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The Shifting Stresses of Selling – Holds Back Listings
The Shifting Stresses of Selling – Holds Back Listings
The US homeowner population is aging, and so is the housing supply, which is making the selling /buying and relocation process much more complex and nuanced!
“The inventory population is aging rapidly after the Great Recession, as residential construction continues to fall behind.
In a poll of 1,000 owners by Clever Real Estate, nearly nine out of 10 owners admitted having fears about selling their manses.
And one in eight said nothing could make them feel confident about selling.
Concerns range from having to make repairs to being unable to afford their next house.
Surprisingly, giving up their low-cost loan isn’t high on the list.
Just 11% cited that as a reason they don’t plan to sell within the next five years.“ Although some might imagine big profits, many dwell on potential problems.”
So what’s holding sellers back?
The most common reason respondents to the agent matching service’s survey said was “do not want to leave their current neighborhood.” Slightly more than a third said that.
Also, three out of 10 respondents said they didn’t want to deal with packing their belongings and moving to a new place.
Some 15% said selling a home is generally too stressful, and 17% said they worry about the cost of making repairs necessary to put their properties into selling condition.
To that latter point, a majority are just as afraid about what they don’t know about their houses as what they do know. And what they don’t know, they fear, might hurt them.
Almost three out of five are troubled by what a home inspection as part of the sale might uncover;
”Reinforcing that finding, only 27% of the owners polled believe buyers will love everything about their homes. The rest are anxious that their properties will be lacking for some reason or another.
Perhaps it’s age. Maybe it’s size—possibly its layout or even its location.
However, this group of owners considers the possibility of feeling pressured to accept a lowball offer the most worrisome scenario.
More than twice the number of respondents are “very concerned” about lowball offers than any other factor.
Given the higher inventory levels on the market, offering would-be buyers much more to choose from, the hypothesis that sellers will be backed into a corner seems very real.
Along those same lines, one in five fear they won’t sell for enough. Fewer dread determining a proper asking price and negotiating with buyers.
Some worry that their places won’t sell at all.
Seven out of 10 are concerned that their buyers will insist on numerous concessions and back out of the deal if they don’t get them.
A slim majority would consider selling to “we-buy-houses-for-cash” companies or investors to avoid the hassles of selling on the open market—open houses, repairs, and a slow, drawn-out selling process.
These off-market buyers are known to pay significantly less than what houses typically fetch on the open market.
What would speed up plans to sell?
At the top of the list is a sudden increase in local property taxes.
The next is an increase in crime in the area, followed by the introduction of an affordable housing project in the neighborhood.
And fourth is a drop in mortgage rates. Having a trusted real estate agent to help guide them through the selling process would ease the minds of 43% of the respondents.
Four out of five who would use an agent worry about finding a trustworthy one. And almost half fear being scammed.
The most frequently cited concern is that the agent will charge too much in the way of a commission.
A third worry is that the agent will pressure them into uncomfortable decisions, and a similar percentage stresses that agents care more about their commissions than the seller’s best interests.
As the Clever survey suggests, selling a house involves a complicated mix of emotions, and fear of losing a low-rate mortgage is only one of them.
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