Interest rates are still low, which means that if you’re thinking about buying a new house, now is the time to do it. However, buying a new house can be tricky if you need to sell your current home first. The following tips will help make this process easier:
Add a contingency – As a seller, you can add a contingency that states that you’ll accept the buyer’s offer but that it’s contingent on whether you find a house to buy by a certain date. As a buyer, you can request to add a contingency to your offer based on whether you sell your current home by a certain date, but not all sellers may be willing to do this. You may need to negotiate. For example, if you’re the seller, the buyer may only agree to the contingency if you offer to pay part of the closing costs.
Implement a sale-leaseback arrangement – This arrangement allows you to continue living in your current home after you’ve sold it, paying rent to the new owner until a certain date. Such an agreement gives you more time to find a new house; however, you will have to find a buyer that isn’t looking to move in right away.
Set the closing date further away – If you’ve found the perfect house to buy but haven’t sold your own home yet, you could negotiate to schedule the closing date further away than usual. Typically, the closing date is 30 days after the bid has been accepted. You could request 50 days so that you have more time to sell your current house.
Get pre-qualified for a mortgage – Make sure you get pre-qualified so that you save time on the mortgage qualification process when you find a house you want to buy. It can take some time for your mortgage application to be approved — and the last thing you’ll want is to find out that it was rejected at the last minute or that the loan amount that’s been approved isn’t what you thought it would be. This would throw a wrench in your carefully orchestrated plan to sell your current house and buy a new house right afterward.
Use a real estate agent – Simply trying to buy or sell a house in itself can be hard work, but attempting to do both in short succession can be a real challenge. A professional real estate agent can help you sell your house first by using their network to find motivated buyers. They can improve your chances of selling quickly by marketing your home effectively, staging it successfully and making sure that it’s properly priced so that it doesn’t end up sitting on the market for months.
Selling your current home before you buy a new house can be a challenge, but with careful planning, it certainly isn’t an impossible task. To get pre-qualified for a mortgage, be sure to visit us at Tidewater Mortgage Services, Inc. today.
