You might think selling a home is pretty simple. A buyer offers a certain amount of money for the home, the seller agrees or doesn't, rinse lather repeat until they come to an agreement on price, dates and other critical aspects.
But the reality is it's not quite that simple, not even close. There are a lot of moving parts to successfully completing a deal, and if any of them goes sideways the whole deal can disintegrate right before our eyes.
Of course the buyer can do things to cause a deal to go up in a puff of dust. Things like making a major purchase before closing that throws off their debt to income ratios and losing the ability to get financing. Been there, done that last year on one of our homes for sale.
And the seller can break a deal by being unreasonable for market conditions. For instance refusing to fix a safety issue that is very important to the buyer just might cause the buyer to walk.
But there are other players that hold influence too. Of course either agent might do something that causes a problem, increases tension and contributes to emotions going nuclear. (It's another reason to be careful about the agent you hire, it's critical to hire a pro that can set aside personal feelings and stay on task for the big picture).
The home inspector plays a part too. Most issues can be expressed factually, or turned into major buyer stress, all based on how the home inspector describes the findings.
And the lender has a say too. Perhaps an error made during initial preapproval means the buyer really can't afford the home after all.
And the underwriter? I can't count the number of times they've injected themselves into the deal with demands that often don't make sense to anyone else. What do you mean you want the cistern to be 10 feet further away from the septic system? You do know that both systems were approved by the county and meet local codes?
And of course the appraiser has input too, and if they're not keeping up with market conditions, they can undervalue a home or even worse, make errors in the report and then refuse to correct them. So while the buyer and seller totally agree on what is market value, the appraiser's opinion trumps them both.
So as you can see, there's a lot of people that have say on whether the apple cart gets to closing, or the wheels come off and the deal tips over.
Ready to talk about buying or selling a Warren County area home? Just call 513-520-5305 or email Liz@LizSpear.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
Liz and Bill aka BLiz
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