The Stress of Selling a House in Denver Colorado
I sold my house recently. It was so stressful.
More on this in a second because first I want to give you a little insight as to what this is article all about.
Today we will discuss:
- The stress of selling a house (you are not alone!)
- We talk about ways to sell your house for top dollar
- We go over advice from experts about selling fast
- I share my mistakes and the mistakes of others so you can avoid them
We will talk about these things because research shows that’s where most of the stress comes from when selling a house.
Sound good?
Can I tell you more about my story now?
I recently sold my house and I was stressed to the max! I spent so much time and money getting it ready. I had so many questions and none of the answers. My questions were:
- Would I recoup the money I had already spent?
- When would I start getting offers and when would it sell?
- How much would I end up with?
Sound familiar?
Maybe you’re getting your house ready to sell or you just listed it. Are you feeling the stress of it all like me? Is it better to sell to a cash home buyer?
For hardworking people like us, it can be agonizing not knowing the answers to all these questions. For me it made me feel like I had absolutely no control!
Because of all this, it’s no wonder selling a house is so gosh darn stressful!
So what can we do about it?
Today, if you agree, we can go over the following
- We will go over how stressed I was selling my place.
- We will highlight mistakes I made, and also what helped me.
- PLUS I will share what I have learnt which includes expert advice of real estate gurus on how to reduce the stress of selling a house.
Some other topics include:
- Research proving we are not alone in this
- Some “sell my house now” home improvement “NUGGETS”
- Killer tips to sell your house on your timeline
- AND advice on how to get top dollar when you sell.
Sound good?
YES?
Then lets get your house prepped, listed and sold!
BUT first, where does the stress come from?
The stress of selling your house can be caused by:
- The cost to get it ready
- Having to keep it spotless
- Dealing with realtors
- Random showings
- Waiting for buyer financing (mortgages)
- Inspections…
The list goes on and on. Imagine selling your house without having to deal with any of those stressors!
Selling your house stress-free in Denver starts with a fast cash offer from a reputable home-buying company like us at We Buy Houses In Denver. You can get a no-obligation cash offer to sell your house by clicking here.
Why is Selling a House So Stressful?
The stress of selling a house comes from many directions. Because of this you must answer a few quick questions to make sure we are on the same page.
These questions will determine if I understand your problem. Then if my lessons and my mistakes can help you because if we avoid mistakes we reduce the anxiety and make selling your house easier.
Here are the questions about selling your house:
- Are you on a timeline?
- Worried about when your house will sell?
- Are you anxious about how much it will sell for?
- Ultimately, do you want to sell your house faster and for more profit?
If you answered yes to any of those questions you are not alone.
In-fact, 99.9% of people selling a house worry about these things. AND research shows that the worry comes from not knowing the answers.
It turns out “not knowing” is why selling a house is so stressful!
Is that what is bothering you so much? When I relfect it certainly was for me.
For example, when I sold my house I didn’t know:
- If I would recoup the cost of repairs
- How fast my house would sell.
- Why I wasn’t getting decent offers (this really stressed me out!!!)
- Then when I got offers if I should accept them!
Selling your house is like a roller coaster
The funniest part was after I accepted a great offer and sold my house the stress didn’t stop. Now I had seller’s remorse!
- Did I leave money on the table?
- What if I had waited for another higher offer?
- Could I have made more money and profit?
Selling your house is like an incredibly stressful roller coaster of emotional and business-like decisions. Ups and downs, fear and anxiety, and finally exhilaration when you get it sold.
Only to come off the emotional high to wonder if you could have sold it for more.
As I mentioned I went through all of this when I recently sold my house in Denver. It was definitely a roller coaster like experience. To be honest, getting my teeth drilled by the dentist is quite relaxing in comparison! AND THIS IS WHY.
Today’s real estate market is red hot. Lots of cash offer. It’s cutthroat out there! Buyers are pickier than ever. Home inspectors will tear your home apart during the inspection process. Realtors are out for blood.
