Timing of buying a house - how did you do it?

jlb08 · January 2012

DH and I currently live in an apartment (lease in up in May) and we are unsure when to start looking at homes again. We began our house hunt last February but had to put it on hold when our lease ended. It was a big mess... we had put an offer on a short sale and, since the realtor led us to believe that things would go through - and rather quickly, we gave the required 60 days notice to our apartment complex. When there was no progress with the sale, we had to scramble to find a new apartment (they already had a tenant at the first place and we didn't want to look into short term options due to being 7 months pregnant at the time).

Anyway... we're ready to look again, but unsure how to work the timing. How did you buy your house if you were in an apartment and did you have to pay rent AND a mortgage for a few months? If not, how did you avoid doing so? Thanks in advance!

ETA: Now that we have a better understanding of how things work (and intend to find a realtor who will be totally upfront with us this time!), we will probably be staying away from short sales.We realize now that the timeline is too unpredictable.

tbridetobe · January 2012

We were in a lease that ended in July and started looking about this time of year to figure out what was in our price range, what neighborhoods to target, etc. We had enough money to pay rent and mortgage until the end of the lease, but our plan was to try to sublet our apartment once we found a house. Our apartment complex had a waiting list of potential tenants so it wouldn't have been hard to get someone. We also have family nearby so we planned to briefly crash with them if our lease ended before we found a house. In the end, the timing worked out perfectly and we closed on our (short sale) house 2 weeks before the end of our lease, but it was definitely stressful.

ungraceful13 · January 2012

Our lease ended in June we started looking in Dec bc we were so tired of the place. When we bought our house in Feb. we had to pay 2 months rent to get out of our lease but it was worth it for us. We could have waited until Spring to start looking but spending the little extra money was worth not living there anymore.

Bootsie12 · January 2012

I would start looking now and get an idea of what you are wanting in a home. The Spring housing market actually starts in Jan / Feb with closings being completed by Spring / early Summer. We are in a similar situation, if we find a home now we are prepared to put in an offer and pay out our lease. Also make sure you know all the fees in occurred with breaking lease (I personally would not break a lease...it's usually way too expensive) or paying it out. HTH and good luck house hunting.

Justinlove · January 2012

I'd start looking now. You don't want to be "rushed" into finding a home because your lease is ending. If you aren't under contract by the time you need to give notice, will your lease allow you to go month to month for a bit or do they have shorter term leases? Granted, it will probably cost you more in rent, but you also want to find the best home for you and not just settle because of a timeline.

srgw · January 2012

Just an idea, but at your apartment do you have the option of going month to month once your current lease is up?

klm03013 · January 2012

We moved out of our apartment on 10/15 and had a lease than went until 4/1. We talked to the landlord and he told us that we would be responsible for the rent until they found another tenant. I was a little nervous about this because I knew that it would be easier for them to collect rent from us for an empty apartment rather than moving in a new tenant, but we agreed. The new tenant moved in on 12/1 so we only had to pay a month and a half that we weren't living there. I think we lucked out.

nsfw · January 2012

Our lease ended one June 1; we didn't get serious about home searching until mid-March. That wasn't enough time for us to find a place. We ended up signing another 12 month lease and paid a $1000 buyout fee after we closed. We ended up building, the home was done at the end of Oct. Even with the buyout fee we ended up paying less overall than the increased rent amount for going month to month.

bearkatjen · January 2012

We're signing a year lease at the end of January and we plan to buy next fall. We're prepared to buy out our lease (2 months rent is what we have to pay to leave on happy terms) rather than try to time things just so.

gatorwife · January 2012

We started looking around April of last year, and our lease was up at the end of July. We put an offer down within weeks, and closed on May 31st. We paid rent for June. And in July we had to pay our first mortgage payment as well as rent. Since we had moved out and cleaned early, she gave us a discount on rent, and we got our security deposit back. We had planned to go month to month if we had not found a house in time.

lmspharmd · January 2012

When we bought our first home, we were living in an apartment with a lease ending in May. We put in an offer on our home in Januardy, closed in mid-March, and luckily worked out to leave our apt at the end of March. Our first mortgage payment wasn't until May 1, so we did have 1 month without a payment.

breaness · January 2012

They automatically renewed our apartment lease since we didn't tell them otherwise 1 month before it was supposed to end. We didn't realize this and thus ended up having to pay to break the lease.

It wasn't that big of a deal for us since breaking the lease was only about the same cost as one mortgage payment when you subtract the money we got back from our deposit. To us it was worth it so we could do the home buying process with less pressure and do it on our own time. We still had more than enough money to pay our DP, closing costs, and leave a 12+ month emergency fund, so for us, while slightly wasteful, it was less wasteful than staying in the apartment for another year and watching our dream home go to someone else.

When we bought our house (our first home) we bought it with the intention of it being our forever home.

Timing of buying a house - how did you do it?

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