Having to give up a low-rate mortgage isn’t the only thing keeping homeowners from listing their places for sale. Turns out many of them don’t want to deal with the stress.
In a poll of 1,000 owners by Clever Real Estate, nearly nine out of 10 owners admitted to having fears about selling their manses. And one in eight said nothing could make them feel confident about selling.
Their concerns run the gamut, from having to make repairs to not being able to afford a new house. Surprisingly, though, giving up their low-cost loan isn’t high on the list. Indeed, just 11% cited that as a reason why they don’t plan to sell within the next five years.
“Of course, it’s natural for homeowners to anticipate what might happen when their properties finally hit the market,” the report says. “Although some might imagine big profits, many spend their time dwelling on potential problems.”
So what’s holding them back? The most common reason respondents to the agent matching service’s survey is not wanting to leave their current neighborhood. Slightly more than a third said that. But three out of 10 respondents said they just didn’t want to deal with packing up 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 whatever repairs are 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. Indeed, almost three out of five are troubled by what a home inspection carried out as part of the sale might uncover, with their fears running from problems with windows and doors to mold to foundation issues to termite infestations.
Reinforcing that finding, only 27% of the owners polled believe buyers will love everything about their homes. The rest are anxious their properties will be found lacking for one reason or another. Perhaps its age. Maybe its size. Possibly its layout or even its location.
But the most worrisome scenario, according to this group of owners, is the possibility that they will end up feeling pressured to accept a lowball offer. More than twice the number of respondents are “very concerned” about lowball offers than about any other factor. And given that more and more houses are finding their way to market these days, offering would-be buyers much more to choose from, that sellers will be backed into a corner seems a very real hypothesis.
Along those same lines, one in five fear they won’t sell for enough. And lesser percentages dread trying to determine a proper asking price and negotiating with buyers. Some worry that their places won’t sell at all. And seven out of every 10 are concerned their buyers will insist on numerous concessions and back out of the deal if they don’t get them.
To avoid the hassles of selling on the open market – open houses, repairs and a slow-drawn out selling process – a slim majority would consider selling to “we-buy-houses-for-cash” companies or investors. That’s even though these off-market buyers are known to pay significantly less than what houses normally 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. Next is an increase in crime in the area, followed by the introduction in the neighborhood of an affordable housing project. 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 only 43% of the respondents. Even 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, though, is that the agent will charge too much in the way of a commission. A third worry the agent will pressure them into decisions with which they are not comfortable, and a similar percentage stress that agents’ care more about their commissions than the seller’s best interests.
All in all, as the Clever survey suggests, selling a house comes with a complicated mix of emotions. And fear of losing a low rate mortgage is only one of them. Indeed, less than a third of this group of survey participants worry about that.
