Selling & Buying on LI

Posting here because this board gets more traction than home…sorry so long…
I am looking for others experiences with selling and buying on LI…

Recently we decided that it may be a better idea to sell our house and buy another as opposed to expanding. Our current house although on a beautiful block and great area, is too small and we don’t have a pool. To expand and add the pool will be very costly and doesn’t financially make much sense. Our house could sell in the high 500s, but not necessarily the high 600’s, know what I mean? So I am not sure we would necessarily see our return on investment.

We would want to stay in the same area, same town, same schools so the scope of where we would move would be like a 1 mile radius. Recently, the perfect house came on the market. I was naive in thinking we could go see it and if we loved it, we could see what we could do. We had our realtor try to make an appt, but after only 3 days on the market, the house already had 25 offers. What!

So anyway, we had her come and look at the house to see what we could potentially list for. She said it will sell quick so be prepared. She also said we would have to list the house first and then start looking and a seller would likely only consider our offer when we have an actual buyer for our house.

Inventory is LOW and since it’s a desirable area, its crazy competitive. If we get a buyer, there is a VERY slim chance that we would find a house quickly. It could take a year or even 2….because I wouldn’t move just to move, it would have to be exactly what we want.

What do people do in situations like this? How is it even possible? She said we would have to either stay with family or rent an apt, YIKES!

Like I said, I think I was naïve about this whole process – I didn’t realize houses were selling like this. I guess I am just looking for others experiences…

Someone had mentioned to me that we could write letters and put them in mailboxes of houses we would potentially like to buy – if they were considering moving, etc, let us know. Is this something people actually do??? That sounds suspect…

Selling & Buying on LI

This is also happening in my town. ALOT of people are on our local Facebook groups asking if anyone is selling in the future. I have seen people find houses this way! If it’s the same town I would definitely let your friends know you are looking because theY might know a neighbor thinking of selling. Also, scope out garage saleS....ask the person if they are selling soon.

Selling & Buying on LI

My house sold in a week 5 months ago and we’re still in it. Just because you go into contract quickly doesn’t mean you’ll close quickly.

As someone in the trenches, I’d make whatever improvements you want and stay put. Buying and selling at the same time will haunt me until the day I drop dead in the house we’re buying because I’m sure as hell never doing this again.

Selling & Buying on LI

We were going to buy and sell. Signed a contract to buy, and had an almost full price offer to sell ours.

We pulled out of everything and are renovating our house. The whole process was terrible lol

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I was told the same thing last year when we sold and bought. I wasn’t comfortable with selling until I knew I had somewhere to go and I wasn’t settling. I’m out East so the market is never as good as some places out west but it’s Long Island. I didn’t think I’d find anything, but we did once we committed to be serious about it. Our house then sold within a day. It worked out. Which my realtor said it always seems to work out.

I also know someone that put it in their contract that they were still looking and if they didn’t find anything they would back out. Their buyers waited for them for 2 months! And then they did back out they never found anything better I guess.

It’s a sellers market so you have that in your favor for selling. However, it sounds like you could end up in bidding wars to buy. Good luck!

Selling & Buying on LI

Can you buy another house without selling your first? I would buy a house non contingent and then sell mine after if it was possible just knowing if you list it will sell quick... then what? When I sold and bought my offer was non contingent and I felt like it was less stressful. My friends just sold and bought and they said trying to align all the closings was a pure nightmare. Maybe only accept offers from first time home buyers that can wait? That may be another good approach? Ultimately I think I’m 6 months people that want to move for more space etc will have an easier time buying and selling. Good luck!!

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There is no inventory. If you think your area is where you want to be long term it may be better to put the pool in and do what you need to make your home the right one for you. In my town in NJ, houses are lasting 24 hours right now on the market.

Selling & Buying on LI

I would renovate. What happens if you sell quickly and then you are stuck in an apartment for a year or 2? I just think with the current climate those who have the means will be buying homes in more desireable areas quickly. Of you are dead set on the same neighborhood and schools thats going to really limit you...

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Message edited 6/24/2020 2:29:32 PM.

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Our "ordeal" with selling our old house and buying a new one lasted almost 2 years. We were affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and we were unable to list the house for what we wanted to sell it for until 2014 (since we were right by a canal, all the homes in our block were flooded and buyers avoided anything south of Merrick Road like the plague).

We finally found a buyer in late 2014 and when we started to look for houses, we lost a few good ones due to bidding wars. We focused our search on all areas of Nassau County- from Glen Cove to Massapequa, but focusing more on Merrick/Bellmore since DH has an outside activity based here. We didnt find our home until the spring of 2015 and fortunately jumped right on it as soon as it hit MLS and even though it checked off all the boxes, it still wasnt 100% what I wanted initially (our yard looks straight into busy Newbridge Rd and we would have liked a 2 car garage). But compared to other homes we saw that were in worse condition, we rolled the dice and lucked out.

Unfortunately our buyer didnt want to extend the contract for moving in so we had to close on our house in mid February and move into my parents house until we could close in May. So we had to pay for about 3 months of storage costs. which was about $ 5,000-6,000. Not cheap.

That was a few years ago and its only gotten worse since then. Now with NYers living in dense areas of the city itching to get out to the suburbs, the housing crunch is only going to get worse.

There are tradeoffs to buying/selling right now- you will have to budget for the possibility of paying to rent a place until you find a new home(or live w/ family), or you will have to cut short your list of "wants/needs" and buy a house that wont satisfy all your requirements because once you sign a contract to sell - your buyer start counting the days they can move in.

Good luck!

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In your situation I would renovate. The market is only going to get more competitive in this climate. Location location location. If you love your area and the schools I would just renovate the house to your liking. Chances are even if you find a new house that ticks most of your boxes you will most likely have to update some parts to make it exactly how you want + buying and selling cost $$$. Between closing costs, lawyers, inspectors, moving cost etc you may be better off taking the money out and using it to update your current home to your liking.

Selling & Buying on LI

Sell and then rent. Rent a whole house if you have to and need the space.

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We are in the same exact situation down to what you are saying about the value of your house. We were toying with moving within the same town also but the bidding wars were making what we wanted out of our reach.

We decided to stay put and extend. We are happy here. I know if we had to sell, our house would sell in a hot minute. Pool construction starts next week. Not sure when we will do the extension. Hopefully within the next two years.

I did try the mailbox drop method. It didn't work for me but you never know!

Selling & Buying on LI

We were in almost the same situation a few years ago. Our house is a bit above the highly desirable selling point but lacked a few things we want. We tried to sell and buy in the same neighborhood (which we love) for about a year but could never make finding our dream (more like close to dream) home sync up with a solid offer on our current house. Since we would have been stretching already for the larger house, we couldn’t swing two mortgages for long and we finally gave up. We’re upgrading our current home to fit our needs. Just put in a pool and couldn’t be happier with it. Will probably need to add a bedroom eventually but that’s a ways off.