Buying and Selling

jmays712 · March 2014

We are looking to move, so that I will have a better commute for work (right now will be at an hour drive, one way). We have owned our current house for about 5 years and will need to sell in order to buy. We aren't sure on how we should start the process - do we list our house and simultaneously look for another house, do we wait until we accept an offer for our house and then start looking, or what? We don't want to move into an apartment or anything in between the selling/buying. Just looking for how others have navigated the selling/buying process. Thanks!

JoanE2012 · March 2014

You could have a contingency. ie you will buy house A provided your house sells. Of course, sellers would often rather sell to someone without a contingency. Same for vice versa.

How is the housing market in your area? Are houses selling fast? Are you going to price your house competitively? Is it in good shape and will it appeal to buyers?

For buying.....how is the housing inventory by you? Are there alot of houses for sale in your price range? How long are they on the market?

By me, inventory is low for houses I would consider. I would probably sell my house first, then work on buying a house that was perfect to me. I would rather stay in an apt short term than settle on a less than perfect house because I wanted the timing to work out perfectly.

jtmh2012 · March 2014

JoanE2012 said:

By me, inventory is low for houses I would consider. I would probably sell my house first, then work on buying a house that was perfect to me. I would rather stay in an apt short term than settle on a less than perfect house because I wanted the timing to work out perfectly.

This. We moved out of our house into an apartment due to taking a job about an hour and a half away. Sold the first house, then looked for a new house. It's a lot less stressful that way. You have more freedom to find the house you really want versus "I need somewhere to live because my house is under contract"....

ifeelgoodifeelgreatifeelwonderful · March 2014

Our house is currently on the market and we just sign the papers for a new house. No situation is ideal, we would have either sold or rented this and had no where to get and felt rushed to settle on a house (we have been looking on and off for a year now) or we end up in the situation we are in now where we are very stressed over having to still sell/rent out our house before we move and have two mortgages. We also have a pit bull mix which would have made finding a short term rental tricky if we sold the house first.

The good houses were selling so quick in my area that if you aren't ready to make an offer it's not worth your time to even be looking. You could make an offer with a contingency, however our market it so hot right now with houses selling on average in 11 days that you want to be able to put in a strong offer and my realtor felt an offer with a contingency would not even be looked at. If the house you are interested in has been up for a while, you may have better luck of them accepting a contingency. Good luck!

short+sassy · March 2014

jtmh2012 said:

JoanE2012 said:

By me, inventory is low for houses I would consider. I would probably sell my house first, then work on buying a house that was perfect to me. I would rather stay in an apt short term than settle on a less than perfect house because I wanted the timing to work out perfectly.
This. We moved out of our house into an apartment due to taking a job about an hour and a half away. Sold the first house, then looked for a new house. It's a lot less stressful that way. You have more freedom to find the house you really want versus "I need somewhere to live because my house is under contract"....

I agree also. It's certainly not ideal to wind up possibly having to move temporarily between houses, but you don't want to rush the process on either end. Like taking a lower than fair offer on your house, because you don't want to lose the new house you found or buying a less than ideal house because you have to get out of your house.

My former tenants had planned to sell their house while looking to buy a new home in a different city 90 minutes away. The house they were selling went under contract in 11 days! Hence they became my tenants because they needed somewhere to live in their new city while they searched for another house. They signed a 6-month lease with the plan being they'd have found a house by then and would be moving around that time frame. It took them 11 months to find the right house plus two more months to close!

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