Heading into the holiday season the strong seller’s market continues to thrive as buyers are offering well over the listing price and multiple offers are common and becoming the norm.
Selling a house offers challenges all on its own. You need to prepare the home and generally
make several repairs. Then there is the
search for an experienced Realtor to assist you with finding the optimum list
price for your house and creating a marketing plan to bring in the most
buyers. Another potential issue is
figuring out where you are going to move to once your house sells. Many sellers need to sell their home in order
to purchase another home.
This presents a little timing issue so sellers only have to
move once. So which one does a seller do first? Do you list the home and then
find the house you want to purchase? Or do you find the house you want to
purchase, put it under contract, and then put your home on the market
Both options work and I will go over each, but regardless of which option you choose there are a couple steps that should happen before you decide. One of those steps is deciding on an accurate listing price that will bring in the most buyers and create competition amongst the buyers. This will also include a marketing strategy to get your home sold quickly. Another step is getting pre-qualified so that you know exactly what your purchasing power is. This way you are all set up when you go to make an offer on your next home. Once you have all this in place you are ready to make a decision on whether to list first and buy second or put your new house under contract first and then list.
If you choose to list your house first before finding your
house, you will need to let all the potential buyers know how much time you
would like to locate a suitable property.
This will also mean that the closing date will likely need to be 60 days
from the time of going under contract on the house you are selling. That date can be moved up after you have
located the house you want to purchase and put it under contract. One advantage to this method is that you know
exactly what you are getting for your home and know exactly how much money you
are going to have to put toward your new home.
If you choose to try to put your new home under contract and
then list, this option is fine but sometimes a bit tougher in this type of
seller’s market. Putting in an offer
contingent upon the sale of your house when it isn’t on the market puts you at
a disadvantage when going up against other offers. There are several ways to make your offer
desirable in other ways. The most
obvious is of course the price you are offering on the new house. How much over asking price are you willing to
go in order to make your offer good enough for a seller to consider your offer with
the condition of listing and selling your home?
There is another option that is not very common, but I have
used it a few times over my 20-plus years of selling real estate. This option is listing your home and selling
it with the condition that you can lease the home back from the buyers after
you close. This time period is generally
60 days if need be. The terms of the
lease all need to be figured out ahead of time.
The upside is it allows you more time to find the home you want to
purchase. It also allows for more
flexibility in moving into your new home.
This option works particularly well when someone is having a new home
built but isn’t exactly sure when it will be finished.
This article was written by Matthew Trudel, the
owner of Five Star Realty here in Windham.
Call to find out how Five Star Realty can assist you in all your real
estate needs. 207-939-6971.
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