Our Boston market has been on fire as of late, and speaking of hot, today I’d like to discuss a topic that’s been on a lot of people’s minds: Buying and selling a home at the same time.
Pulling off a simultaneous home sale and purchase is perhaps one of the most stressful things you can do real estate-wise. After all, most of us know how tough it can be to go through just one side of the process.
With that said, let’s talk a little bit about how you can sail through this tricky process with the least amount of stress.
From the outset, you’ll need a plan. When it comes to your real estate objectives, the people who have a plan in place are the most likely to succeed.
If you’re looking to transact in the Boston market, I’d be happy to sit down with you and devise a plan of action. If you’re outside the area, be sure to reach out to a real estate professional from your local market who you can collaborate with to design a plan.
Early in the process, we’ll need to get you connected with a good mortgage broker. A big question is whether you have the wherewithal to purchase a new home before selling your current one. Because our market has been so strong recently, a number of the area’s banks have introduced loan programs that will leave your current mortgage out of your debt-to-income ratios, provided that you have a listing agreement on your home.
“A simultaneous home sale and purchase is achievable.”
Programs of this kind aren’t available everywhere, though, which is why I always tell people to speak with more than one mortgage banker when first setting the process in motion. No two brokers are the same in terms of the services they offer, and I’m more than willing to send you a list of some wonderful broker options.
Now, let’s say for the sake of argument that you don’t necessarily need the funds from your sale to buy a new home, but you’d like to buy and sell at once so you’ll be able to move from one to the other right away. After devising a plan, we can begin house-hunting. Buyers seldom have their first offer accepted, so we’ll identify and place offers on about three or four homes.
If we’ve made an offer that turns out to be a winner and your house isn’t on the market yet, we’ll need to act quickly to get your home in prime market condition. That means decluttering, using some touch-up paint where it’s needed, changing fixtures, and staging your home in a professional manner.
The way I see it, it’s always better to have a purchase agreement settled before your own home goes on the market. Your greatest challenge will be finding a home and having your offer accepted. Once that part of the process is squared away, you should be able to sell in no time at all with the proper pricing strategy. This way, you’ll be in the driver’s seat when negotiating your home sale. You’ll have the power to make decisions like whether you want to rent the house back from the buyer or close on the same day as your purchase.
The bottom line is yes, a simultaneous home sale and purchase is achievable, and you can make it so much easier on yourself by hiring a savvy, skilled Realtor.
If you have any questions about how you can successfully maneuver this process, please give me a call at 617-398-0018 or you can email me at Chris.Remmes@NEMoves.com. I’d be happy to hear from you!
