When selling a home there are challenges that a seller will face. A seller who understands this will be much better off than one who believes that selling a home will provide NO challenges. Challenges such as dealing with unrealistic home buyers, the local real estate market, and "passing" inspections are some of the top 10 challenges that seller's must overcome when selling a home! There are 7 other very common challenges encountered by home sellers during the sale of their home. Check them out at http://www.rochesterrealestateblog.com/top-10-challenges-when-selling-a-home/

1. rochesterrealestateblog.com http://www.rochesterrealestateblog.com/top-10-challenges-when-selling-a-home/
Top 10 Challenges When Selling A Home
Top 10 Challenges When Selling A Home
One of the greatest things about
being a real estate agent is the fact
that no two transactions are the
same. This means that every day
there are different things that arise
with different transactions which
makes it virtually impossible that a
“dull” day exists in the real estate
profession. While this is one of the
greatest things about being a real
estate agent, that does not mean this
is great for buyers and sellers.
The fact is that because no two
transactions are the same, there are
different challenges that must be
overcome. When selling a home,
there are many different challenges
that can arise throughout the
transaction and even before you’ve
listed your home for sale. There are
many challenges when selling a
home that are more common than
others. Challenges such as handling
unrealistic home buyers and
handling the emotions of selling a
home are just a couple of the top
challenges.
Below are the top 10 challenges that
home owners face when selling their
home.
Local Market Conditions
Before you have signed an
agreement with a local real estate
broker or decided to sell your home
“by owner” there are challenges that
need to be overcome. The local real
estate market conditions can play a huge role in whether a home sells or not. Before deciding to sell your home there
are many local real estate market challenges that you should consider.
Buyer’s Market, Seller’s Market, or Neither?
Most have heard the terms “buyer’s market” or “seller’s market.” If not, a buyer’s real estate market is one in which
the home buyer’s who are in the marketplace have an advantage over the seller’s. A seller’s real estate market is the

2. Choosing a Realtor and correctly pricing a home are two of the top 10 challenges faced when selling a
home
opposite.
When selling a home, you should know what type of real estate market place exists in your area. If your local real
estate market is flooded with listings, also known as your competition, the probability is that your area is experiencing
a buyer’s market. This gives the home buyers in the market place the opportunity to be more selective of the homes
they want to look at which means there is a greater probability that your home will not be looked at. This obviously is
not the goal when selling a home.
The possibility also exists that neither a buyer’s or seller’s market exists. This is when the supply and demand for
housing is relatively balanced with one another. This means there are a good amount of homes available for sale and
also a good amount of buyer’s in the marketplace.
Time Of Year
Every local real estate market is different. The time of the year when a home is listed can make a huge difference.
When investigating the local market conditions, the time of the year you decide to sell your home is one challenge
that needs to be overcome.
For example, generally speaking, the best time of the year to sell a home in the Webster, NY real estate market are
the spring months (March, April, and May). While the spring months maybe best for the Webster NY real estate
market, these same months could be a poor time to sell a home in other states and real estate markets.
The challenge of deciding when the best time to sell your home is one that is greatly impacted by your local real
estate market. There are some situations that exist where it maybe the best to sell your home during the fall and
winter months and not wait until spring. Bottom line, a challenge you may face when selling a home is your local real
estate market.
Handling Emotions
If you didn’t know that selling a home can be emotional, now you’ve been forewarned. There are many emotions that
can come with selling a home. Excitement, uncertainty, nervousness, and stress are just a handful of emotions that
challenge home owners when selling a home.
Knowing how to handle the many emotions that come with selling a home is one of the top 10 challenges that you will
need to overcome. One tip to handling emotions when selling a home is that you are certain that you truly want to sell
your home. It isn’t uncommon for a home owner to have seller’s remorse when selling their home. It’s important to
keep in mind when selling a home that it’s a business decision and that keeping emotions out of any decisions is for
the best.
Choosing A Realtor
In every real estate market there are
hundreds or thousands of real estate
agents. A challenge that home
owners face when selling their home
is choosing a Realtor. In every real
estate market there are lots of real
estate agents who are average,
some that are terrible, and usually
only a handful of top real estate
agents. In many real estate markets
the statistic is that 85-90% of the
business is done by 10-15% of the

