Selling your home can be a stressful experience, especially if you’ve had offers fall through in the past. However, there are some things you can do as a seller to do your best to insure a successful sale the first time. The most common reasons for an offer to fall through is because of the buyer’s financing, appraisal issues, title issues and inspection issues, so the best way to protect your sale is to deal with these issues up front.
Buyer’s financing is to blame for a majority of home sales that fall through, so first you should educate yourself about financing and know what kind of financing your buyer has. Concentrate on buyers who have been preapproved and if possible, focus on those with conventional loans versus FHA loans. And if you get a cash offer, seriously consider it. Even if it is a lesser offer, cash sales do not have to go through appraisal and can move much more quickly and fall through less often than buyers who have to work with a lender.
Title and inspection issues should be dealt with as early as possible. Instead of waiting for the buyer’s inspection or title search to turn up problems, sellers should prepare themselves ahead of time. It is smart to get your own inspection before listing. Many of the repairs that turn up on inspections can be simple fixes that you can do yourself before sellers are scared off or request more off the price than it would cost to fix.
Finally, to keep your sale moving in the right direction you should prepare for the appraisal before you list by getting a professional opinion and pricing your home in line with the comparables in your area. Even then you can still run into problems, but at least you will be more prepared.
Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County? Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-644-2266.