Panic?

In every real estate transaction it is almost guaranteed that at one point you will become frustrated. Transactions get complicated, surprises come up, and change of any kind is stressful. To help you know you’re not alone, we prepared for you a list of common concerns regarding real estate transactions.

Buyer Concerns

Seller Concerns

Common Buyer Concerns

• Loan papers not being ready on time.
  It is incredibly frustrating when you’re ready to close and you find out your lender doesn’t have your loan papers ready. Unfortunately this is more common than you would think. The best thing you can do to prevent this is to choose a lender with a strong track record for delivering loan paperwork on time. We can help you with recommendations. The other thing you can do is read through the section of our Buyer’s Guide on dealing with your lender. There are several pages that detail how to communicate with them, what to provide, what not to do, etc.
  
  But a delay might happen anyway. If it does the best course of action is not to panic and let us help nudge the situation along. Delays usually only last a day or two. Of course, that can be a long time when you have a moving truck sitting in your driveway! But when it’s all done and you’re moved, that day or two delay won’t seem like such a big deal anymore.
  
  
• Difficult communication with the other party in your transaction
  The nicest, friendliest people often become “not so nice” when they enter a real estate transaction. Or at least it can appear that way when you are negotiating with them! Whether it’s the seller or their realtor, it often seems like the other people’s behavior in a transaction makes no sense. It can be very frustrating when phone calls aren’t returned, paperwork isn’t completed on time, the seller doesn’t want to agree to simple repairs, etc.
  
  The only thing you can do is keep your cool, communicate well, and rely on us to keep things moving along. Remember that it will be over soon!
  
  
• Deciding on the right price to offer on a house.
  This can be very stressful, because you will never feel that you have enough information to know what the “perfect” price is. Every buyer is worried about paying too much. How can you be sure that you "got a good deal?"
  
  This is the time you can really lean into our experience in knowing when and how far to push. We’re not perfect either and you never know how the other party will react, but after helping with many hundreds of offer situations we have a pretty good feel for this. Markets tend to have “moods.” When you’re involved in a lot of transactions you get a feel for the mood of the market and you get a good sense for how far you can push and still get a deal done. And remember, if you love a home and you picture yourself living there for several years, a few thousand dollars one direction or the other won’t matter at all in the long run. Don’t stress too much about it.
  
  
• Having your offer rejected by the seller.
  You finally found the perfect home, you made a strong reasonable offer, and the seller rejected it outright. You might even feel insulted – after all, you just offered to pay someone hundreds of thousands of dollars! All we can tell you is not to take it personally. It’s hard to know everything that is going on with the seller’s financial situation, and an offer that seems reasonable to you might not be realistic for the seller. We will talk about whether it makes sense to make another offer or move onto finding another home. But realize that this is just part of the process.

Common Seller Concerns

• Getting your house ready to list.
  We know this can be an awful chore for a lot of people, and we go out of our way to help you as much as possible. We will go through your entire house with you and help you develop a game plan. We’ll help you decide what to fix, what to paint, what to clean, and what not to worry about! We’ll help you rearrange your furniture and stage you home for maximum impact.
  
  
• Keeping your house ready to show at a moment’s notice.
  It can feel like you’re always cleaning, or that the only time a realtor calls to show your home is right after the kids trash the living room. Just know you’re not alone – everyone feels this way.
  
  
• Your house isn’t selling and you feel like nothing is happening.
  There is a lot of activity that goes into listing your home, and you will feel like we are working very hard with you to get your house on the market. But once you're listed, it might feel like you’re not getting as much activity and/or communication as you would like.
  
  Most of our work is on the front and back end of the transaction. In the middle, we’re waiting for the right person to find your house and make an offer. A good rule of thumb is that if your home is getting two showings a week you’re in pretty good shape. If it’s not we will need to consider lowering the price. We’ll provide you feedback on the how potential buyers are reacting to your home, which will help to determine the best course of action.
  
  
• Knowing what price to accept
  You want the most money you can get for your house, but you also want to get it sold quickly. When a low offer comes in it can be very stressful to decide whether to reject it, counter it, or accept it. We will help you as much as we can, and we often have a good feel for whether or not a give buyer might be willing or able to go up in price. But in the end, you need to make a decision you’re comfortable with.
  
  This is the time you can really lean into our experience in knowing when and how far to push. We’re not perfect either and you never know how the other party will react, but after helping with many hundreds of offer situations we have a pretty good feel for this. Just stay focused on your main goals.
  
  
• Loan papers not being ready on time.
  Probably the most frustrating thing that can happen to a seller is to find out on the day of closing that the buyer’s loan papers are not ready. You will wonder “Is this deal really going to close?” “Is this buyer even legitimate?”
  
  It is actually quite common for loan papers not to be ready. This is why we are constantly communicating with the buyer’s agent and lender. Closings are usually only delayed by a day or two and we will almost always have had advanced notice. Nine out of ten times we can nudge the situation along and close right away.