Real estate agents are trained to deal with the traditional home sale process. They know how to advise sellers on pricing, marketing, negotiating, closing deals, and the like. Real estate agents shine when working with motivated sellers willing to do their agent’s suggestions for a showing-ready home, provide clear title, are on a flexible time frame, and are ready to sell. Occasionally, life places homeowners in situations that fall outside of the limitations of traditional real estate, which places strain on even the best agents to find a solution that may not exist in the traditional real estate agent tool belt.

Challenging issues often catch homeowners and their agents unaware. What begins as a simple listing ends up being a complicated mess of legal issues, property issues, or timelines that change a trivial transaction into something that may take a completely different approach.

The range of what traditional real estate services may handle and what some homeowners actually need creates a sense of helplessness for all parties. By knowing the limitations of traditional real estate, homeowners can understand how to evaluate alternative solutions instead of pursuing traditional real estate methods that are not designed for their situation.

When the House is in Such a Condition, Traditional Agents Cannot Sell

Some houses are in such disrepair of condition that they have to be removed to pursue the traditional sale transaction. As this condition drastically limits sale opportunities, there is no way to transaction.

Houses with extensive foundation damage, excessive fire or water damage, or houses left unattended after significant neglect, would not receive a traditional sale transaction even with a terrific agent. The consumer can only put up with so much work put into a property and financing occurs thereafter when there is a willingness of the lender to underwrite the mortgage knowing that the condition is poor.

These properties often put agents in a difficult spot. The agents are trying to help the sellers with their problems. They also have some knowledge that listing a house needing $50,000 in repairs at market price would be very hard to sell to a new buyer.

If they are even close to that price and flavor of properties aren’t hitting their buyers list, the handful of few real investor types want to negotiate a price so low that the seller feels insulted. Sometimes they have unreal expectations of what these “problem” home properties are worth.

Hoarded homes often create another challenge that agents don’t have enough education or training to deal with. Homes stuffed with possessions from decades past aren’t able to be shown to potential buyers – but for sellers to clean out all of the stuff requires professional services and significant money upfront to get started.

Environmental properties with mold, asbestos, or lead paint issues tend to create some legal concerns that most agents don’t want to deal with. Those properties require disclosure to potential buyers, professional remediation, and usually repel anyone non-investor aside from environmental properties.

Legal and Title Complications That Are a Hard Stop to Selling

Title issues may close the transaction quicker than any property condition issue. Title issues that have liens, ownership disputes, or missing documentation can make traditional sales as close to impossible as it gets until resolved. Unfortunately, title issues take months, sometimes years to resolve and can cost many thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Inheritance issues create complicated title issues specifically when family doesn’t agree on what should happen to its property and when estate planning wasn’t done when someone died. When there are several heirs who have different financial circumstances and emotional attachments to properties, it can create deadlock situations in which everyone is at a standstill and cannot agree to move forward with the sale.

Divorce-related properties are often headed to court practice and cannot be sold the traditional way due to a court stay or spouses disagreements on listing price, repairs needed, and splitting sale proceeds. Additionally, other situations may arise that lead to the need for selling your Houston house quickly to avoid action from the courts based on timelines or financial circumstances.

Tax liens or other government liens against properties are often another barrier that most experienced agents cannot properly engage with. There are various legal tenants of tax law, and liability processes against the government are processes that are not covered in typical real estate education.

Timing Issues That Prevent Traditional Marketing

Traditional residential sales take weeks on average for the vom listing to closing, even in an ideal market it could be 30-45 days on average and possibly longer depending on repairs needed or financing falling through as a result of financial problems. Homeowners under duress in a time specific situation do not have time to wait.

A job move with short timelines can leave people homeless due to closing on two mortgages or losing a job opportunity. Companies giving relocation benefits have essentially eliminated the relocation benefits they used to try to keep employees happy hoping to sell their home on their own timeline.

Financial problems such as job losses, medical bills, or business failures become situations homeowners need to sell their home immediately or incur foreclosure of homeless. Traditional marketing timeframes do not fit the timing of these critical financial needs, which limits options for families within the traditional real estate process.

Elderly homeowners needing to move into assisted living facilities may only have timing issues that traditional sales cannot accommodate. Health emergencies don’t allow for preparation for the best markets, and families learn that an immediate solution is needed rather than the long lead-times of traditional sales.

Market Conditions that Hinder Conventional Sales

Some market conditions can adversely affect traditional real estate sales, even when experienced agents are involved. In markets that are on the decline, homes can stay on the market for long periods of time without a serious buyer emerging. They also need to be priced competitively with other homes nearby that are in newer or better condition.

“Silly” market listings can cause issues in transitional neighborhoods, because it creates confusion on pricing structure that traditional comparative market analysis cannot capture in a new market condition. They are either coming up or going down in value, and cannot definitively determine correct listing prices through the active selling in the market.

Unusual properties typically are unable to be sold in traditional markets. Non-standard layouts of properties, converted commercial space, and homes on large lots embedded in residential areas cannot generate much buyer interest. Conventional marketing methods do not work as well in markets flooding with curiosity seekers.

Market dynamics vary during specific times of the year, affecting the ability to sell even in desirable areas. If your home has a pool, large outdoor space, or is in an area with challenging winter weather patterns, the sale may also need to occur during an off-peak season when fewer buyers are looking.

The best traditional sale is when the seller can afford to wait… manage the property, repair it, and wait until the right buyer comes along.

Financial hardship changes this equation

Homeowners facing foreclosure need solutions that traditional sale timelines simply can’t provide. Even if an agent can quickly find a buyer, foreclosure legal timelines typically don’t permit enough time for “normal” sales to close.

In bankruptcy court, the process is regulated by the court regarding how and when it can sell it and to whom. Traditional selling of real estate does not account for bankruptcy court regulated timelines and court approval, etc.

Sellers who do not have the resources to properly repair, clean, or stage the home often find that their properties don’t sell in the traditional market because, at least in their mind, their property is not in a state whereby a buyer will take the property “as is.” Within the traditional sale context, you are often needing to pay costs upfront (repairs, cleaning, staging) prior to listing the home—costs burdensome and prohibitive for most sellers, some of whom are in tight financial positions.

When you can’t use traditional tools to solve a property problem

When traditional real estate solutions don’t work to address your property problem, it may be time to pivot the risk by considering non-traditional selling methods to address your situation. These alternative approaches often come with tradeoffs of both price and convenience but can solve your problem when traditional solutions can’t.

Understanding these traditional limits is helpful for homeowners as they move forward to decision making regarding their choices, rather than spending their financial and emotional energy only to find out they don’t translate into appropriate solutions. Ultimately, there is nothing worse than finding the best solution maximizes sale price only to have realize it cannot work by operation of a traditional timeline (months) or money (cost barring repairs as part of the selling price multiplier formula).

The answer is knowing and recognizing early when traditional techniques will not work and considering alternatives before the situation gets worse. Homeowners who are aware of these obstacles often eventually work out their own strategy which helps resolve their needed outcomes, whether those solutions match a traditional real estate playbook.