Selling your home can be a frightening thought when there is so much that needs to be done before listing the property in such a short time. You will need to consider things like repairing the property, cleaning, painting and prepping the property for private showings. Not to mention the legal requirements, signing documents and possibly having a buyer back-out just when you thought it was all over. Sellers remorse is a very common thing.
How do I overcome the fear of selling my house? Selling your home is simply a process, this is done by thousands of people and businesses every year. The full process and all steps should be documented, each stage is executed one at a time which avoids looking at the whole process at once and fearing the result.
There are many steps and tasks involved with selling a home. There is some relief such as the physical labor can be outsourced and a real estate agent can handle paperwork and showing the house. This is some of the options that can relieve the time and effort burdens when selling your house. Let’s try looking at some of the more well known fears and see if we can reduce your concerns for some.
I Can’t Afford a New House
One obvious concern is where we are going to live after the house is sold and “can we find another house in my price range?”. This is usually one of the first issues because “someone” gets online and starts house shopping which begs the question of selling.
All of the same worries apply when simply doing some house hunting such as credit reports, mortgage approvals, affordability, location and others involved with traditional home loans. Moving is a big change that can task the emotions for anyone and wrapping it around the need to sell the house possibly as a contingency makes things worse.
Now that we know what is fearful we can address this irrational fear by documenting the details involved so the task does not seem so large and overwhelming.
Work out the financial aspects:
- Find the max home purchase price for your income
- Include closing costs
- Calculate your house market value & equity
- Calculate any equity or equity loan debt
Use these numbers to find the difference between the home you are selling and the one you wish to buy. Using the home purchase price from above, begin your search for a new home without any commitment to buying. We want to get familiar with the market in your price range and what’s available. Treat this as an exercise as opposed to “shopping” so there’s no emotional attachment and you can play with the numbers to brainstorm.
At this point the fear of affording a new house should be disappearing and the possibilities should begin to fill your mind. There are many different financial tools and opportunities that are outside of the traditional process. Get creative and with these numbers, speak to a real estate agent and maybe a loan officer about your options. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what you really can afford.
What Are The Costs To Fix The House?
Home repairs can encompass the bulk of the time and money before listing the house and therefore they are a big concern. Every household has something that needs repairing. It might be an appliance or drywall patch or more serious issues like plumbing and electrical that require a professionals. All of it boils down to the time and costs of repair.
This fear is more about the unknown and the costs involved with fixing the issues. The thought process sounds something like:
- As soon as they open that up there will be more issues
- We can’t afford to replace it but it is very old and causing issues
- If we fix one thing then we might as well fix the other
- We can patch it but our sale price will suffer
To alleviate this fear it is best to identify specifically what needs to be repaired to sell the house. Not everything requires a contractor and sometimes items like replacing drywall or painting can be done by family members or friends where you can save money.
For the more serious items, check out the building codes and look for years where there may be some grandfathering. For example I have a house built when the old screw in electrical panels were used. The panel has been replaced with a relay panel but we were not required to run grounding wires because the house is grandfathered in. The cost to re-run wires throughout the house is well into the thousands alone.
Also keep in mind that some repairs can be negotiated with the seller. I have found stories where the seller leaves certain appliances they were planning to take with them as an offset to the price of repairing roof shingles. This is an area where thinking outside the box can reveal options and reduce the fear of repairs.
What Are The Costs of Moving?
The cost of moving is another source of fear when considering to sell your house. The cost refers to more than just money, there are preparations such as boxing up each room, wrapping fragile items, preparing furniture, dealing with glass items and mirrors. Also, you may want to hire a mover but your concerned with strangers handling your personal items and possible damage.
When dealing with a moving company the best way to alleviate fear is to be informed before hand and pack everything of any value yourself. I looked for movers in my area and the common price seems to be around $100/hour for a 3 bedroom house. This seems to be broken down to $50/mover so if your house requires 3 then it might be closer to $150/hour. The consensus seems to be it will take around 6-8 hours to move an average 3 bedroom house.
Being aware and informed helps with feeling better about the task. Here are some positive and negative points to be aware of when the company begins the move, I found some of this posted on reddit.com by an ex-mover:
- Most “storage” for movers are not temp controlled and secure locations, just a warehouse
- Furniture is stored stacked on top of each other without protection
- Items that tend to get stolen are small electronics, games, DVD’s and laptops or tablets
- Review the insurance as “packed by owner” and “packed by mover” are treated differently if there is breakage
- Tipping is important, tip well if it’s a multi-day job, preferably over $30
- Tip each member separately as sometimes they will take the tip and lie to the others
- Refreshments are always a good idea, lunch can be in-place of tips
- Pack everything in a box and label the room but keep the weight reasonable
High personal value items should be packed and placed in your own vehicle and delivered by you or a trusted family member. If this cannot be done during the move, for example there is a safe to transport to the new house, then you can also consider close friends to “store” the items until after the move is complete.
High value items can mean expensive items such as jewelry or collectables and then there are the family heirlooms, photos and anything that you are afraid to trust to a couple guys and a box truck.
outside of the financial cost, knowing that the big dollar and big emotional items are transported safely will help feel more comfortable during a move.
