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Q: What Are the 3 Things That Can Derail a Deal?

There are three main reasons why nearly 20% of transactions fall apart.

Did you know that 15% to 20% of all real estate transactions fall apart? That’s a general average, but the number changes based on the time of year, time on the market, and what kind of market we’re in at the time. This is a pretty significant number, and I’ve found that there are a few main reasons that transactions fall apart:

1. Financing. In a purchase agreement, you have financing and home inspection contingencies that are a large part of the deal, but financing terms change from lender to lender, and unaware clients could go out and buy a new car, throw their debt-to-income ratio out of whack, and ruin the transaction.

  Huge problems may be discovered after you go under contract.

2. Home inspection. This is driven by the scope of what repairs the property needs and the level of satisfaction of the buyer. With the limited inventory that we see today, there’s more fear of loss than usual. This has resulted in home inspections becoming an increasing cause of broken transactions. Problems that aren’t disclosed by the seller and are uncovered during the inspection are a major cause.

3. Potential future problems. We’ve also seen some transactions fall apart because buyers are uncovering large upcoming maintenance issues that they don’t have the budget to fix. 

If you have questions for me about this topic or anything else related to real estate, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you.

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Bought a Single Family home in 2019 in West Des Moines, IA. Tim helped my wife and I find our first home back in 2009. He got to know us and figured out what we were looking for, and he found the perfect house for us. Over the next few years he helped us buy an apartment building and two other houses, and last year when we decided to sell one of the houses  he made the selling process easy and fast. The things I like best about working with Tim are his deep understanding of both the local hou…
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