When you combine all that with the unknowns of:
- Will your house sell fast enough?
- Will buyers like your house and give you offers? AND
- How much money you will get when you sell?
It’s no wonder that selling a house is so incredibly stressful! Right?
For me, the stress of selling my house was LITERALLY and figuratively through the roof!
AND that’s why we are both here, right?
You are here to learn a way to avoid all the strains, headaches, and hassles of getting a house ready and selling it.
YES?????
AND I am here because I want to share what I personally learned and what I have learned from the real estate experts.
Do you remember earlier when I said we are not alone? It turns out us Americans find selling a house is so stressful that we are sometimes frozen by fear!
Research Shows Why Selling a House is So Stressful
You’re not alone. Selling a house is stressful. In fact, to sell a house is repeatedly voted as one of the most stressful life events a person will ever have to endure!
Research Highlights Americans Crippling Fear and Stress of Selling a House
In a recent phone survey, we found that a whopping 87% of American homeowners are literally terrified of selling their houses.
Some were so fearful of the stress around selling their home that they were crippled by it. They were literally unable to make decisions about what to do next!
Phone survey proved home-owners think selling a house is extremely stressful
Question | Yes % | No % |
|---|---|---|
Have you ever sold a house? | 71% | 29% |
Was selling your house a stressful event? | 93% | 7% |
Would you say you are terrified of selling a house in the future? | 87% | 13% |
Do you wish you had expert advice to reduce the stress of selling? | 99% | 1% |
Were there times you couldn’t make a decision because of stress? | 57% | 43% |
Was money a factor in creating stress for you? | 96% | 4% |
Was not knowing when your house would sell stressful? | 100% | 0% |
We asked the people we surveyed to come up with other reasons for why selling was so stressful. Some of the reasons we were told for the extreme levels of fear included:
- Making repairs that did not recoup the cost
- Dealing with predatory agents and buyers
- Listing the house only to have an immense amount of negative feedback
- If my house sits on the market for too long and doesn’t sell
- Don’t get enough to pay the mortgage and buy a new house
As I stated, many homeowners were so stressed once they had homes for sale that they couldn’t make even the simplest decisions on what not to do next!
Let’s get past the fear and anxiety and move on to some solutions.
Table of Contents
Fear no more, reduce the selling stress with expert advice
The goal is to sell your house and sell it for a good price. YES?
Plus you want to reduce the amount of stress of selling a house as much as possible?
AGREED!!!
So how to decrease the strains, one feels, when selling a house?
What if you knew when your house would sell and for mow much? While I don’t have a crystal ball there is certain information that will 100% help you.
And that’s what I am going to teach you, right here. You are going to get to learn from all of the things I did wrong.
PLUS I will bring in some real estate expert friends of mine that will I will show you how to:
- Get your house ready to sell the right way
- Avoid costly mistakes during the listing period
- Run comps to set the right price
- Navigate the inspection like a boss
- AND Ultimately we will give you your guide to sell your house successfully (fast and for top dollar) and all the while doing it stress-free while you get more profit!
Does this sound promising?
Once again I AGREE EMPHATICALLY!!! So let’s get your house sold…
STRESS-FREE!
Steps You Must Take to Sell a House Stress Free
SOLUTIONS TO ALLEVIATE THE STRESS OF SELLING A HOUSE.
When we go to the dentist they try to reduce our stress levels by:
- Playing soothing music
- Letting you watch tv
- AND MY FAV – the numb the entire area for a terrific loss in sensation to ensure there is ZERO PAIN.
AND that’s what this next section is all about, but for selling houses.
We are going to go over ways to soothe the stress of selling a house.
The information you are about to read will make selling your house much more comfortable that you might even crack a smile.
EVEN BETTER YET…
If you take this expert real estate and home improvement advice to heart I guarantee you will be laughing all the way to the bank [because you will get great
offers, sell it fast, and ultimately sell your house for a boat load of cash!]
