Top things homeowners hate about the home selling process

Top things homeowners hate about the home selling process OPENDOOR.COM

Congratulations – you’ve found your dream home! But wait, you still need to sell your current house. Better put that bottle of bubbly back in the fridge —it might be awhile.

Selling a house is a relentless process that involves phone tag with your realtor, sleepless nights and inviting complete strangers to wander through your home while you’re out.

Being prepared for some of the more annoying and tedious aspects of selling your house may help you weather the process.

Here are the some of the most hated and frustrating things you can expect to deal with when selling your home: Ongoing stress In the back of your mind, it’s always there. When you wake up in the morning, when you’re at work or the grocery store, when you’re hanging out with friends, when your head hits the pillow at night. Going through the home-selling process means stress becomes your unwanted companion.

There are plenty of moving parts to the house selling process, many of which will likely be out of your control—even simple things like updating your listing can go wrong if your realtor isn’t paying attention to detail. We suggest that you’ll be mentally prepared from the start, says. Expect that selling your house will be an adventure, and plan accordingly.

Exhausting prep work for showings If you’re living in the house you’re selling, you’re going to have to maneuver your daily schedule around the showings, some of which can come up at the last minute. Potential buyers don’t want the homeowner present during a walk-through. They’re trying to imagine themselves as the homeowner, and may feel awkward if the current owners lurk as they check out closest and toilets.

Don’t forget to take your pets with you when you leave, since the sight (and smell) of a litter box or fur on the sofa might lend a sense of uncleanliness to the entire home. Also, check out our guide when selling a home with pets.

Kind in mind that not everyone will love your animals as much as you do.

You also need to make your place picture-perfect, and keep it that way for as long as showings last. Strangers inspecting your bedroom and bathroom may feel odd, but that’s just the way it is.

Staging your home is one of the most exhausting parts of selling a house because of the many hours you’ll spend on coordinating, packing, cleaning and organizing. Before your listing goes live, talk to your realtor and any friends who have sold a house about surviving the walk-through marathon. Maybe you can bribe a neat freak buddy to help clean and stage, too.

Insulting feedback You might wonder what people have to say after they tour your house, but after your realtor gives you the lowdown, you may wish you’d never asked.

Feedback about turning on more lights or clearing out fallen backyard branches might help your sales efforts, according to Bankrate. But you may also hear complaints about the kitchen cabinets you lovingly chose or how you should have cut down the tree you planted when you moved in.

Try not to take the feedback too personally. Remember, the goal isn’t to make friends, but to sell your investment (and hopefully make some money). One of those complaining buyers may return with an offer after discovering that no house is perfect.

Ridiculously low offers A low-ball offer may just be part of the negotiation process, according to HouseLogic. The buyer may aim low knowing that he or she will have to up the offer. If your house has lingered on the market, or you’ve already reduced the price once or twice, you can expect to get more than a few low offers. Buyers might sense your desperation, so think carefully before updating the price.

If possible, consider the time of year that you are putting the house on the market. During the school year, be prepared for fewer offers from families who don’t want to relocate their kids and pull them out of school. There’s often some buyer who expects to pay less because of some minor repairs.

But if the house inspection doesn’t reveal any significant structural issues, you will have to decide how much (if at all) you’re willing to drop the price to satisfy a buyer’s demands.

Uncertain closing date Great news—the closing date is set! In just four weeks this torturous process will be over. But then your realtor calls the next day to inform you that the buyers have pushed the closing date back another week. And then again. Now you’re starting to lose your patience. How are you going to pay for your new house if you don’t sell this one? What about the moving company you already booked? Then again, for some, this delay could be a blessing in disguise. Take advantage of the extra weeks to check more things off your pre-moving day list.

Buyer bails at the last minute The buyer backed out, and you didn’t see that coming. Maybe the buyer decided they couldn’t afford your house after all. Maybe some unexpected circumstances arose. Maybe they felt torn between your house and another one. You may never know the reason. The best thing you can do to preserve your sanity is to take action. You might have some legal recourse, according to Investopedia. Otherwise, can you hold another open house?

Can you reduce the price? Can you refresh your listing?

Improve what you can, and keep on with your daily routine while you wait for another interested buyer to come along.

opendoor.com