Overcoming the Emotional Hurdles When Selling Your Home
Maybe you think you are not really that emotionally attached to your Waterloo Region home. Putting it on the market and moving on to a more suitable new one shouldn’t be too hard. Then however, the For Sale sign goes up and you find that everywhere you turn every nook and cranny of the place holds a sweet memory, has a special significance and you realise that, on an emotional level, this whole selling your home business might not be so easy after all.
All of this is perfectly normal, and it’s likely that everyone who lives in the home will feel the same way. But letting too many emotions get in the way and ‘wearing your heart on your sleeve’ can delay or even derail the chances of selling your home. Here are some tips to help you emotionally detach more successfully.
Avoiding Emotional Pricing
Almost every seller, left to their own devices, has a tendency to overprice their home. And those who are particularly emotionally invested in it (again, most people) will usually be even more inclined to do so. They believe that because they have so enjoyed living in the place over the years there will be a ‘special family’ out there who will also fall in love and be willing to pay more to to own it.
Home buyers rarely feel the same way though. But they are often willing to pay more for a particular location or home features that add perceived value to the home. That means that when preparing a home for sale its owners should go beyond basic repairs and deep cleaning and stage the home to create an impression of the lifestyle buyers could have if they buy it.
Ignoring the Negativity
The more times your home is shown the more criticisms of it you are likely to hear and that can be rather upsetting. After all, you love the place. It’s all too easy to take these criticisms to heart and let them sour you on certain buyers.
What you need to understand however is that often these comments are merely people thinking out loud and although they mention something they see as a potential flaw it does not mean that they are not still interested in the home on the whole.
The very best thing you can do is simply not be present when the home is shown. If a concern raised by a buyer seems to call for a solution – if a small repair has been overlooked for example – your real estate broker will tell you so it can be addressed but you’ll be saving yourself from distress and won’t be coloured by resentment over a casual comment if an offer comes in.
Save Yourself From Too Much Stress
There will always be a certain amount of stress involved in selling your home, but working with an experienced real estate broker can ease a lot of it. An experienced professional will help you remain logical and set the right price for your home from the start, will advise you on staging, handle the comments from those potentially over critical home buyers and much more, including handling the haggling over sales contracts and closing details which can be overwhelming and stressful for any homeseller, no matter how many times they have – or have not – been through the process before.