21 Ultimate Reasons Why Homeowners Want to Sell A House Fast
If you want to know the ultimate reasons why most homeowners want to sell a house fast, then you’ll love this (updated) guide.
We’ve gathered responses from 100 homesellers and evaluated the factors affecting their decisions to sell their homes fast.
Check it out.
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Homesellers want to get a fast cash offer
In an overheated market like the one we have currently, sellers want to cash in before the correction arrives. Waiting too long could force sellers to miss out on a once-in-a-decade peak. The majority of homeowners think about selling their home quickly in order to receive quick cash for some pressing needs.
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Poor condition of the house
Additionally, if the house is old and contains expensive internal issues, sellers may want to get rid of it as fast as possible before too many additional inspections can take place. If an owner is looking to sell fast, it’s likely because of the health of the market and the condition of the house.
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Financial Reasons
Life takes a lot of turns and a homeowner may find themselves with financial difficulties. A quick sale of their home may be needed to prevent them from acquiring legal violations or possibly utilize the equity to pay off other debts and expenses like utilities, mortgages and health care.
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Homeowner wants to sell an inherited house
They want it gone. Let’s say, they live out of state. They have no desire to own a home outside of the area. Any potential buyer is doing these folks a favor by taking a property off their hands. It’s truly a win-win solution.
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Receiving a good job offer in another city
It is quite natural that such a homeowner would like to move there as quickly as possible. This is the reason for his selling the house fast. It would be more convenient for the owner to move to another house near his workplace.
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Remain in a contingent sale contract for a property they are purchasing
If they do not sell within a specified timeframe, the seller would potentially lose the purchase contract that was written contingent upon the sale of their home.
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Facing Divorce
Another factor where they would need to sell fast would be in a divorce situation where the spouses want to split assets quickly. In the case of divorce, homes are often the largest joint assets within a marriage and when a marriage dissolves, those couples opt to break up with their homes, too.
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Foreclosures and Late Payments
When facing a financial crisis and falling far behind on bills or taxes, it’s common for homeowners to want to sell their home quickly. Most significantly, the bank will file a foreclosure and may schedule an auction to sell the property to recover their payments if a mortgage or loan payment is not made on time. Selling the home as quickly as possible and using the proceeds to cover the mortgage and all other debts is one option for homeowners who find themselves in such a scenario. They could gain some money through this method.
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Death
Upon death, typically the estate needs to sell off assets quickly to help pay off debts or if it is in the best interest of surviving spouses and children.
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Upsizing
In most cases, I’ve had clients who wanted to sell their house as fast as they were upsizing. 7% of my clients revealed they wanted to sell fast because they desired more space. One homeowner was so keen to sell so that they could buy a bigger property in New Jersey, where their budget would stretch even further.
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Downsizing
Downsizing to prevent mortgage arrears or to do away with the upkeep of a large house is a common motivation for homeowners wanting to sell fast. Homeowners opt to sell their properties fast to move into a smaller place. The most recent ones say it is because inflation makes it difficult to keep up with the costly mortgages with stagnant salaries. But for some, the reason is more personal, like parents whose children have all moved out of the house.
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Relocation
Oftentimes, the biggest reason for selling your house quickly is because you have to relocate urgently, usually due to a dream job offer, a dream city where there’s a lower crime rate or far from wars. This means people have to relocate to be closer to work or to have a safer place to live.
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Owner differences
This factor applies if the property is owned by two individuals, who have different ideas and expectations of the property. These differences may have led to a dispute between the owners and selling the property quickly may have been the best option so they could go their separate ways as soon as possible.
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The 1031 exchange
Homeowners want to sell a house fast if they are doing a 1031 exchange and have already found their next investment property. With a 1031 exchange, you can avoid taxes on an investment property by selling it and buying another one in under 90 days. Investors that already found the investment they want to purchase will rush to sell quickly.
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Personal Motives
There are numerous changes in life that are unrelated to wealth or the size of one’s family. When a homeowner’s main connection to a neighborhood is their house, it might be time to think about serving those ties.
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See Family Less/More
People regularly relocate to be close to family, particularly as they get older. On the other hand, some homeowners relocate in order to isolate themselves from their family.
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They are trying to scale back
This is particularly true for empty-nesters or people who struggle to maintain a large home with insufficient occupants. In these situations, they need to sell the house quickly because it is becoming too expensive for them to maintain it.
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Homeowners might want to quickly sell their house due to difficulty with code violations
It’s not uncommon for multiple property owners to have trouble managing the ever-changing nature of city and district codes, especially as they can vary widely between locations. In a case where a particular property racks up too many code violations to be dealt with easily by a busy investor, they may simply choose to make a quick sale and move on.
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Time
Time is a major factor in determining the value of a home while selling it. The more the waiting holds on to sell a home, the “lesser its value” would be. People won’t necessarily be interested in buying a home that was laid uninhabited for a longer period. Another reason is that, as time passes, many of the appliances at home will get damaged, leading to a big amount of loss for future investors or buyers.
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Homeowners want to avoid hassle
They had a bad experience with an agent and they don’t feel paying a high commission is fair or worth the work the agent does. Also, they don’t want strangers walking through their house peeking in their closets.
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Homeowners want to get a better offer with a flexible closing date
Once we do the breakdown of how much it would cost a homeowner to sell with an agent versus a cash-for-your-home buyer, a seller can see the price difference and see if that difference is worth selling the home and having the cash in as little as 7 days. Cash home buyers will oftentimes work with the sellers and let them pick their closing date, let them rent back if needed, and most of the time, they take what they want and leave the rest.
Did we miss anything? Let us know your thoughts.
If you have another reason why homeowners sell their homes fast, just leave a comment below.