5 Things Homeowners Don’t Know, But Should About Selling Their House In Indianapolis, IN.

In this post we will discuss many of the things homeowners don’t know about selling their Indianapolis house, but should. Read on to know what to expect if you decide to list your house with a real estate agent in Indianapolis. The process many not be what you would expect and take longer than you would like. 

If you are thinking of selling your house in Indianapolis or surrounding markets like Fishers, IN, Greenfield, IN, Avon, IN, Noblesville, IN or Greenwood, IN to name a few, it’s important for you to know exactly what you are getting yourself into. Selling real estate on the open market with an agent rarely goes as planned. Each house, market and agent are different and can lead to very different outcomes. 

Just a few things we will be discussing in this article include agent experience and expertise, agent motivation, market values and right pricing a house, showings and staging strategies, offer negotiations, inspections and inspection negotiations, timing and much more. 

You May Have To Make Many More Repairs Than You Think

When you decide to list your Indianapolis house with a real estate agent, you will likely have to make repairs or updates before you list it on the open market. Agents will more than likely suggest making these repairs as it will make your house more marketable. Another way to put it, it will be easier for them to sell your house. This may not be the best option for you but it will help the house sell faster as it will appeal to a broader audience of buyers. These types of repairs can add up quickly. If you are not financially able to make these repairs be prepared for it to take longer to find the right buyer or selling your house much lower than you would like. Sinking more money into a house will likely add additional stress for the homeowner. When making updates to a house it’s important to make the right updates. Everyone’s tastes are different. Making the wrong choices is like flushing money right down the drain. 

At this point it’s important to discuss agent motivation. Real estate agents in Indianapolis work on commission. This varies a little but is typically 6% to 7% of the sales price of the house. The more expensive the house the bigger the commission. If a house is in move-in ready condition, updated and ready for market, it will sell quickly and pay out a nice commission. But what if your house isn’t worth $300,000 or isn’t in move-in ready condition? What if your house is only worth about $125,000 and needs major repairs or is out-of-date? You need to ask yourself, how motivated will your real estate agent be to market and sell your house for top dollar? Time is a very valuable commodity and there is only so many hours in a day. Agents tend to prefer to spend their time selling higher priced homes plain and simple. To an agent, the difference between selling a house for $100,000 and $130,000 is about $900. But to you that’s $30,000. If your house is a project house, you may face pressure from your agent to take the first offer that comes along. 

Now that you are listed on the market, having made whatever repairs or updates that were necessary, it’s time for showings. Besides moving, this is usually to biggest inconvenience for a homeowner. You will want your house to be in the best shape possible to attract potential buyers. Keeping a house in “show ready” condition isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. Requests for showings can happen at any moment. You can request advance notice of showings to buy you a little time to prepare. Showings are usually scheduled for one particular hour of the day but often times agents will schedule a range for the showing when taking clients to several houses in a single day. This means you, your family and any pets will need to take a drive for a few hours each time a showing is scheduled. And inevitably showings are at the least convenient times. 

Once you find a buyer there will be an inspection and there will inevitably be additional repairs that will need to be made to the house in order to complete the sale. We will discuss this more later on in this article when we discuss inspection repairs. 

The Time It Takes To Sell A House Can Vary

Just because the house down the street sold in a week, doesn’t mean yours will too. When you list your house on the Indianapolis MLS, there really is no way of knowing exactly when it will close. As we’ve discussed and will discuss further, there are a great many factors that impact the time it takes to sell. It could be days, weeks, or it could take months for your house to sell.

Some sellers never find a buyer and are eventually forced to take their home off the market. Listing a house in Indianapolis can be frustrating and stressful for homeowners and their families, especially those who want to sell their houses quickly. With a direct sale to a real estate investor like Ittenbach Capital, you will know exactly when the closing will take place.

So You Found A Buyer!

Now that you have a buyer it’s time to negotiate price. You want the highest price and buyers want the lowest price. Hopefully your agent can successfully negotiate a middle ground where all parties are satisfied. It’s important to take a minute and discuss market value and right pricing. You only get one shot at a list price when you work with a real estate agent. All data is public. And once a house is listed at a particular price, it’s really hard to raise that price. Price usually goes the other direction. The longer the house sits without a buyer the lower the price goes until a buyer if found. If you get a full price offer in the first few days it’s likely that your agent undervalued you house, leaving your money on the table. 

Valuing a property is as much an art as it is a science. It takes years of experience and a keen eye to know exactly what a house is worth. In real estate, everything matters. Location is key but so is layout, proximity to good schools, doctors and entertainment. There’s a saying, “there’s a buyer for every house.” The more of these attributes your house possess the more “buyers” for your house. 

Sales Do Fall Through

Imagine waiting months to find the right buyer, only to have the sale fall through at the last minute. This happens more often than you might think. There are many reasons deals fall apart. The appraisal can come in lower than the agreed upon sale price. And either the seller has to come down or the buyer has to come up in price. More often than not, buyers won’t have the cash necessary to make up the difference. Banks only loan a certain percent of the value of a home. They do this to mitigate their risk on the loan in case of default. So unless you are ready to lower the sale price the deal will go south. Inspections tend be the biggest cause of deals falling through. 

Inspection Time!

Once you find a buyer for your Indianapolis house they will have the house inspected. All houses have defects, some minor while others can be major. It’s usually the major defects that cause the greatest stress for homeowners. Inspectors’ primary job is to find as many defects with a house as they can. The older the house the more they tend to find as outdated building practices and materials are becoming more and more unacceptable to buyers. If major defects like roofs, electrical, plumbing, foundations or furnaces and air conditioners are found buyers will expect you to make repairs prior to closing. In some cases, bank financing will require the repairs before they will fund the sale. 

A good agent will have the experience to help navigate you through this process, helping you decide which of the requested repairs to make and which to negotiate with the buyer. This usually requires some tactile experience with construction to be really effective. You don’t always have to fix all the defects a buyer requests; knowing which to say yes to and which to say no to is the key to a successful inspection negotiation. 

Buyer contracts have contingencies in their contracts that will allow them to back out of the sale if defects are found, even if you agree to have them corrected. If money is tight you could lower the purchase price enough to accommodate the repairs on the other side of the sale. 

You Can Avoid All The Hassle Of Selling Your House!

Selling your house directly to a real estate investor in Indianapolis may be the best option for you. If you need to sell your Indianapolis house fast and you are looking for a cash offer, then give Ittenbach Capital a call today. We are a 5 star rated company with an A+ accreditation with the Better Business Bureau. You will not find a more knowledgeable and professional home buying company to walk you step by step through the process. 

You may think that you need to hire an agent, list the house, and wait for a buyer, however, that is not the case. There are many ways to sell an Indianapolis house house.  A direct sale is the best way for many Indianapolis homeowners to sell their homes, especially if it is out dated or major repairs are required. When you consider the hassle of listing your house, all the costs of getting a house ready for market, holding costs, and commissions, working with the right property buyer can make all the difference. Welcome to the easiest way to sell your house. Ittenbach Capital is the Midwest’s premier home buying company. We take all the work out of selling your house. We buy ugly houses, houses that need a little TLC, houses in as-is condition. 

Ittenbach Capital, LLC is a 5 star rated company with an A+ accreditation with the Better Business Bureau of Indiana. Click here to see why our customers love us!