@WSJ Personal Finance: Tips to Ensuring Your Home Sale Deal Gets Done

Recently, ERA Real Estate posted How Can I Sell My Home Quickly? As a follow-up, the ERA Real Estate team found Amy Hoak’s Don’t Let Your House Sale Fall Through in the Wall Street Journal. It offers great tips on ensuring your home sale transaction doesn’t fall through at the last second.

As Amy points out, transactions can go south due to financing delays, low appraisals, etc. but there are ways to safeguard yourself and your transaction. We’re in agreement with the article’s tips to seal the deal.  Here a few we particularly like:

• Many a broker recommends pre-approval to prospective buyers. Through your realtor, try to find the buyers who are pre-approved. Let your real estate professional do the legwork because often the buying agent will offer up the information.
• Have your realtor work closely with the buying agent to check that paperwork is being completed on time, and add deadlines into the contract to stay within your closing timeframe.
• Also ask your real estate professional about financing contingencies, which enable the seller to seek other offers if the buyers cannot meet the agreement.
• Cash offers are usually more stable than those that require financing. However, cash bids are often lower so as Amy puts it, sellers need to weigh their options. However, because they do not require appraisals, a quick and earlier closing date could be in your future.
• Even with many home values rising, appraisals could be low and hinder a transaction. Work with your real estate professional to correctly price your home based on other sale prices in your area so that the appraisal doesn’t become an issue at transaction time.
• Consider getting a home inspection prior to selling so that you can address issues that may otherwise delay a deal or deter buyers. Addressing title issues, which your real estate professional should help point out, early on will help expedite the process as well.
• Set a tight timeframe and stick to it. As Amy notes, if a deal is going to collapse, it is better to know sooner rather than later so the home can go back on the market. And, a longer process gives the buyer more time to reconsider so you want to close quickly to avoid the “cold feet” syndrome.

For more tips on selling your home, refer to ERA Real Estate’s Guide to Selling.

photo credit: Images_of_Money via photopin cc

Tara Davis

A writer at heart, Tara holds more than 17 years of marketing and communications experience. Previously a travel industry professional, she recently hopped the fence to gain a better understanding of real estate and to hone her Public Relations Skills. A mom and avid traveler, Tara tackles topics ranging from what to feed your kid to the next generation and great housing market locations. In line with her love of snowboarding, Tara’s next must-go destination is Sun Valley, Idaho – not for the celeb watching, but for the terrain and scenery.