After our buyer backed out at the last minute, we reframed our house-selling strategy in 4 ways

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• My husband and I were ready to sell our home — then our buyer backed out due to an interest rate hike.
• We had to become flexible. We got a new Realtor, considered new loans, and worked with a buyer.
• We learned that selling a home is possible at any time, but it might require new strategies.

In May 2022, my husband and I decided to list our house for sale. We were feeling optimistic after several similar houses received multiple offers and closed quickly.

We accepted an offer and were set to close in June. Right around this time, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates. This led to our buyer backing out the same week of closing. They said they could no longer afford the mortgage.

The market began to shift rapidly from a seller’s to a buyer’s market in our area. While this was a major blow, my husband and I had to reframe our strategy, and we were thankful to finally sell our home in December — nearly six months after originally listing it.

I learned that selling a house at any time is possible, but you need to be flexible and change your strategy to adapt to what’s going on in your community. Here are four strategies that helped us sell during a rocky time.

1. We strategically switched Realtors

I can’t stress enough how important choosing the right Realtor for the job is. When buying and selling our first home, my husband and I were a little lax when it came to selecting a real-estate agent and didn’t really ask the right questions.

We made the tough but necessary decision to start fresh with a new Realtor. I specifically chose someone who had several excellent references, was working in our area, and was closing many deals on the buyer side.

I wanted someone who worked with many buyers to get a better insight into what buyers were looking for now. I figured this Realtor could show our home to some of her clients to speed up the showing process.

This strategy paid off. Our Realtor suggested repairs and upgrades to make the house more move-in-ready and appealing to buyers. These were things I probably wouldn’t have thought of on my own.

Additionally, our Realtor had connections with affordable contractors, landscapers, cleaners, and more to help streamline the process of getting the work done.

2. We figured out the right price

Our Realtor was very realistic about what buyers expect and compared the features of our homes to those of others that were being sold.

Just a year prior, homes in our area had been sold at crazy high prices and receiving bids well over asking. We paid attention to feedback from showings as well as what was going on in the community to come up with a competitive and realistic price.

After the listing went up and we didn’t receive any offers, we adjusted the price once and received an offer shortly after.

3. We considered different loan types

At first, I was afraid to accept offers from FHA loan buyers. Our home was older, and I had heard that FHA had stricter requirements. I didn’t know if our home was truly up to FHA standards since we bought it with a conventional loan.

However, we were missing out on many quality buyers. I realized a lot of people were choosing FHA since the mortgage rates were slightly better at the time.

We ended up selling the home to a borrower with FHA funding, and the process was not that bad at all. We made some minor repairs and fixes, but I’m glad we opened ourselves up to accept several different types of loans.

4. We were open to negotiation

Another thing I feel that helped us sell our home in a changing market was our willingness to negotiate and decide in advance what we’d be willing to offer. The buyers wanted a credit for $2,500, and while I didn’t agree with it, we decided to honor their request to keep the deal going.

At that time, we were paying the mortgage for our empty home as well as rent at our new home. We were also responsible for keeping the utilities on at our empty home and paying for landscaping.

So offering this credit to seal the deal made sense financially to relieve us of those extra payments. We also agreed to include a home warranty for the buyers for $900. This was a drop in the bucket compared to what we’d be paying if the deal fell through and the house remained on the market.

This article was originally published in August 2023.