Lets start off with the most basic fact and that is that No home, no matter how fabulous is not absolutely perfect. Not even a brand new home. There is always something that is a little bit out of place, showing its age or potentially even damaged. Welcome to the real world.



As a property seller, the key is to evaluate the problems raised by your buyers to see whether they are really an issue and if so, how much it is going to cost you in money and time you to have the problems fixed by the relevant tradesperson. You can choose to either pay to have the problems fixed directly yourself or if you dont have the time or the money, you can credit the seller the amount to repair the items. But ensure you cost the repairs and dont give away your profit ie. dont go nuts.

Many buyers clean up when it comes to identifying problems. In one situation, a seller finally had an offer after waiting for four months. The buyer, however, noted the sprinkler system for the property was rotted and need to be repaired. The seller was trying to determine if he would agree to the $25,000 discount the buyer was asking for the repair.

$25,000 For a sprinkler system! After I finally stopped laughing, I asked the seller if the buyer was going to redo the sprinkler system or build a water slide park in the backyard. Now, was the buyer really going to spend $25,000 on sprinklers? Probably not. Instead, the buyer was trying to suck money out the back end to get a better deal and probably do other repairs. In response, the seller offered to do the actual repairs and the buyer dropped the demand.

When selling your home, it is vital that you realize there will be problems that need to be addressed. It can be easy to panic in a market like the current one and just accept whatever the buyer asks for. Dont Settle! Get objective bid and go from there.

Raynor James writes about FSBO issues for FSBO America.