3. real estate agents. That is a lot of
business being done by a small
number of professionals.
So how can you overcome the
challenge of choosing a top Realtor
when selling a home? One of the
most important things you are
educated on before choosing a
Realtor are the common mistakes
that seller’s make when choosing a
Realtor. Knowing the importance of
avoiding a “YES” man/woman, not
choosing a Realtor who offers to list
your home for the most amount of
money, or because the real estate
agent claims they will sell your home
because of an open house is very
important in the process of
overcoming the challenge of
choosing a Realtor.
Another key to help overcome the
challenge of choosing a Realtor who
is a superstar is knowing how to
properly interview prospective
agents. The fact is that some seller’s
will skip this step all together, which
can truly be a mistake. There are
other home owners who do not know
how to interview a Realtor when
selling a home. If you’re properly
educated on how to interview
prospective Realtors when selling
your home, this home selling
challenge will be an easy one to
overcome.
Choosing a Realtor who is a “dud”
can make the home selling process a monumental task. Choosing a top notch Realtor and taking their advice and
guidance can make the other 9 challenges seem extremely easy to overcome and may not be challenges at all
throughout the home selling process.
Pricing The Home
Pricing real estate is a science that takes experience and practice to “master,” even though it never can be truly
“mastered.” Unfortunately when selling a home there is no crystal ball that can tell you what your home will sell for.
The pricing of a home is one of the challenges many home owners face when selling.
Overpricing a home can lead to some devastating consequences. The price that a home enters the market at is very
important. A home that is overpriced when entering the market generally will not receive many inquiries and/or
showings. The longer a home sits on the market the more and more a buyer begins to wonder what is wrong with the

4. Maintaining A “Show-Ready” Home Can Be Challenging
home. There maybe nothing wrong with the home, but a home that lingers on the market begins to obtain a “stigma”
that something is wrong with it.
A home that is priced right from the beginning should get lots of activity and showings the first week or two it has been
listed and possibly sold in that time frame as well. Every home owner will face the challenge of pricing their home for
sale. Choosing a top Realtor who has experience and a strong record of success when it comes to pricing homes can
make this challenge less strenuous.
Getting The Home Ready To Sell
A challenge the home owners face when selling their home is preparing it for sale. There are many things that come
to mind when getting a home ready to sell. Depending on the condition of a home and the desire of the home owner,
there maybe some items that need to be repaired or fixed prior to listing a home. Just a few common items that home
owners repair or fix prior to selling their home include peeling paint, roof leaks, and plumbing issues.
Another challenge for home owners face when getting their home ready for sale is whether they should remodel or
just move. There are certain projects, like a $20,000 kitchen remodel that wouldn’t make much sense to complete if
you’re planning on selling in a few months. There are certain projects though that sometimes may make sense to
complete prior to selling such as freshly painting the interior or exterior, swapping out some outdated light fixtures, or
removing wallpaper. These cheap, quick, and easy “improvements” can really make a home look better to potential
buyers and possibly lead to a quicker sale.
Nobody enjoys a foul odor, period. Foul odors do challenge some home owners however. When getting a home
ready to sell it’s important that you address any foul odors in your home. One of the best ways to identify a foul odor
is by asking the opinion of someone who is going to give an non-bias evaluation. It’s very common that a smoke odor
or pet odor can deter a potential buyer from purchasing a home.
Maintaining A “Show Ready”
Home
Ask anyone who has recently sold
their home if they enjoyed keeping
their home in “show ready” condition.
The answer is going to be NO!
Preparing a home for showings is a
time consuming project and is a
challenge for any home owner who is
selling their home. Tasks such as
keeping the rooms de-cluttered or
making sure the counter tops are
clean may seem easy, but after
weeks of having to do so, it can really
wear down a home owner.
In addition to keeping the home de-
cluttered and counter tops clean,
many homes are staged to help
minimize the time on the market.
The staging of a home in many
cases can mean removing many
items that you may use on a daily
basis. For example, that lounging

