Emotional Challenges in Selling Property

Selling a house filled with emotions requires professional guidance due to its complexity.

### Handling Emotional and Financial Decisions When Selling a House
* 😢  Houses are emotional assets, often tied to significant life events or memories, which can make **selling them a challenging decision**.
* 💼  A real estate professional who understands the market well can help navigate **emotional biases** and ensure a **successful transaction**.
* 💰  Selling a house that has appreciated significantly can lead to **substantial tax-free gains** if it qualifies for the **primary residence exclusion**.
* 🏠  If you don't want to be a landlord for a property in a different community and have emotional attachments or memories associated with the house, **selling it may be the best option to move forward**.
* 🔍  When choosing a real estate agent, do thorough research and seek recommendations to find a **reliable partner** who can guide you through the process.
* 🏡  Renting out a house in an area where housing prices have not fully recovered or when it's challenging to sell can be a **temporary solution to generate income and maintain the property**.
* 📉  Personal experiences and individual circumstances, such as market conditions and financial considerations, should be taken into account when deciding whether to **sell, rent, or hold onto** a house.

[Music] Another housing question for you. Okay, we have a lot of those today. It says our house in our old town is filled with grief, and we don't like it. We don't want to be landlords and may not move back, but can't buy as cheap now. Obviously, does selling it equal emotions dictating a financial decision? And I wanted to just add how like sometimes we want something or there's emotions involved. So how do you parse through how to still do that the right way? I don't know that I can understand the question you got back. So, they want to sell their house they in a town they moved out of, and it's filled with, she said, they said looks like some grief has happened while they're there. They don't really love it anymore. They want or something. No, it could be, you know, somebody a loved one passed away there or something. You never know. Oh, okay, got it. All right. And so we don't want to be landlords and we're not move back. They

don't want to move into it. They want to sell it. Selling it equals emotion. Yeah, here's the problem, especially with first homes or with homes, and we see this all the time. Homes are emotional assets, whether we mean for them to be or not. They are. They can be emotional in the sense of, Oh, that's where, you know, that's where we got married. That was our first home. That's where we brought our baby home from the hospital. That's where they learned to walk. That was this first and that first. Or it can be, like you said, it can be grief. Oh, that was the house that I had a loved one who's no longer here. And we assign a lot of emotion to it. Or we may just say something, Man, I love this house and it is worth this much in my mind and I would never sell it for less than this much. And that may not be what the market commands. And so, that's why I do think houses can be very, very emotional and very, very difficult.

this is one of the areas where I do think that a real estate professional who actually knows the market and understands it well can be an asset. Cuz what you don't to do is a lot of us say, All right, I'm going to go to this transaction. I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to put the for sale sign out in the yard. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do it. And I'm going to save all the real estate commissions. I'm going to get a better deal, better for the buyer, better for the seller. And while that may be true, the actual cost that might exist is you not recognizing how emotional this decision is. It's difficult to say. And Brian, maybe you have some better insight than I do in this situation of selling the house would be emotional lot because you've said some things that I love. I don't want to be a landlord. We're not going to move back into the house. And housing has gone up. You said it's not as cheap as it

was back then. So those are three things that kind of lend itself to maybe selling this house. Is an emotional decision maybe analytically it's actually the best decision. The most advantageous and that's what I was going to say if you have a house and here's something you ought to know from a tax perspective. Is that if you lived in this house two out of the Last 5 Years. So if you moved away less than you know 3 years ago or four you know if you lived in it two you got the two years and five and maybe you've moved away now for a period of time but it still qualifies for that tax-free gain that's $250,000 tax-free for a single individual. That's $500,000 for a married couple of tax-free gain and post this inflation run we've had a lot of houses have really appreciated a lot. So if you have a house that is out of community cuz you know what's hard about being landlord when you don't live in the same area it's.

