Home Selling Frustrations
It’s tough out there right now if you are trying to sell a property. There are still significant amounts of inventory for buyers to choose from and it’s putting buyers in the driver’s seat. Couple this with the uncertainty of the market and you find many people trying to sell their property in quite a bind.
I’m personally selling one of my rental properties right now and going through the process (and the frustrations) is reminding me of the stress that can be involved. The worry about pricing too low, the worry about how long it will stay on the market, how to counter any offers, whether to counter offers and the list goes on!
Normally, I am in a slightly different situation, as I can usually separate myself emotionally from the decision of buying or selling a property. This one however is a bit different as it is one of our first properties we purchased as an investment almost seven years ago. It’s hard letting your first ones go.
When homeowners (and apparently me too) have a long history with a property there is bound to be a slightly more elevated emotional ownership involved. Emotional attachment and the baggage associated with it that makes it harder to first sell the home and second harder to accept a) that it’s not selling b) that it’s not worth the value you believe it is and c) people would have the audacity to submit low offers for your valued home.
Unfortunately in today’s market people may have to accept all of the above if they truly want to sell their property. Starting with properly pricing their home, which is usually the biggest sticking point.
Pricing is always important, but when the market is slower and there is plenty of competition around, you need to ensure you are in a position where you are attracting not just viewings, but offers.
With the property I am selling right now, we started with a reasonably aggressive price, but after a couple weeks we slashed it even further. This resulted in us attracting quite a bit of action, creating a multiple offer situation and as of this moment we are sitting waiting for conditions to be removed.
Of course to get here we also went through many frustrations. These included a couple lowball offers, being held up by a potential buyer and even a price reduction request after the home inspection. Going into this however, we had a very good idea of what we needed to sell it for, what our bottom dollar value was and by knowing this ahead of time it made it easier to take most of the emotion out.
If you are a homeowner and are currently trying to sell your home, perhaps you too need to start in reverse and determine what you need from the home, dollar wise. If you get too caught up in the emotions and the frustration that come with selling your home, turning it into non-emotional dollars and cents can help relieve the stress. This won’t work for everyone, but for those that follow it, it may help reduce weeks of living on edge!
Investor’s Perspective – Selling Investment Property
I’ve had numerous questions about why I would sell now, it’s obviously not the best market and from my previous posts I am pretty bullish on the next couple of years. So why sell now?
I have multiple reasons, first and foremost, the mortgage is due this summer, with my previous history with secondary lenders I’m being pro-active and taking action now before I discover they want to pull the rug out from me.
Second, I have held this property for seven years, I made some money! Sure I could make more by waiting, but sometimes it’s time to just let go.
Third, travel time, this property is about a forty minute one way trip for me and because it involves monthly/weekly furnished rentals in the lower unit, it can take multiple trips in a week which just kills my productivity.
Overall, selling now just makes my life easier, so I’m taking action. This is something all investors should look at and make their own decisions on. The extra $5,000 to $15,000 I may or may not make by hanging on a couple more years just doesn’t balance out against the extra headaches, the extra time involved and the options I have now.
Realistically it’s better to sell now and leave something on the table for a wise investor than to hang on and try to eke out every penny, so that’s what I’ve done!
Yep, same problem around here. I had a very nice property in a little town, it has been for sale for more than 1 year now, I already cut the price many times. I think we are going to rent it after all, can’t sell it for too extremely low price. Good luck over there!
As difficult as it was to sell my rental property, the task wasn’t made any easier when I had to deal with lowball offers. It was becoming more challenging to find resposible and respectful tenants so it was time to sell. However, it was the first property I ever bought and there was a certain emotional attachment to it so it was quite insulting and upsetting to get those lowball offers. In addition to that, my realtor did not coach me on how to deal with these offers so that didn’t go very well. This was my first experience in the seller’s chair and it left me with a somewhat negative opinion of real estate agents in general. The house ended up selling for less than I expected, but I am just grateful that my career as a landlord is over.
Hi Cathy,
The lowball offers are everywhere these days. It’s just a sign of the market and it’s become even more prominent since the economy slowed. On the other end of the spectrum though, there are still homeowners who are simply stuck on pricepoints that just aren’t there yet.
We deal with lowball offers in two ways, we either ignore them and have our Realtor suggest they try again if they are serious or we counter with a $1,000 decrease from our list price. If they don;t move significantly after that, well back to the first method.
Thanks for the comment Cathy.
Bill