desire. You might have to rent or buy another house that is far from ideal. Before you decide to sell, get pre-approved by a lender you have confidence in, and study the housing market in the area in which you want to live to get a good idea of how much it will realistically cost you to buy. Make plans in case you have to move right away.
Wasting Time on Unqualified Buyers
It is wasted effort to show your home to someone who cannot buy it. Seasoned real estate agents ask the correct questions to qualify a lead, time is money and you want to avoid the Sunday looky loos. Sunday looky loos browse the internet and decide they want to see how the other half live, you have no time for looky loos. An example is the seller who spent two weeks preparing his home for an acquaintance who wanted to buy his home. The seller spent $1,000 removing an old shed and met with the prospect several times to discuss price and terms. It was well into the process when the seller found out the prospect could not qualify for a loan. Real estate agents spend considerable effort weeding out showing to non-qualified and unqualified home shoppers.
“Hovering”
Whenever possible, DO NOT STAY AT HOME DURING THE SHOWING. This is impossible or impractical if you are selling the home yourself. If you have a real estate agent, leave when the house is shown. Buyers may say something not so nice about the million dollar staircase you had imported rail by rail from Italy over the course of a year. Sensitive sellers can not always handle the conversation surrounding the sale of the home. Lurking sellers make buyers nervous. Buyers may feel they are intruding and then rush through. They may be hesitant to talk about changes to the home or features they don’t like. Buyers will feel uncomfortable closely inspecting the house in the
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