What Surprises First-Time Home Sellers the Most

If you’ve never sold your home before, there may be parts of the process that surprise you. Many first-time home sellers find aspects of the selling process surprising or concerning, so it’s good to learn about them before you sell. Read on to learn what surprises first-time home sellers the most.

How Long it Takes

One aspect of the home selling process that many homeowners don’t comprehend is how long the process can take. When you’re selling your home, it’s important to take the time to find a buyer that will give you an offer worth your time. You should be able to use the money from your offer to pay off your mortgage, and maybe even make some profit. In order to do this, the process may take a while. Even if you find a buyer right away, you still have several processes to go through, all of which can be lengthy. In general, selling your home takes no shorter than about 3 months. However, it can also take years.

What it Costs

Another thing that generally surprises first-time home sellers is what it costs to sell your home. There are three main costs associated with selling your home. First, there is the real estate agent’s commission. Your real estate agent will take roughly 6% of your home’s final selling price as a commission. Second, there are repair costs. If your home needs any sort of repairs or upgrades, these will need to be completed before selling the home. Some of these repairs could be full on safety hazards that must be resolved, like having to hire professionals to setup new circuit breakers. In the case of upgrades, some of these may be have to be done in the name of mitigating deal breakers. Upgrades like brand-new bamboo flooring that you can show off to anyone and mention specifically during a property viewing can place you comfortably in the running for potential buyers. Lastly, you should consider the closing costs. Added together, this can make it quite expensive to sell your home. It can cost thousands of dollars to sell your home. Knowing this ahead of time can help you be better prepared.

Negotiations

If you’ve never sold your home before, you may not be sure how to handle receiving a lower offer than you’d like. Most of the time, buyers will submit an offer that’s lower than your asking price to see if they can get a better deal on the home. However, you don’t have to accept this as-is. If you get a lower offer than you’d like, you can negotiate with the individual and counteroffer until you reach one you’re both pleased with. If you don’t know how to handle negotiating a home sale, it can be intimidating, and you may not know how to properly counter their offer. They may bring arguments to your attention that you were not expecting, like them wanting to work with a knock down rebuild company in order to start from scratch on your land. This is one area where your real estate agent can be a big help. They have heard these points being brought up before, know how to handle real estate transactions, and how best to come to an agreement with the buyer.

Selling your home is a complicated process, especially if you’ve never done it before. Even if you watched your parents sell a home before, these are a few of the things that may surprise you when selling. Keep these things in mind when selling your home for an easier experience.

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