Note: This Blog Post is written with comments made directly towards the given Coronavirus situation. We are not predicting the future. And the future may prove these comments did not come to fruition. The comments are made, though, for you to consider what may or may not happen and how it may affect you. Everyone is struggling to determine what they should do in their situation. There is no one size fits all answer.
Coming to the decision to sell your house is not a light matter. There are a lot of decisions to be made, like whether to use a licensed real estate agent or sell directly to a home buyer; where should you move next? Don’t let these questions delay your decision to sell your house. Here are four ways waiting to sell your house in Milwaukee will cost you.
Houses are in Demand (For Now)
Waiting to sell your house in Milwaukee may cost you because right now there are still buyers for houses. Mortgage rates are at an all-time low so now is a great time to put your house up for sale. With the impending market dip due to the coronavirus economic shutdown, houses will soon be flooding the market, and demand may start to wane. But for right now, there are still enough buyers in the market to buy all of the houses for sale. There are also buyers that have taken a large portion of their money out of the rapidly fluctuating stock market and need to invest it in real estate. Once these funds are used, they will stop purchasing real estate.
On the other side of the house sale, if people continue to lose their jobs or the jobless number just stays at it’s current level, will the banks continue to lend money on houses for fear the borrower will/may lose their job? Will the lending criteria become tighter; higher credit score, more downpayment, longer time on the job, proof of job security. We have already been a part of a lender backing out of financing the sale because the buyer had his hours cut twice.
Less Competition
If you put your house for sale right now, you will have less competition than if you wait until the market really starts to dip. Buyers will easily find your house in Milwaukee. Once the downward trend is realized, many sellers will use that as their queue to list their house for sale. That means, the market will soon become flooded and you will have lots of other competition for buyers in Milwaukee to review. In order to catch the buyer’s attention when the market is flooded, you will have to make sure your curb appeal and all necessary upgrades have been done. These upgrades and curb appeal will cost time and money. You may have to accept a lower offer than you plan on, just to solidify a buyer.
Prices Dropping
If you wait to sell your house in Milwaukee and you start to realize that downward trend, that means the average sales price for your comparable properties will also be less than you were expecting, and you may even have to accept a lower than market price offer to sell your house. This costs you the extra capital gain you could have had if you did not wait. When the market is flooded with houses for sale, the buyers have more power in selecting the house they want and are able to make lower offers because they have so many other options. Desperate sellers in markets like these will start accepting the lower offers, which compounds the dip in the housing market.
It’s a Sellers market right now. Just as quickly as the coronavirus situation made our economy close, so to could it become a Buyer’s market.
Extra Fees
The longer you own the property for the year, the higher the percentage of taxes and dues you will owe. The annual taxes on the property are prorated based on how many days out of the year you own it, you will only receive credit for the part of the year you will not own the property. The same goes for homeowners association fees, only the part of the year you do not own the property will get refunded. These prorations are subject to the payment due dates. Most taxes are due at the end of the year, but some homeowners association fees are assessed at a different point in the year.