September 24, 2018
There aren’t many Honolulu home sellers on the market that want to see their house sit without an offer for month after month. Instead, Honolulu sellers want to sell fast, getting the process done as quickly as possible. They’re ready to move on to whatever is coming next.
Many Honolulu sellers think that the hardest part to sell fast is finding a buyer, but it’s actually everything that happens after they accept an offer.
There is a lot of due diligence that takes place during the sale of a home. If you want your process to be as smooth as possible you need to make sure that you have these four things taken care of.
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Last minute damage or maintenance
Right up until the moment when you sign all the closing documents and hand over the key, the Honolulu house is still yours. This means you are responsible for whatever happens to it.
Most Honolulu buyers are going to want to do a final walk-through before closing on the house. If they find that there are any major issues with the maintenance or condition of the house that wasn’t there when they made their offer, you are going to be held responsible for it. Something like this can actually cancel a deal altogether.
If you are not living in the Honolulu house that you are selling it’s important that you make sure the maintenance is being kept up and that there are no surprise issues with damage that will be found.
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Liens on the property
If the Honolulu property has a lien on it during the closing process it can slow the process down. A lien is placed on a property when the homeowner has unpaid debt. The money could be owed to a contractor, for unpaid taxes, or even child support.
If you buy the Honolulu house with a lien on it the lien becomes your responsibility. That’s why title checks are done during the closing process to save the buyer from ending up in a bad situation.
If you are selling a Honolulu house and there is a lien you need to make sure to get it removed prior to going on the market.
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Issues with the survey
The last thing a buyer wants is to walk into a fight between neighbors. This is more common than you think.
When a survey is completed because the house is being sold the homeowner might find out that they own a little more or a little less of the property than they thought. If you have good neighbors then that probably isn’t going to be a huge deal. In most cases, if you have fences in the right place then it’s usually fine.
However, there are always those stories where it turns into a nightmare. Before you put your house on the Honolulu market consider having a survey done if you don’t know where the actual property lines are.
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Water bills that you haven’t paid
This sounds like a silly thing to stop the sale of a Honolulu house, but it does happen. In a number of areas, water bills are not paid monthly, but could be quarterly or bi-monthly. It may not seem like a huge deal if you missed a payment here or there because it was overlooked, but this can result in you not having a clean title for your house.
Make sure you keep on top of your bills even when your house is on the market, and even if you aren’t living in it.
When you are getting ready to sell your Honolulu house the last thing you want to do is have some things stand in the way of the process closing quickly and smoothly. To create a scenario for a fast sale, make sure you have crossed all of your “t’s” and dotted all your “i’s.”