Real Estate Turbulence
YOUR MINDSET
You are a seller. You assume that all buyers will love your house. Those little things that aren’t working (slightly leaky bathroom sink, door that never opens, things you have to jigger) are just things that add character to your home. And your home is just so fabulous that buyers will overlook all of this, have all their ducks in a row, and you expect everything to proceed quite smoothly.
You are a buyer. You assume that the seller has fully prepared the home for sale by fixing any and all little things. Anything that you noticed out of order, you assume they will fix to your specifications. There will be no delays by any service professionals. You lock in your interest rate and are ready for everything to proceed quite smoothly.
REALITY
Let’s be realistic. Recently we have heard on several occasions, “I did not realize that buying/selling a home would be so hard” where hard can mean many things: more work had to be done on the home, things didn’t work during home inspection and then miraculously worked after, people didn’t do what they say they would, or they do it poorly or very slowly.
Here is a list of the kinds of things that can and have happened during home buying and selling transactions.
If you consider this list, and your transaction does not contain too many of these issues, you can count yourself fortunate!
Think about how many things on the list of potential turbulence that you as a buyer or seller, or your REALTOR®, would be able to change.
HOW ABOUT SOME SERENITY
Remember the Serenity Prayer and apply it to your real estate mindset:
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change
the courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference.
– Reinhold Niebuhr
KEEP PERSPECTIVE
Leigh Brown is a REALTOR® and dynamic speaker. One of the stories she tells is of a buyer who was unfortunately in a car accident right before the transaction was complete. As a result, he spent his downpayment money to replace his prosthetic limb damaged in the accident. He was then unable to buy the home.
Leigh tells this story to highlight that sometimes when issues come up during a transaction, it does not mean that the other party had bad intentions. In addition, even if you are the best REALTOR® in the world, you never saw that coming.
The flight analogy is perfect. We can pilot your transaction from beginning to end, but turbulence is out of anyone’s control. Focus on what you can control, and let go of the rest. We can’t necessarily make the transaction easy, but we can guide you through the bumps.