Prep the Right Way to Reduce Stress
The first step to eliminate stress when selling your house is to prepare your house correctly. Preparing your house correctly involves:
- Finding a reputable real estate expert to guide you
- Fixing stuff that adds value
- Avoiding repairs that just waste time and money
- Run comps to help determine the best direction to take (FSBO, AGENT, CASH BUYER)
Here is an article on what not to fix when selling a house. Because this way you will recoup your cash and make more money when you sell.
I wrote this article for you/me/us after I sold my house. I guarantee you will pick up some real nuggets that will help you profit more!
Another great read is this article on how to get your house ready to sell. This expert guide includes things you should fix when selling your house to realtor or to a home buyer. These are the high return on investment items that we always recoup our cash on and even better, will make you lots of money.
IT IS A MUST-READ IF YOU NEED TO SELL YOUR HOUSE… Especially if you want to make the BIG BUCKS!
But for right now we should talk about real estate comps. Because this is how you will be able to predict how much your house will sell for and let you set the right price to sell quickly.
Running Real Estate Comps Reduces Stress
We want to reduce the stress of selling your house.
AND we have agreed that not knowing how much your house will sell for is a major stressor!
Because of this we need to real estate run comps. If you run comps we will know EXACTLY how much your house is worth and therefore how much you will get. Make sense?
Let’s work out the value of your house together, by showing you how to run comps on your own.
Shall we?
First a little background.
What are comps in real estate?
Comps in real estate are other houses that recently sold near you. By looking at what other houses are sold for we can work out what your house will sell for.
The process of determining what your house is worth by looking at recently sold houses is called running comps.
So, when an agent says to you, “I’m going to run comps on your house” this is what they do:
- Open their laptop and log into the MLS
- Run a report that shows them houses like yours that recently sold.
- They calculate the average sales price
- Agents compare the condition of the sold properties. Are they in the same condition as the house you need to sell?
- Make any adjustments to account for differences in condition e.g. if someone fixed up their kitchen and you are selling as-is.
- Finally, present their findings to you.
This is how real estate professionals run comps. You can run comps on your own too!
Lets work through how to run comps by yourself right now.
How to run comps
Included in this step-by-step tutorial is a video example of how I run comps using Zillow.
The goal of running comps is to work out the value of your house. Then you know what it will sell for. To do this we find 3 or more houses that are similar to yours that sold recently.
What does SOLD RECENTLY mean?
Ideally the houses you are comparing to sold in the last 90 days. months is ok too. 5 years ago is not ok. The more recent a house sold the more accurate your numbers will be.
Accuracy is key when you run comps.
Step by step guide to real estate run comps for free! Because free is awesome, right?
Here we go.
- Sit in front of your computer.
- Open a browser and go to Zillow.
- Type in the address of the house you are running comps on.
- Add filters so that you only see houses that sold in the past 3 months
- Add filter so you see houses that have the same number of bedrooms.
- Click on a house that meets your criteria. The houses must be in the same neighborhood. We only compare to houses on the “same side of the tracks”. Don’t compare your house to one that is on the different side of a major highway. I would like you to find houses that are less than a mile away if possible.
- Look at the pictures to see if they are the same as your house.
- If the house is in a similar condition it is a good “COMP”. Write down the SOLD price and repeat steps 1-8 until you have 3 houses.
- Now you have 3 houses to work out the average price they sold for.
You have just successfully run comps like a real estate pro! This is exactly how I ran comps to set my list price. It worked like a charm.
If you have followed this advice (which was given to me by a real estate agent) you now know exactly what you can sell your house for too!
Does that relieve the stress a little?
Step by tep video on how to run comps to reduce the stress of selling a house
Avoid Costly Mistakes When Listing Your Home
Research shows a lot of stress of selling a house comes from the fear of making mistakes. Earlier I gave you access to articles on:
There are many other mistakes that we all commonly make when selling a house. Because of this we have to talk about:
- Setting the wrong list price can be devastating
- Creating a buyers persona and if you don’t it can cost you loads of cash
- Staging the house improperly will increase your levels of stress
- You can reduce the stress of selling a house by running comps one final time before listing.
