What To Expect When Selling

Here is something that I give to all my Sellers when they list with me...

What To Expect When Selling Your Home
There are many ‘gotchas’ along the way from contract to closing. Many times, Sellers are so thankful that they received an offer on their home that they conveniently forget that accepting an offer is only one step in the myriad of obstacles along the escrow process. It is your Realtor’s job to minimize the stress, negotiate the terms and bring everything to a successful ending. However, please keep in mind that there are many situations that are out of your Realtor’s control. Please understand and keep the following points in mind when selling your home.
• Your home will be advertised to hundreds of thousands of people nationwide and thousands of agents locally. There is a 95% chance that another agent will show and sell your home. Your Realtor will work with this agent to bring the sale to a complete and successful close. Please remember that the majority of showings on your home will be performed by other cooperating agents. Just because your Realtor is not personally showing your home does not mean that he/she is not working for you!
• Once a potential buyer shows interest in your home, there will be several to many rounds of negotiations. This is all part of the process. Please do not get discouraged if you spend several hours on the phone with your Realtor discussing various offers and counteroffers.
• Once you accept an offer on your home, there are still many hurdles left. You are not home free until you sign the deed at the attorney’s office many weeks later. There will be inspections, appraisals, re-negotiations, repairs, qualification and underwriting issues and final closing stipulations.
• After you and the Buyer finally agree on price and terms, your home will be professionally inspected by the Buyer. No matter how well you keep your home, the inspector will find issues of concern. The Buyer may ask you to repair some or all of the items on the home inspection report. This is the beginning of the second round of negotiations. At this point, the Buyer may also ask for further financial concessions relative to the extent of concern on the home inspection report. You are not obligated to fix everything the Buyer requests. However, if you refuse, you will leave the Buyer free to terminate the contract and receive a refund of his earnest money if he so chooses. PLEASE PREPARE FOR THE ROLLERCOASTER RIDE WE KNOW AS THE HOME INSPECTION PROCESS.
• Once you complete repairs on your home, the Buyer will ask for a final walkthrough. Be advised that if the repairs are not done in a workmanlike manor, or if they are simply not complete, you will not close, and you will most likely enter into yet another round of negotiations.
• No matter how much you feel your home is worth, and no matter for how much your Realtor has valuated your home, there is a chance the appraiser and underwriter may feel differently. If your home does not appraise at or equal to the purchase price, your Buyer is free to terminate the contract or ask for another price reduction.
• Although a pre-qualification letter is required from your Buyer before you will accept an offer, there is a chance that your Buyer may not properly manage his finances after that acceptance. All Buyer information is verified before closing, and if the status of his credit has changed, this may or may not affect the ability for the Buyer to obtain financing.
• Although a date may be set to ‘close’ on your home, there are many things that may delay the closing process. Holidays, over-extended workload, lazy underwriters, miscommunications, uncooperative attorneys… and the list goes on. Your original closing date may be extended anywhere from one day to two weeks. Please keep this in mind when making final moving arrangements.
• You, as Seller, will have to pay some closing costs which may or may not include transfer taxes, property taxes, HOA dues, attorney fees, courier and copy fees, commissions and of course your current mortgage payoff. Also keep in mind that the current balance on your mortgage statement is NOT your payoff amount. Please contact your lender to obtain the payoff amount as of the estimated date of close.