hard to keep up what theant ising the place so I get it if you don't want to be a landlord. And if this thing has some emotional baggage or some memories that you're just having trouble processing. And you know you also don't want to keep up with it, yes let's let's figure out how we get out of this so that you can move on with your life. And I do like what something Bo said if you don't cuz I don't want you to make an emotional decision and make mistakes. Maybe you're underprice it or maybe you um you just make a misstep because you know that you have some emotional baggage with this house. Then why not get a professional to kind of help you and find somebody really get Word of Mouth talk to people in the community because um not all real estate agents are created equal. I I just did a transaction down in Florida and had an outstanding real estate agent um but I've had real estate agents in the past where I felt like I was doing the work.

more so than they were um so just make sure you do your diligence. Find somebody that can be your partner in this transaction and um protect you from your blind spots but also be your local boots on the ground versus. It sounds like you're living in a different community and you know you have some emotional blind spots on this but also do the measurement on the taxes to see if this is going to be a tax-free gain for you. How about this? Can I can I can I extend this question just just a smidgen uh what about someone who doesn't necessarily want to own the house in the old Community but maybe it makes sense to rent it for for for whatever reason or not maybe housing prices haven't come back or something is there a scenario or do you have an experience share where like okay maybe I rent for a season until I can actually sell the house is that something that what B's hitting on is I fell into this when we moved up to Tennessee my house in Georgia um you couldn't give them

away back then, I mean South Atlanta Housing, um, back pre this inflation run of the pandemic, it was just hard to sell a house and not really recover from the not the great remember. I had shared that I bought my house in 2003, 2004, um, it appreciated before the Great Recession, but then post-Great Recession, it actually, it went down in value by over 50%. I know that sounds crazy to say out loud, but it's true. It went down by over 50%. The bank ripped out my home equity line. It was a pretty rough thing, and it never, it did recover, but it actually, I had a loss. Can you believe I, I, I sold that house at a loss still in 2019? People think that's, that's like, as how can you lose money if I held it for two more years, I would have made back and then even had a profit. But when I couldn't give the house away when I moved to Tennessee because we were had life things going on that required us to move, um, I rented it for, for actually a

year and a half um so I still qualified even though I didn't need the tax-free gain because I had a loss um. I would have qualified with with this answer of living in the house two of the Last 5 Years um but but it is one of those things. I think you you kind of have to look at your scenario mitigate the damage that's going on. What I didn't want to have was have a house just sitting there in a community I no longer lived in. It's better to have a tenant there um that could kind of look after it plus I created some cash flow. Now full disclosure I had a great tenant they really good tenant but even a great tenant ruined my Hardwoods and I had to completely once they moved out. I decided to finally sell it because the market had gotten a little better had to completely redo the hardwoods and um that was kind of frustrating but that's that's what it's like to be a landlord. It's yep it's one of the one of the

How to Avoid Letting Emotions Dictate Selling a Home

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Selling a house filled with emotional memories can be a challenge, especially for first or long-term homes.

Homeowners often have strong emotional attachments to their properties, whether it's from positive memories like marriage and raising children, or from grief and loss.

These emotional connections can make it difficult to objectively evaluate the financial aspects of selling a house.

The Importance of Using a Real Estate Professional

Using a real estate professional can be valuable due to the emotional nature of selling a house.

The decision to sell is influenced by personal factors and financial advantages, such as tax-free gains.

Being a landlord from a distance can be challenging, making selling a potentially beneficial and emotional decision.

Dealing with Emotional Baggage When Selling a House

Consider getting professional help to navigate selling the house and avoid emotional decision-making.

It's important to find a reliable real estate agent who can guide you through the process and protect you from potential blind spots.

You may also want to explore the option of renting the house for a period before selling, especially if housing prices are not favorable.

The Volatile Housing Market: A Personal Story

The speaker experienced a significant decrease in the value of their house, leading to a loss when they sold it in 2019.

They chose to rent out the house to mitigate the financial damage and ended up dealing with the challenges of being a landlord, including property damage.

Eventually, they sold the house after the market had improved.

Prioritize your tasks to stay organized and focused.

Break down large projects into smaller, manageable steps.

Stay flexible and be willing to adjust your plans as needed.