SETTING THE RIGHT PRICE:
If you set the right price you will get multiple offers and your house will sell fast.
A quick sale for a great price will reduce the levels of stress, right?
Isn’t that what we want?
AND that’s why setting the wrong list price can be devastating! It will be devastating because:
- You will not get any offers
- Your house will stay on market for a long time
- The house will become stagnant
- You will either have to reduce the price a lot or take it off the market!
I don’t know about you but if that were me I would be stressed out to the max!
AVOID THIS COSTLY MISTAKE:
The way to set the right price is to run comps [see above].
If you are still unsure I would invite you to contact us. There is no obligation when you talk to us. We can discuss your plans to sell your house and run comps together. Because then you can be sure that the comps are accurate and your list price will be right.
CREATE A BUYERS PERSONA TO SELL YOUR HOME
A buyer’s persona identifies who will buy your home. Knowing who will buy your house will make selling easier. An easier sale is a less stressful sale.
Picture this: You are selling a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home. It has a fabulous fenced yard. The yard is perfect for a dog or maybe a trampoline.
Guess who buys your house?
You guessed right!
A Mom and a Dad, 2 kids, and a dog named Griffin. With a house like this, there’s a great chance you will sell your house to a family. AND if this is the case you probably don’t want to list it in the middle of a school term because this family will be busy with school.
The best time to sell a house to this family would be in the summer holidays. AND that is one example of why many houses are listed to sell in the summertime.
Can you see how a buyer’s persona will make selling less stressful?
YOU MUST STAGE YOUR HOUSE PROPERLY TO SELL IT
Staging a house is a powerful tool. We use staging to help potential buyers imagine themselves living there. For example:
- Eating breakfast in the breakfast nook
- Entertaining guests in the dining room that flows into the kitchen
- Summer evenings in the backyard grilling with family and friends.
When home staging is done right, you will get better offers, faster. Surely this will reduce the stress?
On the other hand, what if you do it wrong?
Here are our quick tips on how to stage your house for success:
- Clean like your life depends on it
- Get rid of all the clutter AKA De-clutter
- Put away personal stuff like photos
- Bring in some life – fresh flowers or potted plants
- Upgrade wallpaper or paint (it can be a big win)
- Fix the floors [within reason]
- Open the curtains and clean the windows for natural light
- Re-arrange furniture – you may have to remove a few items to create the illusion of space.
- Identify, assess, and if needed repair cracks in the walls, ceilings, and basement floors
- Curb appeal – pick up any trash, mow the lawn maybe even power wash the house.
For more details on staging check out this article: 10 Expert Tips For More Profit: Get Your House Ready To Sell Like A Pro!
RUN COMPS ONE LAST TIME
We run comps to know how much our house is worth. This in turn tells us how much it will sell for. When it comes to selling your house that is powerful information to have!
This information is even more powerful if it is up to date. And that is why you must run comps one last time.
Run comps just before you list to make sure you put it on the market for the right price.
Do this and you will get some great offers and sell faster.
Think back to the start of this article when we talked about where the stress of selling a house comes from.
Remember the phone survey and research on why selling a house is so stressful?
To remind you: The results were that pretty much everyone wished they knew how much their house would sell for to a cash home buyer. They all said if they knew that then they would be way less stressed!
You now have the power to work that out!
Navigate the Home Inspection Like a Boss
Picture this: You are selling your house. You have accepted an offer. Now comes the home inspection. Immediately the hairs on the back of your neck are raised.
- What will the home inspection find?
- Will I have to repair everything?
- What if the repairs cost too much?
- Can I back out of the contract?
More stress right? Just when you thought it was going to get easier the stress keeps piling on.
But PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE listen to this.
This is expert advice from an absolute REAL ESTATE GURU. Here it is.
“Home inspections are a significant source of stress when we sell our homes. But they don’t have to be and this is why.
