sell your home before you have a new home to move into? Would you be able to manage the finances of multiple properties if your home doesn’t sell right away? There are many potential ways to address this problem, but whatever you choose, make sure you have multiple backup plans, since there’s no guarantee things will work out the way you think.

9. Working with multiple buyers.

If there’s sufficient interest in your home, you’ll need to manage many showings and potentially leave your property during those times. Your real estate agent can help you brainstorm solutions here, such as hosting bigger open houses.

10. Closing a deal.

It’s stressful to decide whether you’ll accept an offer – but thankfully, the rest of this process is fairly straightforward.

Getting a Cash Offer

There are little strategies that can help you mitigate the biggest home selling headaches, such as finding a better real estate agent or investing in the curb appeal of your house. But if you want to sell your house as quickly and smoothly as possible, the best option is to sell your home in cash to a motivated buyer.

That’s where Light Street Residential comes into play. In just a few minutes, we can learn about your house and give you an offer for your property as is. Get your free cash offer today!

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