There are four big things that can cause your home’s sale to fall apart:
- Buyer’s remorse: As you can imagine, a real estate transaction period is a very emotional time for a buyer. For first or second-time buyers, it likely represents more money than they’ve ever spent in their entire lives. It’s not uncommon for them to wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, wondering what in the world they’ve gotten themselves into. Next thing you know, they’re calling their Realtor and canceling the transaction that morning. It doesn’t happen often, but it still happens.
- Buyer’s financing: With the recent recession we’ve been in, lenders have tightened up their lending criteria. Even if the buyer has been pre-approved, it’s still possible that they don’t make it through the entire lending process.
- Home inspection items: In most real estate transactions, the buyer is going to have the right to a professional home inspection of the property they’re buying. This inspection can lead to problems. Perhaps they can’t get over some of the repairs that need to be made. Perhaps they change their mind on what the home’s value actually is. Perhaps the negotiations over who pays for which repairs fall through.
- The appraisal: Sometimes, the property doesn’t appraise at the price that both parties have agreed upon. When this happens, the seller has to either negotiate their price down or the buyer has to dredge up more cash to the table. In either case, the likelihood of the transaction getting done dims considerably.
A real estate transaction period is an emotional time for a buyer.
