You’ve just accepted an offer on your home, what could go wrong, right? The truth is once you accept an offer there is a lot of work that needs to be done to get to the closing table and working with the right agent can help ensure a smooth sales process. Now is when the real fun begins and sometimes it can be accompanied by a lot of stress and anxiety too. Here are some things that can go wrong after you’ve sold your home.
Home Inspection
Most offers are likely to have a home inspection contingency which allows the buyer to hire an expert to go through the home and look for potential problems and issues with the home. A bad home inspection can lead to a quick end to your sale. If a buyer finds any major issues or costly repairs it could kill the deal.
Appraisal
A low appraisal could also put the kibosh on the sale of your home. Before a bank will give the buyer a mortgage, they will require an appraisal of the home. Like most people, banks want to ensure they are making a wise investment and want to be sure they aren’t lending more money for the house than its worth. Even though the buyer and seller may agree to a sale price, if the buyer is getting a mortgage the bank is going to do everything they can to protect themselves. This means a trained real estate appraiser is going to be hired to go out and give the bank a report of what they believe the market value of the home is. If the appraisal is lower than the agreed sale price, they may not give the buyer a loan.
Financing
Much like the bank requiring an appraisal, the bank is also invested in the borrower and again will want to do everything possible to ensure they are making a good investment. This means the borrower will need to prove to the bank they’re a credible borrower and will have the financial means to repay the loan. If the loan underwriter is not satisfied with there financial standing they may end up refusing to give the buyer the loan and the deal will be dead.
Unexpected Incidents / Acts of God
Sometimes things just go awry, bad luck occasionally finds us all. All though very rare, sometimes unexpected events such as fires, a flood, a tree falls on a house, etc. and causes major damage could spell disaster for your home sale. When this happens it really becomes up to the buyer if they are willing to continue to work with the seller to wait until the damage is repaired (if it’s even possible), but they would not be under any obligation too. Repairing the damage is likely to take months and the buyer may not be willing to wait that long and decide they would prefer to move on.
Delayed Closing
A delay in closing could be the happen for a number of reasons, sometimes title issues arise, which could be from an error in the public records, to unknown liens or easements, to boundary/survey disputers, and even to forgeries among other things. Often times a delay in closing however is the result of some sort of financing issue for the buyer, anything from an old credit issue, to sudden change in credit or debt, or even a miscalculation on the part of the lending institution can be problematic for the sale of your home. Sometimes these issue can be worked out and just require a few more days, other times it may take longer and either the buyer or seller may be unwilling to wait it out.
Someone Backs Out
In some cases, a buyer may just have a change of heart and decide to not follow through with the sale. Although this is an unlikely and usually costly scenario for the buyer, it can happen. However, if the buyer does back out for a reason not covered by a contingency, the seller in that case would be entitled to any deposit or earnest money put down by the buyer as damages. A buyer may also back out if they lose their job, fall ill, or suddenly pass away. In this type of case, the buyer would likely be covered by their financing contingency and the seller would not receive any money as damages.