5. recliner you like to read your favorite
book in may now be in storage so
that the living room space is
maximized. After a while this can be
very annoying and frustrating.
Unrealistic Home Buyers
A top challenge that home owners
face when selling a home are
unrealistic home buyers. There are
many ways that today’s home buyers
are unrealistic and why it is such a
common challenge that home
seller’s face. The most common
scenario where a potential buyer is
being unrealistic has to do with the
offering price. There are many
potential buyers in the marketplace,
whether a home is priced right or not,
will want to offer a home owner
significantly less than their home is
worth. Dealing with low ball offers is
one of the top challenges seller’s
face when selling their home.
Another challenge seller’s face when
it comes to unrealistic buyers relates
to the condition of a home. There
are many buyer’s who not only want
to submit low ball offers but they also
want the home to be in mint
condition. Many of today’s buyers
aren’t interested in doing any work to
the home they purchase. This
includes light cosmetic updating such
as painting rooms and replacing
carpeting. This can be very
frustrating to seller who prices their
home to reflect the need of some minor cosmetic updating.
“Passing” Inspections
A frequently asked question from home buyers is whether or not they are able to have inspections on the home they
are looking to purchase. Buyer’s are entitled to the opportunity to have many different types of inspections such as
home inspections, pest inspections, or radon tests. A top challenge that home seller’s face is “passing” these
inspections.
When it comes to a home inspection, there are no guidelines to whether a home “passes” or “fails.” The buyer is the
one who decides whether a home “passes” the inspections or not. The reasons this is a challenge that home owners
face when selling their home is because every buyer has a different opinion on what constitutes an acceptable or
“passing” inspection. Some buyer’s will be alarmed because of a “double-tapped” circuit in the electrical box and

6. others will not. While this one example is a quick and inexpensive fix, there are some buyer’s who will get scared off
by a simple fix such as a “double-tap.”
One great way to overcome the challenge of a “passing” inspection is by having a pre-listing inspection. Having a
pre-listing inspection is only one thing that a seller should consider before listing their home for sale. This gives a
seller the opportunity to correct the items that a home inspector finds and can eliminate alarming the potential buyer of
their home.
Receiving A Satisfactory Bank Appraisal
Depending on the financing a buyer will be utilizing to purchase a home, receiving a satisfactory bank appraisal
maybe a challenge to overcome when selling a home. Certainly if the buyer is purchasing a home with cash, this
challenge will not exist.
If the buyer is obtaining a mortgage from a lender, the bank must complete their appraisal of the home. The bank
appraisal not only can make a seller nervous but also the buyer and all parties involved in the transaction. A
satisfactory bank appraisal is one in which the appraiser is able to substantiate that the agreed upon purchase price
between the buyer and seller of the home is in-line with the market value of the home.
If the bank determines that the home’s value is less than the agreed upon purchase price, this can create problems.
The necessity for a satisfactory appraisal is yet another reason why the pricing of a home is extremely important. If
the bank cannot determine the purchase price is in-line with the value, they are not going to lend the buyer more
money than the home is worth.
Closing The Deal
Once all the above 9 challenges are overcome, closing the deal should seem pretty easy, right? Wrong. There are
many things that can de-rail a real estate closing.
A common issues that can happen prior to the closing is a buyer getting disapproved. There are many things that a
buyer can potentially do that can accidentally disapprove their mortgage. While this is completely out of the seller’s
hands, it is still a possible challenge that must be overcome when selling a home.
Other potential challenges other than a buyer getting disapproved for their mortgage can include items such as title
problems or problems discovered from the instrument survey.
Final Thoughts
By having the knowledge that challenges will exist when selling a home can make a world of difference. While many
of the top challenges when selling a home are out of the home owners control, many of them are in their complete
control. The above top 10 challenges are the most common that you can expect, but remember that no two real
estate transactions are the same, so it’s possible others may arise.
Other Home Selling Resources
Obstacles Encountered When Selling a Home via Imagine Your House
Selling Your Home = Life Interrupted via Frederick Real Estate Blog
Real Estate Pricing Mistakes That Seller’s Need To Avoid via Rochester’s Real Estate Blog
5 Negotiating Mistakes That Seller’s Make via Selling Warner Robins Blog
An Interview With A Home Appraiser via Imagine Your House
Are you thinking of selling your Rochester, NY home? These 10 challenges are ones that have a greater
probability of arising during the sale. Knowing what to expect during the sale of your home is critical. I’d love to share

7. my expertise and knowledge on how to overcome these 10 challenges with you. Contact me so we can discuss these
possible challenges to selling your Rochester, NY home as well as any others that you can possibly expect.
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About the authors: The above article “Top 10 Challenges When Selling a Home” was provided by the Keith
Hiscock Sold Team (Keith & Kyle Hiscock). With over 30 years combined experience, if you’re thinking
of selling or buying, we’d love to share our knowledge and expertise.
We service the following Greater Rochester NY areas: Irondequoit, Webster, Penfield, Pittsford, Fairport, Brighton,
Greece, Gates, Hilton, Brockport, Mendon, Henrietta, Perinton, Churchville, Scottsville, East Rochester, Rush,
Honeoye Falls, Chili, and Victor NY.
Visit our website at www.HiscockHomes.com.
© 2015, Kyle Hiscock. All rights reserved.