For this, I need us to imagine we are in the shoes of the buyer.
We are the buyer. We submitted an offer on our dream house. It was accepted. Immediately we start imagining living in it. In fact, we are already picking out furniture.
The last hurdle to close the deal is the home inspection. We hire an inspector. A few days later they come back with a list of things wrong with the house.
What do we do?
We talk to our realtor who suggests we ask the seller to fix some things.
Do they really need to be fixed? Not really?
Will we walk away from our dream house if the seller chooses to fix only some of them? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Why do I have you imagine you are the buyer?
I do this because if you are selling your house you need to remember the person on the other side of the real estate transaction is actually very excited to buy your home.
I know this because they just offered you hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy your house!
PLUS Psychologists have found that as soon as we accept their offer the buyer already imagines themselves living there!
You are in fact, now in the driver’s seat! So don’t let the inspection scare you. Remember this to keep the stress levels down.
When you are given a long list of things to fix, please take a moment before you stress out even more!
After taking a few deep breathes, write down 4 or 5 items that won’t cost much to fix. Send these back to the buyer as a counteroffer. You may have to do this once or twice.
However, 9 times out of 10 you will find the buyer is quite willing to close on your house with just the cheapest of repairs made.
TRUST ME: You will come out of the home inspection negotiation feeling like you won.
This is how you navigate a home inspection when you are selling a house like a BOSS!
Final Word on the Stress of Selling a House
The stress of selling a home is worse than the dentist, a funeral, and a wedding combined! We all agree on that now.
We know that we are not alone in the exaggerated levels of stress we feel when selling.
I have shared my story and the mistakes I made when selling a house. I also compiled research on why selling a house is so stressful.
Lastly we, have identified common mistakes that can skyrocket stress, and we discussed solutions and ways to reduce it that are backed up by the experts of the real estate industry.
I sincerely hope this article on the stress of selling a house will help you in your quest to sell your house on time, and for a great price!
WeBuyHousesInDenver.org is your solution to selling your house, even if it doesn’t have a stove because as Denver’s number 1 cash home buyer we will buy any house in any condition so if you want a cash offer on your property simply give us a call or fill out an online form and our team of experts will get to work, quick smart, to help you get your house SOLD!
FAQ's on the stress around selling ours homes
Why is selling a house so stressful?
Research shows the reason selling a house is so stressful is because of all the unknown factors involved. The unknowns of selling a house undermine the homeowner’s sense of control. This lack of control creates:
- Fear
- Anxiety and ultimately
- Significant levels of stress
For example:
You are moving into a new home. Before you can move you need to sell your current house. Not knowing when your current home will sell is a major source of stress! Perhaps you will lose the deal if it doesn’t sell quickly enough?
Alternatively, you need to sell for a certain price to pay off the mortgage and then go travel the world. In this situation, of course not knowing how much your house will sell for will cause all sorts of anxiety!
These are the facts to why selling a house is so stressful.
How do you deal with the stress of selling a house?
If you remove all of the unknowns then you will reduce the stress of selling a house.
Picture this: Before you list your home you know exactly what day your house will close and exactly how much you will make.
Talk about no stress right?
While I can’t predict the future of when your house will sell and for how much here are 10 ways to help you deal with the hassles and stress that come with selling a home.
Best 10 Tips to a Stress-Free Home Sale:
- Find the right real estate professional to help you. This may come in the form of an experienced agent with a solid understanding of the current market conditions. Alternatively, you may choose to sell your house for cash in which case you need to locate a trusted and reputable home buyer near you. Either way, finding a real estate expert that understands what you need will reduce the stress of selling a house.
- Have a thorough understanding of the housing market you are about to sell your house in. Because if you understand the market, you will be able to predict what will happen. So you MUST know the answers to the following questions:
- Is it a buyers market or seller’s market?
- What things are selling in today’s market?
- Will I get my money back if I fix certain things?
