Proving that you can’t please all the people all of the time, a survey by Clever Real Estate found that 80% of people who sold their homes for top-dollar prices through the pandemic have regrets about the deal the struck.
Clever polled 1,000 Americans who sold a home in 2021 or 2022 and found that the No. 1 regret among sellers was wishing they made more repairs prior to listing their home (25%). Other common regrets included selling too quickly (22%), not waiting longer to list their home (24%), waiting too long to list their home (20%), not using an agent (21%), and not selling for enough money (20%). Meanwhile, 25% say they simply miss their previous home.
Still, the sellers know a good thing when they see it. As interest rates rise and the market goes cold, 78% of recent sellers say they are happy with the timing of their sale. About 65% of sellers believe the market is worse now than when they sold, and 31% believe now would be a bad time to sell.
From the survey:
“Recent sellers were forced to make hasty decisions — 94% received more than one offer, and more than half of those (56%) received five or more offers. More than half (54%) sold their home within a month, 19% sold in less than a week, and 8% in less than a day.
The No. 1 reason Americans cited for selling their homes was simply because it was a good time to sell (30%). The data confirms, however, that 2021 was more seller-friendly than 2022.
In fact, 2021 sellers were 2.5 times more likely than 2022 sellers to say they didn’t make any compromises and 26% more likely to be satisfied with the profits they made on the sale. In addition, 2022 sellers were 41% more likely to experience a longer home sale and 25% more likely to make repairs.
As home prices start to fall, 1 in 3 sellers (35%) still received more than the asking price, with 70% of those receiving more than 10% above asking price.”