This Is Too Much Work & The Process is Scary
It is true that there is plenty of work involved with selling your house and much to be considered at every stage of the process. The best way to deal with the work concern is to mentally tackle the entire process on paper before starting any work or committing to anything. Familiarize yourself with each step and clarify anything you don’t understand to reduce the emotional impact.
Just using google I found many sites with a checklist for selling your house with details and suggestions. This can help with preplanning and give you an idea of what to expect from each stage. There is too much to list in this post but here is a high level checklist:
- Research the local market and find your homes price range
- Document any needed repairs or upgrades and estimate a price
- Calculate your home equity
- Consider the costs and make some preliminary estimates
- Staging the house for sale, curb appeal and inside
- Taxes: Capital gains and transfer
- Cost of inspection
- Real estate agents fees
- Any lawyer fees
- List who can perform repairs, or hire a contractor
- List who can clean and paint the house
With a checklist you can go further and break down the who, what, where and the costs associated with each. Clearly understanding each part of the process will help reduce the fear of the process. Chopping up the process into smaller tasks makes the work seem like many small things as opposed to a big scary project.
My Mortgage Is Upside Down With No Equity
When your property is upside down, or you owe more than the market value of the property, it can have a paralyzing affect when considering to sell your home. The fear comes from an inability to show any gain or equity or at least to break even on the sale of your home.
To address this fear I think it’s necessary to understand the exact numbers involved. Perform some market research and do a “comparative market analysis” to get a more accurate value on your home. Subtracting this from the current mortgage balance and adding in any pre-payoff fees the mortgage company will charge provides a good number to work with.
The last step is to speak with real estate agents and loan officers to discuss options based on these numbers. There are different types of financing and mortgages, like a blanket loan, that can be used to cover the difference or reduce the overall cost of the next home. Balancing these numbers out can help with the fears regarding an upside down mortgage.
I Dont Like Strangers in My Home
It’s understandable that most people have a level of fear regarding strangers walking around their house. After all it’s still your home and there’s always a level of trepidation if someone you don’t know needs to enter. When preparing to sell your house there will be real estate agents, contractors, inspectors and potential buyers walking around inside.
Unless you are planning to show the house, a real estate agent will be present during any private showing. They will collect all of the personal details before scheduling a showing so these shoppers will not necessarily be strangers per se. A good agent will help with guiding you through the process and inform you on how they vet potential buyers before a showing.
To help reduce the emotional impact, it should be understood that workers such as a real estate agent, contractor or inspector are there to do a job. There should always be a level of concern when strangers are roaming through your house but the plumber, window installer or electrician have done this many times and talking with them about any concerns your have might help alleviate fears.
What If The Sale Falls Through?
The sale falling through or failing to close is another fear as it seems that the process will start all over again. Just when you have a buyer, with an agreed price and a closing date all decided something changes, the buyer backs out or the mortgage company fails to approve the buyer or whatever and your back to showing the house again.
A sale falling through is a common thing in real estate so the best advice I can offer here is to mentally prepare for this to happen. There are no guarantees even after signing the contract as many things can cause the close to fail. Also along the way the real estate agent may have more than 1 offer and you may be able to contact a previous offer and renegotiate. The idea here is to keep moving forward so any fear of failure does not stop you from completing the sale.
What Can I Do?
Above I offered some specific advice to alleviate fears when selling your home. You will notice that the emotional impact will lessen as you become more knowledgeable and informed. Just like your first job, it’s intimidating and scary to learn new things but 6 months later it’s become old hat and your suddenly training the new guy. Selling your home may be an emotional trial but the experience will be just like that first job. In the end you’ll be more of an expert.
I suggest identifying the cause of the fear and then researching the details to make yourself more knowledgeable. The process of selling a home is done thousands of times a day around the country and all of them follow a similar process with similar fears. There’s no reason to believe that your experience will be dramatically different. Everyone has these horror stories that they love to talk about but nobody mentions the bulk of the deals that just flow right to the closing
Then get get excited about change and moving forward with the process. Each stage will get you closer to the close and moving into your new home. Getting started should be an exciting process after doing all that homework on how things are done.
Take it step by step, especially if you’ve documented the process as stated above. Concern yourself with completing each step and worry about the next step when it’s necessary. Smaller pieces are easier to consume and deal with emotionally and this also keeps the mistakes at a minimum. Understand what your doing and why and do not let anyone push you for a quicker closer if you don’t want to.
The last thing I wanted to mention is getting used to the idea of failing or objection. During the process some things will not work out as planned and you will need to adjust your plan and your thinking. With a clear understanding of what your doing and what’s next it will be easier to handle any issues with a contractor, agents or buyers who just wanted a cheaper house.
Why am i so afraid of selling my house?
The process can be confusing and it deals with a large amount of money which is intimidating. Too many what-if questions lead to freezing up instead of acting.
Scared my house won’t sell
Fear of the unknown is common especially when dealing with selling an emotional item like your home. Looking at previous SOLD houses can sometimes help with this anxiety.