Here at Local Agency Co., we understand how difficult deciding whether to sell your house can be. Obviously, there are the concerns about whether it’s the right time to sell and whether you’ll get a good price. But there’s also the mental and emotional stress that deciding whether to sell your house can cause.
To help you manage this, we want to explore the process of deciding to sell. In doing this, we will look at the most common reasons homeowners consider leaving their much-loved property. We’ll also share our tips for making this tough decision and advice on looking after yourself through the sales process.
Signs it might be time to sell
There are many reasons you might find yourself deciding whether to sell your house. Often, these are quite logistical and are a response to changes in your living situation or family structure. Other times, they will be more economical and based on your financial situation or broader property market movements. And sometimes, they will be purely emotional and stem from a feeling that you need to move on.
As property market professionals, the motivations for selling we most regularly see are:
- The need for more space: As your family grows, your home may no longer be large enough for you to live a comfortable daily life. If you’re not in a position to create more space (e.g. through an extension), moving might be your only option.
- A desire to downsize: Conversely, as you get older and your family grows up and leaves home, you may not need as much space. As a result, you may want to move to a smaller property to minimise your maintenance and upkeep.
- Wanting to take advantage of a hot market: If the market is strong, you may see properties in the surrounding area starting to sell for a premium. This can make you question whether you should also take the opportunity to sell while buyers are paying top dollar.
- Being able to upgrade: If you have built equity in your home, and also have other savings, you’re in a good position to upgrade. And the lure of living somewhere bigger or better could see you deciding whether to sell your house.
- The location is no longer suitable: If you find yourself spending a lot of your time in another location you may be tempted to move there. Whether it’s for work, family, or social reasons, cutting down travel times can be a major motivation to move.
- Feeling a need for a change: Sometimes there is no logical reason you want to move… you just find yourself thinking about living somewhere else. This can be particularly difficult to process as there’s usually no definable force driving your desire to sell.
Tips on deciding whether to sell your house
If you’re lucky, deciding whether to sell your house will be fairly easy. While there may be a case to be made for both sides (staying and selling), one is obviously stronger. So that’s the one that you decide to do.
While this is the ideal situation, it’s not the one most of us will find ourselves in. For most people, deciding whether to sell their house is something that they’ll go back and forth on. And, even after they’ve made their decision, they’ll likely continue to question whether it was the right one.
While there’s no way to completely overcome this, there are a few simple tricks to making choosing a little easier. This includes:
- Writing a pro / con list: It may seem old fashioned but spelling out the case for each option (selling and staying) can help. It gives you a better understanding of your motivations and what choosing each option would allow you to do. It also gives you a list of benefits to focus on – and issues to expect – as you move forward.
- Consulting the professionals: If you’re worried about the timing of your potential sale, or the price you could achieve, talk to an agent you can trust. A good one will understand your reservations and help you to decide whether selling your house is right for you. They will also give you a good sense of the state of the market and the results you should expect.
- Ignoring unsolicited advice: When your friends and family hear that you’re thinking about selling, they’re sure to have thoughts. But while they may have good intentions, their opinions should be taken with a grain of salt. You should be particularly sceptical of any market insights provided to you by anyone that’s not a property expert.
- Trusting your gut: Major life decisions are always difficult and it’s easy to get caught up on all the ‘what if’s. But if you follow your instincts, you’ll usually make the right choice, at least for the short term. After all, we generally make the best decisions we can with the information available to us at the time.
Navigating the sales process
If you do decide that it’s time to sell, there will be set steps you’ll need to go through. And the first should be choosing who will sell your house for you. This is particularly important because engaging your agent early means they can help you prepare for what’s to come.
You should also make sure that, once you have decided to sell, you fully commit to that choice. To help with this, try to keep the benefits of selling your house front of mind at all times. Also, try to find active steps that you can take to keep yourself moving forward through the process.
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It’s also worth being flexible in your approach, as this should make the process much less stressful. This means trusting the advice of the professionals you engage and being open to any suggestions they have. It also means being willing to try different tactics, if your team thinks they could pay off.
Most importantly, remember that there are no guarantees when it comes to selling your house. No matter how carefully you plan your campaign, things may still not play out the way you want. When this happens, you need to remain positive, accept that you cannot change the situation, and focus on finding solutions.
Deciding whether to sell your house: A real world example
We were inspired to write this piece by clients we recently worked with. They had been considering whether to sell their house for several years but couldn’t take the final step. Eventually, after a lot of back and forth, they decided the time was right and listed their home with us.
Unfortunately, because they took so long to commit to selling, the market had started to turn. There was now an oversupply of their property type in their area and there were fewer buyers in the market. Market conditions were also changing, which meant most buyers also had less to spend.
Despite these setbacks, these clients remained positive and pushed forward with the sale of their home. They were open to our ideas and always willing to take our advice and try our suggestions. And, ultimately, this paid off for them as they secured a sale price that they were happy with.
It may seem like the lesson here is that putting off deciding whether to sell your home can cost you. However, we prefer to look at the positives and focus on the great result we were able to achieve. We believe this example also proves the importance of having the right mindset and committing to the process.
Want to discuss this further?
If you need help deciding whether to sell your house, contact Local Agency Co. Our friendly team can help you consider your options and make a plan that suits your situation and goals. We can also support you through every step of the sale process, if that’s the path you choose to take.
CLICK HERE TO SPEAK WITH AN EXPERIENCED LOCAL PROPERTY MANAGER