Selling your house can be a large feat.
When hiring an agent, the process will likely take much longer than a direct sale, and can also end up costing you more in the long run!
Keep reading to see how the time it takes to sell will affect you financially.
While there is no way to determine how long selling your house will actually take when listing your house with an Atlanta agent, you can plan ahead if you choose to sell directly.
In our latest post, we will look at how long selling your house will take and the common things that can cause delays.
Check it out.
How Long Selling Your House Will Take In Atlanta With An Agent
Selling your house is a multi-step process that can take weeks, if not months, from the prepping and staging to showings and all that closing paperwork.
Beware of closing delays, but be prepared for them.
They happen in nearly every transaction.
Getting It Ready For The Market
If you decide to list your Atlanta house, you will likely need some time to get it ready for the market.
You’ll want to clean up, remove personal belongings, make repairs and possibly stage the house for showings.
It’s a good idea to go ahead and pack and move all of your extra belongings into storage.
After your house is mostly packed up, hire out a cleaning company to come in and perform a deep clean on the property.
Then, if you want your house to stand out, bring in a company to stage the property.
Coordinating all of this can take 4-6 weeks, depending on how busy your life is and how great you are at coordinating several projects.
Finding The Right Agent
Choosing an agent can take some time as well. You aren’t going to want to work with the first agent you meet.
Instead, you will likely do some research, talk to friends and family who have recently sold, and speak with a few agents before deciding who to hire.
Head over to Google and search for agents.
Regardless of the site that you land on, make sure that you are reading the reviews that real people have left for those agents.
Also, watch out for the Google Ads.
Organic rankings are Realtors who have built trust in the community and in Google’s eyes.
If you happened to hire a bad real estate agent, you may waste months listing with them, just to have to hire another one and start the whole process over again with a second agent.
Waiting For A Buyer
Finding a buyer is one of those things that really fluctuate how long selling your house will take.
Once the house is listed, you are at the mercy of the market.
There is no guarantee you will find a buyer right away or that you will get the price you are asking for.
Your property could sit on the MLS for months, only to receive offers lower than you had expected.
You never know how long this part of the process will take, which makes planning ahead difficult.
The Inspection & Appraisal Process
Once an offer has been made, your buyer’s lender will require an inspection and appraisal.
If the property appraises for the value that you are trying to sell it for, then the bank will be ready to provide a loan for that amount.
On the flip side, If it doesn’t appraise for what they are lending, the loan won’t be funded, and you may have some extra work to do.
For Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, your options are limited.
Whatever value came back with the appraisal sits with the house for the next 120 days.
Meaning, if you’re asking $350,000 for the home and the appraisal comes back at $335,000, the bank won’t loan money for the house even if the buyer is willing to pay that amount for it.
If there are problems with the property found by the inspection, you will need to either make additional repairs or negotiate the price with your buyers.
Sometimes you will have to spend time getting contractors to quote the work and hire them to do it.
This could take 2-4 weeks depending on how busy contractors are at the time.
The fast way to get past the repairs needed to be done is to have them quoted and discount the purchase price by that amount for the buyer.
When pricing your home, be sure to prepare for this step.
The value of your home can change greatly once it has been inspected.
Some sellers even opt to pay for an inspection themselves before putting it in the market.
This will ensure that there aren’t any surprises after an offer has been made.
Escrow
There are three other things that determine how quickly escrow closes, and these are on the buyer’s side.
The loan contingency automatically makes the contract default to 17 days for the loan to go through underwriting and approval.
The second factor is the appraisal contingency, which is when a bank orders an appraisal of the property.
If there is a difference between the appraisal amount and the purchase price, the buyer is required to pay the difference in cash.
Finally, there is the physical contingency, which the buyer can make any amount of time they choose, but again defaults to 17 days.
Often reports have been done on the property in advance.
If not, buyers may need time extensions to complete, review and sign off on any inspection findings.
Agents will file time extensions, which can extend the escrow period so the buyer can learn what they need to know about the property.
At that point, the buyer can sign off on this contingency, ask for a price reduction or request repairs.
So, while a “typical” escrow is 30 days, they can go from one week to many weeks.
Closing on Your House
Once the escrow process is complete, the buyer and seller will need to arrange a mutually agreed upon date to sign the paperwork.
You will meet at the title company, review all paperwork and finally… sign on the dotted line.
This will need to be coordinated between the attorney, the buyer, and the seller for them all to be in the office at the same time.
This means taking off work.
Whenever scheduling closing, the real estate attorneys typically set the appointment for the Friday of the following week.
This generally sets your closing date 1.5 weeks out.
How Long Selling Your House Will Take In Atlanta With An Investor
If you’re in a tight spot and you’re worried about how long selling your house will take in Atlanta, selling fast an investor may be the route for you.
Get An Offer
When you sell directly to Breyer Home Buyers, you will get an offer right away.
It is then up to you to decide if it is the right choice for you.
We understand you might need some time to think or run the numbers.
We will never pressure you into a sale.
Consider It Sold
If you choose to accept our offer, the closing can take place in a matter of days.
With a direct sale to Breyer Home Buyers, you will avoid all costs of listing (repairs, commissions, closing costs, etc.) and be able to plan ahead by knowing exactly when the house will close.
For many properties in Atlanta, a direct sale is a faster and more cost-effective solution.
You will not need to make repairs or hire an agent in order to sell.
Before you decide to list, find out if a direct sale is right for you!
There is never any commitment!