Sell Your House Fast In Long Island

Do You Want The Slowest Way To Sell Your Home?

Selling through a real estate agent is slow – it can take 2 – 4 months, sometimes longer for the agent just to find a buyer. Longer for houses in poor condition. Selling through an agent will mean dozens of people are trudging through your house, judging you, telling you to fix this or that… or maybe having several annoying open houses where neighbors, “tire kickers” and strangers walk through and touch all your stuff… some might show interest but many offers fall through because the buyer can’t get financing (so you go through the whole process again). Once they find a buyer it can take an additional 3 – 4 month for the sales contract to be signed and the mortgage to be approved.

Here is why this stage takes so long and some of the many pitfalls that exist when using a realtor and selling to a buyer who needs to get a mortgage loan:

Home Inspectors – Sellers almost always want to have a certified home inspector inspect the house. The buyer will have to locate an inspector and schedule him/her to come to look at the house. Inspections typically take 2-3 hours. This is not a quick appraisal, this is a deep dive into every system and aspect of your home. Everyone involved will then have to wait for the home inspector to prepare his report and send it to the buyer and his attorney. This usually eats up no less than a week of time and in our experience, this always results in a repair list of items that need to be fixed for the sale to go through. I’m not knocking home inspectors here as its there job to find problems, but unfortunately in their zeal to do a good job they can sometimes make a perfectly good house sound likes its junk. For those buyers who don’t know much about houses or first time home buyers that can get nervous and this can kill a deal. If it doesn’t kill the deal, the buyers and their attorney will NO DOUBT use the home inspectors report to either get the sellers to fix the issues with the house before closing or give them a cash credit to do the repairs themselves or renegotiate the sale price of the home. If the buyer wants items repaired, this will typically be negotiated back and forth through the buyers and sellers attorneys to determine what items the buyer may agree to fix and what they will refuse to fix. Here in Long Island this will end up on a legal form that gets attached with the sales contract, called a Repair Rider.

Contract Negotiation and Signing –  Contracts have to go back and forth between the buyer and seller attorneys to agree on language and terms and the repair rider. In Long Island, this generally takes no less than two weeks, if all goes well. Its all done very “old school” with attorneys make handwritten changes and scanning and sending documents and email back and forth till they agree on the contract. Keep in mind, that attorneys have many clients like everybody else they get sick, take days off and vacations, etc, etc and this can delay contract signing. Once the contract terms are agreed upon the buyers have to sign the documents and submit a check for the down payment. Then the contract has to be mailed to the seller’s attorney to be signed by the seller. Once signed, the contract is “fully executed” and the process can continue.

Title Search – The buyer’s attorney will request a title company to conduct a title search to ensure that there is a clear and marketable title that will allow for the house to be sold with a title that is insurable and cannot be contested. It will also ensure there are no liens on the property that will have to be cleared before the house can be transferred between owners. Title searches in Long Island generally take no less than 2-3 weeks to complete. The buyer’s attorney will generally not order a property survey until the title comes back clean, so as not to waste a buyer’s money on paying for a property survey on a deal that might die with a title issue.

Property Survey – Here is another big timeline killer. Most appraisers in long island are busy and it usually takes a least 2-3 weeks for them to get out to the property to conduct a survey. In long island, unless its a full cash deal, the mortgage company or bank that the buyers is trying to get a loan from will always require a property survey. Most surveyors take another 3-5 business days to get the report out to the buyer’s attorney after visiting the property. Once the buyer’s attorney has had a chance to review the survey additional issues with the property can surface. These can include decks, extensions, pools, and sheds that exist on the property that may or may have not been permitted and may or may not have a certificate of occupancy or compliance. In the past history of long island, this was usually something that was overlooked and didn’t kill deals. But now most buyers attorney’s will require these types of issues be resolved. Many mortgage companies and banks will also scrutinize the survey as well to ensure there are no issues. If issues exist and are not corrected, they will often disapprove the mortgage.

Mortgage Approval Process – So this part of the process takes the most time. The lender, usually a bank or mortgage company will get all the financial information from the Buyer along with information about the property and the terms of the sale. Once they collect all the paperwork and evaluate it, they will send the file to underwriting department to determine if it meets their qualifications and standards to make the loan. If everything looks good, they will order an appraisal for the property. Sometimes you can wait 45-60 days after signing a contract with a buyer, only to find out that their mortgage application did not get approved and you will have to start all over again and put the house back on the market.

Appraisal – The lender will order an appraisal that is paid for by the buyer. This process can typically take another week or two as the appraisal will have to be scheduled, conducted an appraisal report prepared and sent back to the bank and the buyer’s attorney. If the appraisal comes in high enough to justify the sale price then the mortgage process can proceed and the file will go to final underwriting and await a clear to close determination by the bank. When a clear to close is granted, the two attorneys and the buyer and seller will then have to determine a date that works for all parties, including the title company, to set as the closing date. If the appraisal does not come in high enough, then the shortage between what was expected and the appraised value will have to be made up by someone (usually the seller has to agree to eat the difference) for the deal to go through.

The other option is for the buyer to bring more cash to make up the difference. This usually does not happen, unless the buyer has extra cash to do that (generally not) or will figure something out because they are getting the house at a discount and doesn’t want the deal to fall through. Some first-time homeowners will want to purchase the house using a government-sponsored loan program called an FHA Loan. Many deals fall through after an FHA Loan house appraisal, as the appraiser will also be conducting a separate inspection of the home. This appraisal often triggers a repair list that must be completed by the seller to ensure compliance with FHA mortgage rules and needs to be completed at the sellers cost for the mortgage to be approved!

Whew! Do you really want to go through all of the above? I got tired just writing all of it!

Listing Takes Away Your Control And Slows Down The Selling Process

Don’t forget that you have NO CONTROL over when the house sells if you list your house with a real estate agent. So even if you want to sell the house fast, you’re stuck waiting for a buyer to come along and typically get approved for a mortgage. Many sellers quickly realize that the higher price they were hoping to get on the market is not worth it with all the up-front costs, investment of time and hassle it takes to sell.

So when you add up the time you could save by working with Comax Properties, the no-hassle experience, and the money you’ll save on commissions, fees, and holding costs while you wait to sell the traditional route… for many area homeowners selling to a professional house buyer is the best viable option. Most importantly, our process gives you back your free time, so that you can get back to enjoying your life and stop worrying about what to do with that unwanted house!

See for yourself and get a fair all-cash offer on your house today.

Just fill out the short form below or give us a call at (516) 704-7025 and let’s chat! Our process is simple and you can close on the date of your choice. You have nothing to lose by getting an offer (no obligations – no pressure). But you could potentially lose thousands of dollars or months of your time by not testing us out and requesting your FREE house offer below.