Selling a home at any time is usually time-consuming and anxiety-inducing. And when you add in the almost inevitable challenges and difficult selling situations, it can be absolutely overwhelming, especially if you’re trying to do it all on your own. Those challenges and difficulties are why almost all sellers are better off working with an agent. Read on to find out about the difficult selling situations your Kauai real estate agent can help with.
Too Much Emotion on Your Part
Many sellers, especially people selling their first home, let their emotions get in the way of making sound business decisions. They may have lived in the home for many years and raised a family there. As a result, they have a strong emotional attachment to the home that makes rational, objective selling decisions difficult.
An experienced Kauai real estate agent can provide the guidance you need to avoid making emotion-based decisions such as pricing too high or sabotaging the deal because you don’t really want to let go. When you decide to sell your home, you have to start seeing yourself as a salesperson or businessperson, and not as a homeowner. Your real estate agent can help out here by coaching you to see things from a financial perspective.
Unrealistic Pricing
As we indicated above, a common selling situation that causes difficulty is incorrect pricing. Sellers often think their home is worth more than it actually is, and pricing too high can cause potential buyers to skip right over your listing. Then your home sits on the market unsold with the result that buyers think something is wrong with it. Ultimately, in many cases, sellers wind up selling for much less than they could have if they had priced in line with market value from the beginning.
A real estate agent can help you price your home correctly right out of the gate. Your agent will perform a comparative market analysis to determine market value. By means of this tool, your agent will look at recent sale prices of homes very much like yours and in your neighborhood. To consult a Kauai real estate agent about pricing, just call 808-634-4518.
An Inspection that Finds Problems
Another common difficult selling situation occurs when the home inspection turns up problems. Your home may have problems that you’re not even aware of, and when the inspection finds them, the buyer may want to back out, and she can if there is an inspection contingency.
Typically, when the inspection finds issues, a buyer will ask you to make the needed repairs, or the seller will offer to reduce the sale price to cover the cost of the repairs. But if the buyer and seller can’t come to terms, then the deal may fall through.
A real estate agent can be an invaluable asset in such a situation. With years of experience, your agent can advise you on whether you should make the repairs or refuse. Buyers will almost always try to get as much as they can, and your agent will know if the buyer’s requests are unreasonable.
A Low Appraisal
Before a lender will approve a buyer’s mortgage loan, they will have an appraisal done. The purpose of the appraisal is to determine the value of the property to ensure that it is worth what the buyer wants to pay for it. And sometimes the appraisal comes in low.
When that happens, you have to decide whether to lower the asking price or look for another buyer, one who can make up the difference out of her pocket. These are some tough decisions, and your real estate agent can help you navigate through them to arrive at the best solution. Most sellers just don’t have the experience and know-how to make the right decision on their own.
Buyers Unable to Sell Their Old Home
Another of the common difficult selling situations occurs when a buyer can’t sell her current home. Most buyers who are already homeowners will have to sell their existing homes in order to get financing for a new home. But if they can’t sell their existing home, then they can’t buy the new one.
To avoid being stuck in such a situation, many buyers write a home sale contingency into the contract. Such a contingency gives the buyer to option to back out of the deal if they can’t sell their current home. It’s great for buyers, but risky for sellers because there’s no guarantee that a buyer can in fact sell her home. Most sellers, then, need to lean on their agent’s expertise to know whether to accept a sale contingency or not.
Where to Find a Top Kauai Real Estate Agent
Many things can go wrong in a real estate transaction, and there is typically no shortage of difficult selling situations. But with an experienced agent in your corner, you’ll have the professional assistance you need to navigate the course to a good outcome. When you want an experienced Kauai real estate agent, contact us at 808-634-4518.