If you go down the traditional route when you want to sell your house, there seem to be a million things to worry about. There are asking prices and estate agents to select, repairs and renovations to conduct, and then the dreaded wait for viewers and offers.
There is potential for disaster at all points in the sales process too, with there being significant risk of losing precious time and money from the moment the For Sale sign goes up until the keys are handed over.
Here is a list of the top five most common disasters which could affect you if you take the traditional house selling route.
1. Lingering on the market
According to statistics from Hometrack, properties sold in England in July 2013 had been on the market for an average period of 8.2 weeks. However, there are always horror stories of people who have waited years to sell their home.
With the housing market and economy in such a poor state, people are experiencing extreme difficulty purchasing an abode. This means that sellers are forced to lower their valuations and make efforts to stand out from the competition in order to secure an offer.
2. Buyer pull-outs
Possibly the most heart-wrenching house selling disaster is the fall through – when a buyer backs out of the transaction they had agreed to. Unfortunately for the seller, the person they make a deal with can usually withdraw as late as the moving-in day.
This can be extremely distressing because you will have gone through the costly and time-consuming process of working with conveyancers and surveyors only to have the money and promise of a sale snapped away from you.
3. Poor house surveys
When a seller accepts an offer, the buyer’s mortgage provider will conduct a survey of the home to give it a valuation. The lender may deem that the property is worth less than the agreed price, forcing the buyer to offer less or back out.
They can also say that the property is ‘unmortgageable’, perhaps due to serious defects such as breach of building regulations or high flood risk. This outcome could render your home unsellable on the open market.
Issues can also arise when an aspiring buyer pays for a homebuyer or structural survey. This involves a thorough inspection into the condition of the abode, and poor results may compel you to pay for repairs or lower your agreed valuation.
4. Gazundering
Although not as upsetting as a transaction withdrawal, gazundering can be a very frustrating occurrence during the selling process. It involves the buyer reducing their offer, typically prior to the exchange of contracts, leaving the seller to either abandon the sale or take less money.
This is particularly annoying if you have agreed to take your home off the market as part of the deal conditions, meaning that you do not have any other offers on the table. Many people feel compelled to take the lower offer as they have already invested so much time in the transaction.
5. Chain delays
Selling a property can become extremely complicated when you are trying to purchase a home at the same time – this is extremely common as it is the situation which arises when people move home – or when the buyer is trying to sell their current abode.
This chain of selling and buying can lead to significant delays, because a problem at any level has repercussions on everyone else involved. As a result, you may have to back out of a sale and forfeit your dream home, or postpone or abandon the sale of your own property.
