Sell Your Current Home, Then Buy

In anything other than a very strong seller’s market, it is generally more difficult to find a buyer for your current house than it is to find your next house. Because of this, it is a good idea to find the buyer for your current house before you find the new home you wish to purchase (hereafter referred to as THE HOUSE). We have found this approach to be the least stressful and least expensive for our clients.

How it works:

We start by taking you out to look at houses that meet the criteria that you want in your next house. We are not looking for THE HOUSE at this time. This time is spent getting to know what to expect in your price range as well as areas and housing styles that appeal to you.

We have two main objectives from these showings:

1. Build your confidence that you will find a new home that meets your needs.
2. Make sure that you have a firm knowledge base so that when we find THE HOUSE you will be comfortable knowing what to offer.

Once this is accomplished, it is time to put your current house on the market. Here we have some choices:

We can list your home and once we receive an offer, negotiate a closing date far enough in the future so that we will have the time we need to find and successfully negotiate on THE HOUSE. Ideally in this case, you will have a “plan B” in mind; a temporary housing situation and a plan for storage of your personal possessions in case it becomes necessary to wait for THE HOUSE to appear on the market and we need to close on your current house before we can close on THE HOUSE.

After finding THE HOUSE we will negotiate a purchase agreement that will coordinate the closing dates of both the sale of your current house and the purchase of your new house so both properties close on the same day. Our goal is to negotiate possession times that will give you adequate time to move out of the home you’re selling and into the home you’re buying with as little stress as possible. Ideally, we would close on the house you are selling in the morning, bring your equity check to an afternoon closing of your new house and have a couple of days for you to move.

Pros:

1. Usually less expensive than finding THE HOUSE first because:
   1. You will be in a stronger position during the negotiations of the purchase of your new home, which will keep you from having to potentially offer thousands more to encourage the sellers to accept, or even consider, your offer.
   2. Because your mind is not set on a specific house, you aren’t likely to accept less money than you should just to “unload” your current house.
2. Usually less stressful than finding THE HOUSE first because when you have already fallen in love with another house you will find yourself hanging on the response of every showing, stressed out more with each passing day on the market, worrying that you will lose the house that you love.

Cons:

1. We may have to work fast to find THE HOUSE once the purchase agreement is negotiated on your current house.
2. In the event that there isn’t a house you wish to purchase available in the window of time before closing on the house you are selling, you may need to utilize a temporary housing situation and plan for storage of your personal possessions.