How painful was your home selling experience?

The first time my parents tried to sell their home in Waterloo, Ontario, they listed their home for 3 months and received no offers. My mom swore that she would never go through that process again. It was just too painful to have such high hopes crushed slowly, having something as personal as a home go unsold, unwanted. I convinced them to try again the next year because all the realtors said that April is the best month to sell a home.

April arrived, and they listed their 4-bedroom house again with a different agent. The market was hotter so they got an offer in the first month, but it was much less than what they were hoping for. They counter-offered, of course, because their agent said that that’s what they were supposed to do, but the potential buyers got cold feet and decided not to pursue. It wasn’t until their home was listed for exactly 89 days, for the second time, that they received another offer. This offer was even lower than the first, but we knew we had no choice at that point. It was either take the offer or forgo moving back to Vancouver where they were planning to retire.

When their home was finally sold, my brother and I flew in to take a final bittersweet photo outside of the home that my parents lived in for 10 years, in front of their big fat “Sold” sign.

It took them 1 year and 3 months. More than 150 days of accumulated listing days, 2 different agents, 20 open houses, countless on-demand showings, $800 worth of repairs and upgrades.

Not to mention having to tidy up the house and make themselves available every time their realtor called to schedule another viewing. Not to mention the repeated disappointment when potential buyers didn’t even bother to show up to their appointments.

My parents were lucky enough that their home closed without any issues during escrow. Unfortunately 25 percent of home sellers in America are not as lucky.

In a list of the most stressful events in a lifetime, a UK research group found that the stress of selling a house came above bankruptcy, divorce, and even the death of a loved-one. Even though I’ve been lucky enough to not have experienced these other stressful events myself, selling a home clearly took a toll on my parents’ lives and mine. It was by far the most stressful thing I’ve ever experienced, and I can only imagine how my parents felt.

Buying and selling a home shouldn’t be this difficult.

American residential real estate is a $200 billion industry. Just like in any other antiquated industry that employs this many people (150,000 real estate agents in 2014), efficiency isn’t an ideal that is striven for. Just like in any other industry that has powerful lobbying groups, change is impossible to pioneer.

I’m sure my parents’ story isn’t an isolated occurrence because many people I know have faced similar challenges when they’ve tried to buy or sell their homes. I really hope that this story will get better. According to AngelList, there are hundreds of start-ups in the real estate industry working hard to make homeowners’ lives better each day. Over the coming weeks/months, I hope to share my views on the problems within the real estate industry, discuss the dominant players in the industry that are reinforcing the status quo, and kickstart a conversation on how to change the home buying experience to make it more fair, efficient, and stress-free for everyone.