This may seem like a strange header to read but it can be a real issue. Selling your home is already a complicated process with a lot of unknowns. Selling your home traditionally can hurt you because you’re adding in more parties to the mix, and thus more variables.
With more variables, there are simply more points of possible failure that can occur, and thus eventually hurt you. This can hurt you both physically and mentally, as well as affect the outcome of what ends up in your wallet.
Especially in these times, it may be more important to manage our health and expectations, than chase the dollar when selling your home.
It can hurt your wallet
At the end of the day, selling your home in a traditional manner, i.e. with a selling broker, a broker for the buyer, and using a retail home buyer, will cost you money. There’s no way around it.
Whether there’s a fee for selling your home, or expenses to repair your home, there’s going to be a cost. There are also going to be indirect costs that can occur due to the amount of time it takes for you to sell your home in the traditional manner. These can be utilities and existing mortgages that still need those monthly payments to happen.
Even if your home is sold quickly in ‘hot’ markets it can usually take up to three months on average, where one of those months is the usual 30 day escrow period. That means you’re stuck with your current home longer than you considered, and that can delay what you wanted to do with the sale funds.
It may force you to get a mortgage for your new home and pay interest on that one, while you wait for the funds from your previous home sale to clear. Or it may delay you from getting a new home altogether.
It can hurt your health
That’s right. Selling a home can be a very stressful process. You are trying to sell one high-priced item and trying to get the best possible price. Doing it the traditional way involves a lot of individuals that can compound the existing stress.
Brokers can be playing the market for their individual benefit. Retail buyers can be overly competitive with the pricing to try to bring you down. The list goes on. At the end of the day, you will surely not only lose out on funds but also have elevated stress levels.
This is not something often discussed when it comes to selling your home. It can also be physically taxing, while you try to manage your day job and all the movement that is needed to sell your home.
You need to manage cleaners and contractors that may have to do repairs or a repaint of your home. You’re constantly fielding calls, and ruining your daily routine to make your home available to be seen by prospective homebuyers.
It’s a numbers game, where you will need to show the apartment to as many people as possible to get that sale. Even if you have a sales broker to handle these showings, it still requires coordination and notification.
There’s also the consequence of health problems later on in life due to the fact of how much stress selling your home can be. The combination of your wallet being hurt and your health being affected may cause more expenses down the line, with reduced funds to manage it properly.
What can you do
Instead of hurting yourself, you may want to consider helping yourself. Help yourself get out of your current home and into your next dream home, or cash-rich for your next adventure. Maybe you’re not rushing to buy another home, but are considering early semi-retirement.
Maybe you want to relocate to warmer climates and get out of the cold. Whatever the reason is, consider all-cash offers that can only help you get out of your situation and onto your desires.
All-cash buyers will only help you and not hurt you with any stress or headaches. They don’t need open houses and multiple viewings to consider buying your place. They are cash-flush and ready to buy your home, and probably several other homes that same week.
No need to fix up the place. All you need to do is consider it as an option, and agree on the price for the home. Minimal paperwork and the best part of all? No sales commission to pay to a third party that has conflicting interests.