If I hired professionals to handle all of those services, I’d be making a huge investment into unnecessary upgrades for a house I had no intention of living in
The Jacksonville, Florida, real estate market is thriving. Houses are selling very quickly and for above asking price. It seemed to me that this was an ideal time to sell my house and downsize. As I’ve recently retired, I would prefer to have less homeowner responsibilities. I am looking forward to enjoying my various hobbies, visiting my kids and traveling to places that I’ve always wanted to go. I contacted a real estate agent and began the whole time-consuming and rather frustrating process of listing. Pictures needed to be taken, and I was continually forced to vacate the premises for showings. It took much longer than expected to find an interested buyer. They then began haggling on price. They insisted on a home inspection which revealed that my roof is over ten years old, some of the plumbing pipes are copper and the electrical panel is nearing maximum capacity. My heat pump is around twelve years old. I didn’t see the problem with any of these findings. My roof is in excellent condition and has never leaked. My water pressure and drainage is excellent, and the water heater is nearly brand new. The electrical panel is sufficient to handle all of the appliances. I have the heat pump professionally serviced every year and have never had a single concern with it. The local HVAC contractor has assured me that the system has quite a few years of reliability left. However, the potential buyers insisted that I replace all of these items. The huge investment would have left me at a much lower profit on the home. If I hired professionals to handle all of those services, I’d be making a huge investment into unnecessary upgrades for a house I had no intention of living in. I turned them down and decided to keep my house.
Potential buyers have big demands