Shedding Emotional Attachments When Selling Your Home
Imagine living in a home for twenty years, the place you’ve raised a family and built countless memories. Now, with kids grown and gone, you’ve decided to downsize and put your home on the market. It’s an emotional moment and it’s easy to get swept up in what the house means to you, the things you’ve done to it that increase the value in your mind, and the feelings you have about the person who buys your home. You don’t want to sell it to someone who plans to change it or worse, tear it down. You want to make sure they appreciate it as is and have the same aspirations for building their life in the home. Stop. When selling a home, it’s important to take your emotions out of the negotiation and sale process if you hope to have a successful outcome. Think about why you are selling the home and what your practical expectations are. You likely have a price you would like to get for your house and you should talk to your real estate professional about whether that price is realistic based on comparable listings in your neighborhood. Once you have agreed on what is the right sale price, you can more easily take emotions about other aspects of selling your home out of the picture. By focusing on your desired outcome, negotiations and weighing offers becomes much easier. Still lingering on your attachments to the home, which could cloud your judgment in the transaction process? Consider these rationales: • Did you make changes to the house when you bought it to make it more your own and fit your lifestyle? You have to expect that your buyer will want to do the same thing with your house. • You’re ending a chapter with this property and beginning another one in a new property. What happens to it after you move out isn’t what you should be concerned about. • Who buys your house is not something you can dictate. Fair housing laws are in place to prevent discrimination about who is able to purchase or rent a property, so this is a conversation you should not even be having with your agent or broker. Again, when it comes to selling your home it’s important to be forward-looking and focus on the reasons you are selling your home, what you hope to make financially in the sale, and what type of home you envision for your future. A good real estate professional can help you manage your emotions and help you make the right decisions to achieve your desired goal.