Mistakes Sellers Make That Could Cost Them a Sale - Refusing Repairs
It's a long and winding road we travel when selling our Charlotte homes. Home prep and showings are only the beginning in the process of home selling. Then comes the Offer to Purchase and negotiating with a Charlotte home buyer (or 3, if you're lucky)! A good negotiator on your side is essential!
Having inspectors who leave footprints in your luxury Jacuzzi tub in the master suite or tracking mud in from the crawl space onto your new $10,000 gorgeous, oval Stark rug in the foyer - well, that's not fun either but, we deal with that and get through it.
Then the repair request appears on the worst day you've ever had at work and you feel completely overwhelmed and compelled to say, "I'm not making ANY repairs!"
Let me just say that as a Realtor®, those words are NOT music to my ears but, I assure you, we WILL get through this stage too! When you receive an inspection report, they are typically about 25 - 50 pages long; that inspection can include maintenance recommendations (FOR THE FUTURE OWNER) as well as instructional items such as the dryer outlet is a 3- or 4-prong electrical plug or a gas hook-up, the whole-house water shut-off is located in the foyer closet and other informative items that are helpful to your homebuyer. The report is not JUST items that need to be repaired.
Charlotte home sellers are sometimes on a 'tight budget' or have little set aside for repairs or, even more often, feel that they bought the home with a few issues that they had to correct so, why can't their homebuyers do the same thing?
I have two recommendations to Charlotte home sellers regarding their Due Diligence Repair Request after we've reviewed it:
1. If you were planning to stay in the home for another year, which of these items would YOU address as the homeowner. Oftentimes that brings clarity to the severity of each individual item. Sometimes it helps to put yourself in the buyers' shoes.
2. Is the $500, $1,000 or even $5,000 price tag on the requested repairs worth jeopardizing the transaction? Think about the carry costs for you. Depending upon the cost of a mortgage, chances are that these buyers may walk if you declare an As-Is property after the fact, they walk and then you will be out that month's payment; you will be going back on the market and starting the process all over again. That is NOT good for you as a Charlotte home seller as you will also experience another side effect of letting your first buyer go - longevity on the market results in a lower sales price. Your next Offer will almost certainly NOT be comparable to the first one.
You're probably thinking that it's easy for me to spend YOUR money but, believe me, I've been in your shoes several times before myself and have realized that responding in the first 24 hours is likely NOT a good idea! As a Charlotte home seller, responding to the buyers in a good-will fashion will have far reaching POSITIVE consequences with your buyer. It is also worth it to obtain estimates and gain some insight on the actual total cost of the repairs.
**Note: Bringing items 'up to code' is NOT a requirement and those items are typically the ones that I recommend my Charlotte home sellers eliminate in their response of items that they will agree to address. We'll talk more about this when we discuss the repair request prior to and during your transaction!
For more information on listing your Charlotte home for sale, visit www.ListMyCharlotteHome.com.
© Debe Maxwell | The Maxwell House Group | SavvyBroker@me.com | Mistakes Charlotte Home Sellers Make That Could Cost Them a Sale - Refusing Repairs
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