“Why?” Answers Honolulu Home Sellers Should Avoid Giving

When selling your Honolulu house, home sellers need to be ready to answer the question: “Why are you selling your Honolulu house.” Believe it or not, even an innocent answer can land Honolulu home sellers in a tough spot.

On the surface “Why are you selling?” seems like a simple and innocent question. But sellers who answer incorrectly can actually weaken their negotiating position, or even worse, scare away potential buyers altogether.

For this reason, Honolulu home sellers will want to be sure they have answers for this question already in mind. And you will also want to be sure that you avoid answering this “why” question with any of the following answers:

“We need to upgrade…”

While needing a bigger home is a completely understandable reason for a growing family to want to sell, your potential buyers might hear this message in an unintended tone. By sharing that you need more space, potential buyers could get the impression that this current Honolulu home is too small for them. 

By accidentally planting the question of size into the buyers’ heads, Honolulu sellers could make them think that the home will not be big enough to accommodate the buyers’ own needs. This is a surefire way to get the buyer to move on to the next house on their list.

“We’ve already moved into our new home…”

There are situations where the timing does not always work out seamlessly, meaning that Honolulu home sellers have already closed on their new home. When this happens, it can also mean that there are two mortgages due every month.

To buyers, this can mean that there is an opportunity to offer a low-ball home offer. From their vantage point, you as the Honolulu home sellers are in a hurry to get the house sold. Because this is an expensive time, the thinking is that sellers will be more likely to accept any offer. 

So even if you have already bought and moved into your new house, Honolulu home sellers will be better served keeping this information to themselves. 

“We are downsizing…”

Sharing financial motivations with potential buyers can hurt Honolulu home sellers in multiple ways. First of all, telling potential buyers that you are looking for something smaller can be interpreted as your current house is too expensive. And if it is too expensive, then it is also most likely overpriced. Buyers are not looking to jump into an overpriced home. 

At the same time, and similar to the above answer about already being moved into a new home, buyers could see this as a sign of desperation. This again welcomes low-ball offers, hurting Honolulu home sellers’ chances of closing at price near the asking price. 

As we said at the onset, in most situations it is best for Honolulu home sellers to let their listing agent lead the way with communications. Doing so can help home sellers mitigate potential pitfalls that in turn result in receiving low ball home offers – or no home offers at all. But in the situation where you do interact with potential buyers, make sure to take the time to come up with answers to questions you know will be asked.