What is your biggest worry when selling a home?

PlantMan

My girlfriend and I have been thinking about selling our home and moving to a new house in the same area. We realized how painful the whole process is, with so many obstacles to overcome. You also need a good amount of luck to actually secure the house you want!

It got me thinking, what are other people's biggest worries / pain points when selling their home?

[Deleted User]

An inexperienced or unreliable buyer - creating a long-winded transaction.

Flugelhorn

my worry (probably not a problem these days but times can change) is not being able to sell! Have had 3  properties in the past that took over a year to sell - the markets were incredibly slow, and in one case tax changes hit the sellability of one of the properties.

most recent house I sold was bought by the first people to view - I was so shocked I couldn't believe it

Scotbot

Not being able to find a house that I like and the buyers pulling out as there is so little on the market. I have thought about selling and renting but the ludicrous regulations make it impossible to rent somewhere short term. 

jcuurthht

In '89, my parents put their house in Filton, Bristol on the market for 67k. After no interest, the asking price was dropped to 60k. While there were a few viewings, there were no offers. My dad would have taken 57k. The never did sell it.

Their friends put their house on the market Dec '88 at 69k, and sold it in Nov '89 for 49k, revised to 47k after a survey. 

Mortgage interest was very high and there were no buyers.

I just inherited the house in question. In the first week, there were 20 viewings and 8 offers. The accepted offer was 7% above asking price.

So my biggest fear would be not being able to sell a property at all, and being stuck there unable to move or release equity.

seven-day-weekend

Being in a long chain.

We have bought five properties and sold three and have never been in a chain - just us and our buyer/seller.  Four of  the houses/flats we have bought have been empty and one was the seller's holiday home.

All three that we have sold have been empty.  Two were investment properties and one was our Spanish house (we had already relocated back to the UK).  

I have heard horror stories of chains collapsing - never want to be in one.

Woolsery

I'd worry about not finding anything better than the house I was selling. This happened when we sold in a falling market in 2008. There wasn't a lot about. In West Wales, where we were hoping to go; owners of the more up-market property remained in denial of a  crash because such houses usually took a few years to sell anyway.

We had no alternative but to rent instead, which turned out OK because the interest rates gave us a surprisingly good income from our 'house pot' and we had a good time being homeless and unemployed! However, the transience and uncertainty got to us, especially when a couple of banks went down , so we focused hard, thought out of the box and bought an ugly pig of a place in Devon. Like pigs, where just about everything on the carcass has a use, it turned out to be the gift that just kept on giving, so we're still here,trying to make it the dream and now the next generation is joining in too, so we're probably stuck with it anyway!

pinkteapot

If you worry about all the things that can go wrong, you'll never move. It's a stressful process because the vast majority of it is outside your control - how long it takes to get an offer, how long it takes for the house you want to buy to come on the market, whether someone in the chain has a hissy fit and pulls out...

But forums like this will skew your view of how bad it is because people who sell and buy without a problem don't post here. About a third of sales fall through, but that means two-thirds go through. You have to focus on the bits you can control (e.g. filling in paperwork from your solicitor promptly), and whatever you do, don't let yourself get too excited about the new house until you've exchanged contracts. Cautious optimism till then!

trakky14

Definitely finding something you really want..especially if yours sells quickly!

Followed by your buyers pulling out!

AlexMac

Gazundering!  Not that it will happen in today's market where (round here at least, homes are in short supply, so if a buyer tried to lower the agreed price at the last minute (as happened to me in a buyers' market 30-40 years ago) you'd tell 'em to go forth and multiply! Then find someone else who'd bite yer hand off.  

I guess rising future interest rates and consequent hikes in your mortgage could be an issue, but personally, I can't ever see a return to the 10% I was paying in the 1970's or the 15% I was paying in the 1980's?

After all- if people suddenly found they couldn't afford to live, there would be a revolution...?

Oh- hang on a mo' - ain't that already happening... and no sign of Tumbrils rumbling through Westminster?

PlantMan

Yes my biggest worry is the buyer or someone in there chain pulling out