When calculating the costs of maintaining a house for sale in Colorado Springs, don’t forget about the less obvious costs. These will be subtracted from your final profit after the house sells.
It’s a common misconception that selling a Colorado Springs house cost almost nothing unless it sells, and then there’s commission to be paid, fees for the closing, and that’s about it. This couldn’t be further from the reality of a home sale. Some of the biggest costs are not so obvious and are therefore overlooked by sellers hoping to make a profit from their sale.
- The mortgage doesn’t stop when the house is put up for sale. As long as you still own it, right up through the closing date, you’ll be responsible to keep up the payments.
- The same goes for the taxes on the property, the homeowner’s insurance payments, PMI if it’s applicable, and the cost of upkeep. You certainly don’t want buyers to come and view a house that has an overgrown lawn and frozen water pipes.
You’ll want to present a comfortable look and feel when buyers come to do a walk through the house. For this reason you will need to keep the heat on in the winter and the air conditioning running throughout the summer. Heat and air can be kept on minimally until you are expecting a showing. At that point you can go over and turn the heat or air up to a comfortable level at least through the length of their visit.
Where there is a pool or hot tub the maintenance will need to be kept up. If not, you’ll be showing your buyers an unintended cesspool of algae and mosquito breeding grounds. The idea of cleaning that up may be enough to send buyers out the door and down the street to the next offering. If there is a homeowner’s association you can also receive fines for allowing your property to deteriorate below their written standards.
Buyers want to see a house that they can imagine themselves living in. These expenses aren’t optional if you want to sell your Colorado Springs house. That means you must figure these costs into the sale of your house for each and every month that it stays on the market.
If you live in the house, of course, these are expenses that you have no matter where you live. You can just continue to maintain the house as you did before it was listed on the market. The real problem here occurs for those who no longer live in the house and still must keep appearances up for occasional showings.
Do you own a Colorado Springs house that isn’t selling or you need to sell fast? In most cases, we buy houses in all areas of El Paso County regardless of the condition or situation. Contact us today for a no-obligation offer!
