Seniors often find that having too much space becomes a major burden as they age. Maintaining a large home becomes unsustainable, and the thought of having a smaller space to keep clean becomes more and more appealing as getting around becomes more difficult. When considering how to sell your house, be sure to factor in all of the potential costs of each method of selling to make a fair comparison. Understanding these expenses can help you make the best choice for you financially, physically, and mentally. This article will summarize 5 things seniors should consider when downsizing their homes in Maui.
Convenience Of Selling A House In Hawaii
For many seniors in Hawaii moving into a smaller home, or even an assisted living facility, such as Hale Mahaolu, makes a lot of sense. However the idea of listing their home on the MLS with a realtor can seem complicated and overwhelming. Especially since now most buyers search for housing online. Other big deterrents to the traditional listing method are the huge commissions and fees required to pay all of the parties involved in helping with the legal documents and paperwork, marketing and showing the home. Many sellers also don’t like the thought of strangers touring their homes and looking through their personal possessions. One of the biggest headaches is the task of keeping your home in picture perfect condition and cleanliness throughout the entire sales process, which typically takes between 4-6 months. Finally, sitting at the negotiating table while each buyer tries to beat you up on price just adds even more stress to the process.
Cleaning Out Your Maui Home
Cleaning out your house is an extremely physically and emotionally draining process, especially for folks that have been in the same home for a long time. A big reason for selling in the first place is that the home is too much to take care of, so when you add the tasks of having to clean out the junk and pack up all of your things the task can be too much to take on yourself. Hiring a moving company or organizing company for help is an option, but can be very expensive in Hawaii, and the cost increases substantially for those with larger homes on Maui or for those that have acquired a lot of possessions over the years (and who hasn’t?). Most of us find that every corner of your home is filled with memories and feels like you are leaving those behind, which makes this process emotionally draining in addition to physically demanding.
Expensive Repairs
The traditional method of selling a house in Hawaii is calling a realtor to take professional pictures and post your home for sale on the MLS so that other realtors will find it and show it to their client that is looking for a home to buy in Hawaii. A critical part of this method is the home inspection, survey and appraisal process. When someone is looking for a new home for their family to move into, they almost always want the house to be in perfect condition so they won’t be making repairs as soon as they move in. This is great for the buyer, especially in today’s real estate market, since sales have slowed dramatically and sellers are having more and more trouble finding someone to buy their house or condo. The result is that the buyer can demand that the seller make a long list of repairs and bring in contractors, plumbers, electricians, roofers, etc. to fix every little potential issue that the home inspection report points out as having a problem, not being up to code, or even many items that are perfectly fine but maybe are just recommended to be replaced in the coming months or years. The buyer gets to move into a home that is nearly new, but the downside is that it typically costs the seller tens of thousands of dollars. For some sellers, the cost of repairs might not be a problem, but the headaches and inconvenience of having contractors in their home all day, unbearable noise, dust, and dishevelment are just too much to handle. These are some of the expenses that can be really easy to overlook when comparing selling your home on the MLS to a retail buyer versus selling directly to an investor that will take the house as is and perform all of these repairs and renovations themselves after you move out.
The home appraisal can also be a problem because appraisers are very conservative these days, and it’s very common for the appraisal to come in lower than the sales price. In this case, most buyers will not be willing to pay out of pocket for the difference between the sales price and the loan amount (which the bank determines based on the appraisal). Most buyers will ask the seller to credit the price difference back to them at closing. So you might have seen a house down the street that sold for $800,000, but you might not realize that the seller usually only receives a percentage of that amount after deducting commissions, fees, repairs, and appraisal credits.
The Alternative Option To Sell Your Home Conveniently
Many Hawaii home and condo owners have found that selling directly to Maui Home Buyers can often be a much more convenient, less stressful, easier, and more profitable option. We will listen to your situation to get an understanding of what your particular needs and wishes are so that we can find the perfect solution to walk you through a quick and seamless sale where we handle all of the heavy lifting for you. If you decide to work with us you can just choose the items that you want to keep and either take them with you or mark them for us to have a moving company pack and move those things to your new home. Anything else that you don’t want can just be left behind and we’ll clean it all up. You also won’t have to worry about repair costs, commissions, appraisals, home inspections and surveys or any of the other uncertainties in the home selling process; we’ll do a quick evaluation of the property and make you a cash offer to sell on your timeline, and whatever repairs or problems pop up will be addressed by us after the sale closes and you have moved out. The price we offer is the price you get on the closing date – no more guessing games and complicated math trying to figure out how much everything is going to end up costing you. Send us a message or call Maui Home Buyers today at (808) 359-3121 to learn exactly what we can do for you!