- How much are dis other homes sell for (run comps)
- List your house for the right price. To determine the list price of your house you need to run comps. After you have run comps you then need to determine goals like, if you want to sell your house in a hurry, or if you want top dollar. Maybe you want to create a bidding war or perhaps you are content with a fast cash offer. Regardless of your goals, setting the right price is key to lowering the stress levels when you go to sell your home.
- Only fix stuff that you know you can recoup your money on. Don’t undertake massive renovations. Leaves those for the fix and flippers and home improvement experts!
- Clean your house perfectly. A spotless house makes for a faster sale. You will get higher offers. If I told you that you will sell your house fast for a great price would the stress go down? If you answered yes, then start cleaning my friend!
- Learn how to run real estate comps on your own. This builds on tip number 3. When we run comps by ourselves we take back some of the control. More control means less stress. You can learn how to run comps. It’s not rocket science. Trust me – I was in the same boat you’re in.
- Build a buyer’s persona and then use it to target them with laser-like precision. I spent an hour picturing the person or family who would most like to buy my house. This is called creating a buyer’s persona. From this, I was able to highlight all the things in my house they would like. It even helped me write my listing description because I used words that would resonate with them. Finally, because of the persona, I was able to sell my house in the right season, for a great price and fast!
- Do not fear the home inspection. When we are selling our house and we get to the home inspection it is a cause for celebration. The hook is set, the buyer is already picking out furniture and is moving in. Throw them a bone or two. Make some cheap repairs so both parties feel good about the deal. This is what the pros do!
- Stage your house like a pro. You don’t have to literally hire a pro. However, that can be very useful. But what I am saying is to make sure you remove all the clutter. Tell the buyers what each room is for. Remove personal items to allow the buyers to imagine themselves living there. Staging is a powerful tool. It is an opportunity to create an emotional connection between our house and the people with the money. Don’t squander this opportunity.
- Have fun with it. For most people selling a house is terribly stressful. We have research that proves it. But you don’t have to surrender yourself to their agony. Their stress does not have to be yours. So, at any point, you feel that ball of stress swelling this is what you need to do. Remember where the stress of selling a house comes from. It comes from all the “not knowing” Not knowing how much it will sell for. Not knowing when you will get an offer, Not knowing what to repair in the home inspection. AND after remembering where the stress is coming from, please do me a favor? Read the entire article again. because this article has all those answers. We talk about how much your house will sell for. We discuss how to sell it on your schedule. We even go over how to deal with a home inspection. Not only deal with it but navigate it like a BOSS! You do all this I know you will have fun when you sell your house. I know this because this is how I sold my house and it really helped!
How much will I make selling my house?
Just how much you make selling your house depends on so many factors. These include:
- Are you using an agent and therefore do we have to take out 6% for the commissions?
- What time of year are you selling your house in?
- Are you in a buyer’s market or a seller’s market?
- Are you making repairs or selling your house as-is?
And the list of questions goes on.
If you would like a general rule of thumb as to how much you will get when you sell your house on the MLS this is it.
SALES PRICE – 10% = How much you will get when you sell.
The 10% accounts for:
- Real estate agent fees and commissions
- Minor repairs you face during the inspection period
- Title fees and title insurance
- Document fees and recording fees
- Mortgage fees and bank charges
- Real estate transfer taxes
While this list is not exhaustive, it does cover many of the more common closing costs associated with buying and selling real estate.
A Better Way to Sell Your House
If you want to sell your house EXACTLY on your schedule, I have a solution for you.
If you must know the precise amount of cash you will walk away with [and you want this quickly], then this option is for you.
What am I talking about?
How do you sell your house on your schedule and for the price you want?
The solution to selling your house as fast as you need for a cash price that works for you is to get an offer from a legitimate company that pays cash for houses.
WeBuyHousesInDenver.org is your solution to selling your house, even if it doesn’t have a stove because as Denver’s number 1 cash buyer home we will buy any house in any condition so if you want a cash offer on your property simply give us a call or fill out an online form and our team of experts will get to work, quick smart, to help you get your house SOLD!