5 Quick and Easy ways to Screw up a Home Deal

It's a seller's market, but selling homes is still a big deal.

Say you're a seller working on a time crunch. It's surprising that you could get an offer so fast on your home. After contemplating and deliberating about going solo or using a real estate agent, you decided to proceed with the second option.

And within 30 days of listing, two nice offers come in. You know you picked the right option. What could possibly go wrong at this point? Nothing right? Wrong! the deal could still flop.

While obviously, you don't want to screw up your home deal. However, you can sabotage a home sale indirectly via excessive enthusiasm or a laissez-faire approach.

The fact is that even after a contract, your home deal can fall through? Here are some common reasons this happens.

• Firing your realtor - Changing realtors in between the deal. Yes! Agents and sellers do disagree. However, firing your realtor due to disagreement might cost you the home deal. While in some cases, firing a realtor might be warranted, it is something you need to think over as it may affect offers you've already gotten.

First, the buyer might think something shady is going on, and their flight instincts come on or in another case, legal terms might prohibit you from moving on with the offer the former realtor secured, plus you may have to pay a severance fee.

Your best recourse if you'd like to change a realtor in between deals is to work with another realtor in the same brokerage and sort out terms. Yet, a potential buyer might still feel uncomfortable with your arrangement.

• Changing price in between deals. Nothing kills a home deal faster than a trace of dishonesty. Pricing is a sensitive issue in home sales. Odds are you're not the only one researching comps, your buyer also has a fairly accurate idea what homes in your area are worth. Real estate is a data-driven industry, hence you want to be clear on pricing before listing.

It's always best to see beyond your expectations and examine first-hand data on past sales in your neighborhood with your realtor. You might have spent money on renovations in hopes of more profit. Factor in the cost of renovation but don't push it.

• Getting all personal with the home. The reason why most FSBO sales fall through is that sellers find it hard to look at the property as a commodity instead of their home. They get all personal during negotiations and showings. That's one of the reasons to hire a realtor.
It's normal to get personal but a buyer doesn't feel comfortable when he comes in every time and sees your knick-knacks, personal photos and trophies hanging around every time. The first time, it might be okay, but the second or third time might kill the deal. So, make sure to store away personal items and free up space so a buyer can visualize himself in the home.

• Misleading pictures. While you should put the property in the best light, if your pictures do not truly represent your property, there is a high chance you won't hear from the buyer again. Good pictures will attract buyers to your home but make sure they truly represent your home. If the buyer starts arguing that there were large windows or the larger front porch in the pictures, most times that will break the deal.

• Not budging on repairs. Many times, the offer gets screwed up after the deal either because a seller doesn't offer full disclosure on repairs and renovations needed or a seller isn't willing to pay the cost on needed repairs.

Sure it's a seller's market but most buyers won't take as-is homes unless you're willing to budge on price. Otherwise, in a worst case scenario, you might have to fight a losing case in court.

So, before making any of these decisions that can screw up your home sale, ask yourself, would it be worth it?

Agnes A Gaddis specializes in writing in-depth and confident content for businesses. She cherishes the ability to express valuable, timely information to people who need it and the reactions she gets from that. She is a communications graduate and can be found writing real estate and personal finance content for clients at agnesagaddis.com