Author Topic: How to sell home & buy another at same time.  (Read 3813 times)

notoriusjt2

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How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« on: March 21, 2016, 10:07:19 AM »
Have any of you sold your current home while purchasing a new home at the same time? This process seems like it would be very stressful. Do you have any tips/tricks how to make this process as easy as possible?

Is it better to find the new house first, then put your old house on the market?
If so, how do you use the equity of your old house towards the purchase of the new house?



PadAdventure

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Re: How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2016, 11:44:53 AM »
depends on the market, if it's a seller or buyer's.

You can add a home sale contingency to a contract for another home.  That gives you an out from owning two.

If you know regardless that you will sell your current home, then I recommend putting it on the market, there's always options for bridging the gap.

You can also do a lease back option, where after selling, you both agree that you will rent the house (yours that you just sold) from them for the cost of the mortgage per month, divided by 30 for how many days you'll occupy, you just need a buyer to agree.  Surprisingly, this works quite often.

Remember though, as a SELLER, once you enter into a contract, you can be sued if you back out.  Not so with a Buyer, if in option period, or contingency (financing, sale contingency, etc)
« Last Edit: March 21, 2016, 11:49:58 AM by PadAdventure »

lizzzi

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Re: How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2016, 11:53:02 AM »
I've done this a number of times. I wouldn't set your heart on a certain new house until you've got a signed purchase offer for the old one. Then when you find the new house, make your purchase offer and contract contingent on selling the old house. Closing date will be after you've closed the deal on your old house, and have the funds to pay for the new house. In 2014 I sold a house in NY and bought one in Ohio. The NY house closed in mid to late October, and of course I had had the signed purchase offer for six or eight weeks prior to that. So I showed the OH seller the copy of the signed purchase offer in NY, and we set up a tentative closing date for the Ohio house for Oct. 30. It all worked out.

I'll just mention though, that if you're not lying awake at night staring at the ceiling and having chest pains, you're not doing your real estate transactions properly. hahaha

Louisville

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Re: How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2016, 11:54:40 AM »
Except for first time buyers, MOST people are selling a house while they're buying a new one. It's not an unusual situation at all. And, yes, it can be stressful.
You make an offer to buy the next house contingent on selling the last house. That can be a big minus if you're competing with an offer that has no such contingency.
You can also get a "bridge loan" (google it) to get you over the interim period.


lizzzi

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Re: How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2016, 11:56:14 AM »
Louisville made a good point. Your purchase offer is a lot stronger if you don't have to sell your old house in order to buy the new house.

Fishindude

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Re: How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2016, 12:01:21 PM »
I bought a new place while existing was not yet sold.  Bank gave me a loan for the new place with first payment not due for six months.  This gave me time to sell my place and do a little remodeling before moving into the other.

SwordGuy

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Re: How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2016, 08:42:34 PM »
First house we bought, we sold and moved into an apartment and new city.  Waited a year, then bought another house.   It was a good choice as it put us in a much better financial position.

Bought 3rd house before I sold 2nd house.   Was fully prepared to pay for both for quite some time.   (Didn't want to, but I could.)   That's because the sum total of both houses was less than the bank would loan me for just one house.   That's the important point!  If you buy every single dollar's worth of house the bank will let you, you'll probably really be struggling with just the first house, not just the 2nd one.


lizzzi

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Re: How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« Reply #7 on: March 21, 2016, 09:42:36 PM »
Good point, SwordGuy. We always spent around half of what the bank said we "qualified" for. I always felt like I wanted to own my house--not have the bank owning it.

Drifterrider

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Re: How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2016, 07:18:55 AM »
Remember though, as a SELLER, once you enter into a contract, you can be sued if you back out.  Not so with a Buyer, if in option period, or contingency (financing, sale contingency, etc)

Not necessarily true.  In the US one can't "force" a sell.  If the buyer has lost money on the deal (buyer paid expenses such as inspections, etc) then the buyer can sue for liquidating damages but nothing else.

If you are not in the US, never mind.

PadAdventure

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Re: How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2016, 09:23:48 AM »
Remember though, as a SELLER, once you enter into a contract, you can be sued if you back out.  Not so with a Buyer, if in option period, or contingency (financing, sale contingency, etc)

Not necessarily true.  In the US one can't "force" a sell.  If the buyer has lost money on the deal (buyer paid expenses such as inspections, etc) then the buyer can sue for liquidating damages but nothing else.

If you are not in the US, never mind.

You can sue for specific performance, which would equate to sale of the home.  Maybe it isn't the same in all states, but I know this to be true.

zinethstache

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Re: How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2016, 08:54:14 PM »
Not sure if this type of loan still exists. We bought our current home prior to listing our old home. We got two loans, an 80% and a 20%, the 20% loan was called a bridge loan and was short term with the intent to pay it off when the old home sold. We picked the absolute wrong time to do this, it was 9/03/2001 when our offer was accepted. After 9/11, everything halted for a time. It took 5 months to sell the other home. We could afford all three mortgages but it was spending money for nothing all because of a horrific event. What a frustrating time!

Currently we are selling that home we bought so long ago. We don't want to be in a rush for the next property as it is going to be a rental (Multi-so not alot of inventory). So we bought our retirement home (a fifth wheel trailer and truck) and we are making the ultimate sacrifice and will stay for free on my parents property until we buy, or if the market isn't right I will RE and we will travel. I haven't lived near my mom since I was 19, Im 48... ack! This could be bad... or not, DH and I are thinking of it as an adventure!.

MMM and RE makes us do funny things sometimes! Look at all your options and think outside the box. The best of luck to you:)

Cassie

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Re: How to sell home & buy another at same time.
« Reply #11 on: March 24, 2016, 05:46:07 PM »
we did this once and it was really stressful. We lost a house that accepted our initial offer because ours had not sold in a month and the seller was sick of waiting for us.  We ended up with a home that was not our first choice.  All the other times we bought, moved out and sold and then refinanced when we got our $ from the first home.