5 pitfalls of selling your home – and how to avoid them
Selling a property can be a lengthy, stressful experience so it’s wise to consider the potential pitfalls before you embark on the journey. Forewarned is forearmed and while you can’t make every possible problem go away, you can at least have strategies in place that will help you deal with them in the best way possible. Here are five of the most common house selling challenges – and what to do to about them.
Emotional factors
Selling a home can be an emotional time, whatever your reasons for wanting to move on. It may be that you’re selling your beloved first home, or the home where you raised your young family; you might be going through a divorce, which can raise a host of difficult emotions as you progress towards the sale. The best way to get through this is to focus on the reasons why you are selling. When difficult emotions come up, concentrate on the end goal, and try to see the sale as a financial transaction, not an emotional one. Remember that this is your first step towards a new chapter in your life.
Wrong time of year
The best time of year to sell your home is during the first two weeks of May, when you can expect it to sell 18.5 days faster than any other month, and for 5.9 percent more money. April and June are also a good bet. There’s an optimistic, feel good factor to these sunny months, and the longer days make everything from viewings to moving easier. The toughest months to sell are August (because everyone is on holiday), December and January, when the short days, cold weather and Christmas period can all hinder the process. One option is to put your house on the market to coincide with the warmer months of spring and early summer, but circumstances may mean that you can’t wait – in which case, it’s a good idea to consider selling to Property Buyers Wales: at any time of year we’ll buy your house fast with no hassle or delays.
Expensive problems with the property
If you’ve got an older house, the chances are that it has some issues that need addressing. It can be tempting to try to hide these, but you’ll almost certainly come unstuck when your buyer carries out a survey. Your other alternatives are to grit your teeth and pay for the repairs, which can put extra value on your property, or lower the price to take into account the repairs your buyer will need to carry out. If you sell to Property Buyers Wales, we’ll carry out a speedy assessment of your property and give you a prompt and fair offer that takes into account any issues it may have. We’ll stick to that price throughout the whole process, so you’ll have no stressful renegotiations further down the line.
Waiting for the buyer to get a mortgage offer
One of the most frustrating delays when selling a house can be waiting for your buyer to get their mortgage offer. It used to take an average of two weeks. Currently, however, the wait is more like four to six weeks because lenders are swamped by buyers keen to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday for homes worth up to £500,000, which runs until March 31 2021. Knowing it’s going to take time can prevent you becoming disappointed as time drags on; however, if you want to sell your house fast, Property Buyers Wales could be just what you need: we can complete the whole process in day, not months.
Gazudering
Sadly gazundering – where a buyer tries to reduce the price of the sale after you’ve accepted their initial offer – is fairly common, although it’s considered very bad form. Sometimes something comes up during the searches and surveys that gives the buyer a genuine reason for wanting to lower the price, but other times it’s a calculated move to force the seller to drop the price. Typically the gazunderer wait until the sales process is quite advanced; you’ve waited a long time and made plans based on the sale happening by a particular date – then they’ll suddenly try to reduce the price. It can leave you feeling shaken and betrayed, but many sellers end up agreeing to the lower offer simply because they can’t bear the thought of starting the whole process again with a new buyer. If you want to avoid any nasty surprises, consider a quick sale to Property Buyers Wales. We’ll stick to the price we first quoted you and we’ll make the whole sale as speedy and painless as possible.
