Buying a new home is exciting, but that excitement can be snuffed out by the stress of having to sell your old house in order to get into your new house. How do you buy and sell your home at the same time? How on Earth can you manage two huge financial transactions simultaneously? In this video, I explain the strategy and planning you’ll need to utilize to pull this off, and the importance of surrounding yourself with talented, results-oriented people in order to make these transactions flow together for a successful transition into your new home.
(Transcript below)
Hey there! I’m Debbie Wright with Charles Rutenberg Realty, and I’m here to talk to you today about how to sell and buy your home at the same time, so follow me.
Okay, I get asked this question a lot from my sellers- “Deb, how are we going to sell and buy at the same time? I mean, that’s gonna be so stressful!” It is if you don’t have a plan. So, let’s start; first and foremost, you’ve decided to sell your house. Well, do you have to sell to buy? That’d be the first thing. Most people do, so we’re gonna assume for the sake of this video that you do. Once you’ve decided to sell, it’s a good idea to get with the lender and determine how much money is going to be coming from the sale of your home, and what is the loan amount you’re going to need to buy the home that you want.
After you get that duck in a row so to speak, you’re going to try to understand where are you going? Are you down-sizing? Are you changing locations? Are you trying to stay in the neighborhood? No matter where you go, you need to understand the inventory. Right now, we’re coming off of a really hot seller’s market, and we’re starting to balance out a little bit. Hopefully, that will continue, but not too much because we we want to keep the momentum. We want more inventory, but that being said, that’s what you need to make sure that you understand. Are you going someplace that has inventory, and what does that inventory look like?
So once you discover that and you have nailed down the area you want to be in and the finance part of it, then it’s time to stage your home. It’s time to get rid of all the things that you don’t use. Get a Packrat out in the driveway there and start loading it up, because you’re going to need to stage your home to sell it. You need to make sure that you’re highlighting all the wonderful attributes of your home so when buyers walk in, they see them, not your stuff. They want to see how their stuffs gonna look in your house, and that’s really what the placement of all the arrangements and staging is there for; so that they can understand spatially what does your house represent for them. A key thing is that the way we live in our house is not the way we sell our house and if you’re like me, I’ve got a kid, and she keeps me running to keep everything clean. It doesn’t have to be perfect so cut yourself some slack. Everybody has their own unique situation, so just do the best you can. Remove as much clutter as you can, and at the end of this transaction, you’re going to be very glad that you packed all that little stuff up first and cut it out.
All right, so you’ve got everything staged perfectly and you’re on the market, you have a great idea where you’re going to go, and you’ve got your financing lined up- your offer arrives. Oh, yeah, here we go, yay, the buyer is obviously going to have their timeframe that they’re requesting and you need to understand what your timeframe is going to be, and that’s going to be based on what your needs are and where you’re going, so for this example, we’re going do 30 to 45 days. I would say make “on or before” as part of your contract if that’s not something that works for you and the buyer, you can do a hard date, but give each other enough time, and most importantly, build some flexibility in there. And they need to understand you’re also trying to buy something too. Most of the time, people want to work together because they want to make the transaction work, so it will be a win-win situation.
All right, you got the buyer, you’re through the inspection period, they’re happy, and you are rolling towards the closing table. Now, you’ve got to go get your house. Well, you’ve had your eye on a few great buys in a neighborhood you want to be in. Go and make an offer, negotiate with that seller that you are also selling your house, try to get the timing down, 30 to 45 days, whatever it may be based on your circumstance for financing and what their needs are. Great! Everybody’s agreed to close on the same day, now what? I got to get all my stuff out of the house! Yes you do! And guess what, here’s a great plan for that. I’ve got three options- the first option is hire a mover, they’re going to store your stuff in their moving van or at their facility, you get everything out of your house so the buyer can walk through and accept the property, because you’re going to want to do the same thing. You’re going to want to walk through your new house and you want it to be vacant as well, so they hold your stuff, and on the day of the closing, they meet you at your new house once you get the keys, and you move in- great!
Or, you can hire two trucks, like maybe U-Haul or Penske, and load them up in the front yard, or maybe it will just be one, it kind of depends on how much stuff you have. I probably needed three, but anyway… so you load those trucks up, you come in, you clean up, buyer walks through, you have drivers that meet you at your new house, they unload the truck for you, everybody’s happy.
The third option is the contingency option, if something happens. Say the buyer for your house needs a few more days and it’s interrupting the timing on where you’re going to go. Everybody needs to be a little flexible and those are the things you want to build into the contract in the beginning, is that flexibility if you possibly can. Some markets don’t allow it and some do, it just depends on what your particular situation is, and when you make a purchase. In the event that you can’t move into your new house immediately because your old house hasn’t sold yet and your stuff has to be out, well, put your stuff in storage, find an extended-stay or maybe a place on the beach to enjoy for a few days until all the kinks get worked out. Having a plan is going to relieve the stress. The option isn’t great, but it is an option, and once we’ve made a decision on what our contingencies are, it does relieve a lot of stress. And the whole point is to limit the amount of stress in an already stressful situation, because it’s going to be stressful either way. But having a plan in place and having all these situations lined up, your financing lined up, the moving situation lined up, it’ll make you feel better and they can just move through, get your stuff in your new house, get the keys, and have a great time enjoying your new property and everybody’s happy right? So that’s the end result hopefully.
I hope that that addressed your concerns, leave me some questions, like me, subscribe, call, text, Facebook Messenger me, email, I even respond to smoke signals on occasion… kidding. Anyway, reach out, and I’ll connect with you. Thank you so much, I’ll talk to you soon.
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(813) 775-8516
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