Whether you decide to sell your house with a real estate agent or by yourself, there are particular actions you must take to ensure a smooth and timely transaction. In a seller’s market, it is possible to cut corners but in any marketplace there are ways to speed the sale, limit your liability and increase the sales cost.
Have a Home Inspection Done Before List
At a really hot seller’s market some buyers submit offers with no inspection contingency. This is unusual even afterward and virtually never occurs in a buyer’s market or a market in which neither the buyer nor seller is in an advantage. Knowing the purchaser will likely make the offer contingent on an inspection, it’s wise to have one done yourself before the home is listed. When the inspection has been completed, you will know what the issues are and can fix yourself, get bids to fully understand how much it will cost to address them and also possess ample information that will help you set a competitive list price. Sometimes you’ll discover issues that may frighten away a buyer that you can readily fix before the home goes on the market. A carbon dioxide buildup in the garage might prompt some potential buyers to cancel the contract. But if you discover the cause is a simple fix to your furnace vent the issue won’t ever come up during the purchaser’s inspection.
Disclose Everything
Although state laws vary, more than two-thirds of all states have some requirement for sellers to disclose known defects in their dwelling. Every defect has to be disclosed. And you may be prosecuted if you know more about the defect or not. In that situation you might not lose the lawsuit, but risk even the possibility of being taken to court? Disclosing all issues also can help you during the negotiation process. When the purchaser counter-offers after his inspection because there’s dry rot under the staircase, you respond by alerting him that the dry rot was disclosed up front and was taken under consideration in the pricing. Disclosing everything also takes the element of surprise from the inspection process and lessens the likelihood a purchaser will walk away from the deal when he finds out about a problem late at the contingency period.
Be Flexible
Problems may crop up during the sales process. Knowing this upfront can help you remain calm and concentrated on solving problems rather than decreasing from them and losing the offer. The buyers might find their closing prices are more expensive than they can afford. You might find your new residence will not be ready for one more month. Every problem has a solution. You can keep the deal alive by creating them. Suggest increasing the sales cost a bit and crediting the buyers back to help them with the closing prices. Ask whether you can rent back for a month after closure or find a storage facility and live with your mother for a few weeks. Whatever happens, know it’s not a conspiracy–it’s a chance to address a problem.