Buying and selling your house....UPDATE Part 2

Found a house we love. It just listed this week. It's in a very desirable location and priced to sell.... Only problem is we need to sell our house. Is it even worth pursuing i.e., putting an offer in? Any realtors have any advice? It's well under our budget so we'd be comfortable making a strong offer but I still can't imagine sone one accepting an offer contigent on our house selling.... :/

Update....
We just accepted an offer on the house. Sold in 1 day (still can't believe it). The other home has a few offers over asking but nothing signed yet. We may have a shot, albeit a long one with our best offer.

Update 2

Our original offer fell through but we accepted a second offer near asking after finding out that the original offer on the house we loved also fell through. Our offer was accepted on that house and both home inspections went well. Sending out contracts tomorrow hopefully. It's very, very crazy how things turned out. I still can't believe it but will be a nervous wreck until the contracts signed.

Message edited 2/5/2017 7:56:43 PM.

Buying and selling your house....

I would think that happens quite often around here. It usually takes so long to close on a house that it works to your advantage - especially if you have an offer on yours while waiting for the new one to close.

Re: Buying and selling your house....

In most areas of LI now, it's very competitive. There are often multiple offers on homes, and a contingency will be a big negative, especially if your home isn't even on the market yet.

It can be difficult to get a contingency in there at all, but it's easier if your house is at least under contract, and better yet, your buyer has a mortgage commitment.

I mean, you never know unless you try. If you don't put an offer in, you definitely won't get the house.

I don't know what area you are looking in, but sometimes it's easier to work out this type of thing if you are in a more upscale, trade-up market than if you are looking in an area where you are competing with a lot of first-time home buyers.

It's usually easier to list your house first, get things going with the sale, and then find your new house. Sellers have leverage in this market and it will be easier to try to negotiate a more extended closing time frame with the buyer for your home than to try to make an offer on a new home when you don't even have a buyer in the picture for your home.

I know it's scary with low inventory to take the plunge and list your house before you have something new locked up, but it's just reality. Sometimes my clients will do a rental for awhile or stay with family if possible as an interim measure so they can be free of their old house and take their time finding their next. It's not always, feasible I know, but that's ideal.

All that being said, it's not impossible to work out. Some sellers and listing agents and sellers' attorneys will be ok with a contingency. It kind of depends on their circumstances. Aside from being in a trade up market, if the house is a niche house, or if the seller has a need to have a more extended time frame to closing (e.g., kids have to finish out the school year), you may have better luck.

You usually don't know these things until you start negotiating, so I'd just put your strongest offer forward, be upfront about your need to sell your house before you close on this one, and hope for the best!

Buying and selling your house....

Thanks, much appreciated! We're looking in Long Beach. I know we should probably list but like you said it's so scary to take the plunge. Especially with two little oned. We were actually listed over the Summer but didn't get any offers. I think we were priced way too high. I didn't love our realtor either.

Re: Buying and selling your house....

Ack!!! That's my biggest stress right now. We know we're going to sell, but the idea of actually doing it is . Christine, you're on my list to call next month!!

Re: Buying and selling your house....

We had to sell our old house to get into a new one, and it took us 2 1/2 years to sell because of our location in a flood zone. It sucked because we saw a lot of homes that we loved but because we hadn't yet found a solid buyer, we had to forego making offers.

I don't recommend going into a contract on your next home until you have a signed contract on your current one. Sellers have little incentive to give you time to find a buyer because inventory is low all over the Island. The good homes go very quickly, until you list your house you won't know if you will be one of those lucky sellers that get multiple offers w/in the first month of listing.

Good luck.

Buying and selling your house....

We fell in love with our current home, but it had been sitting for a while and was way overpriced and didn't have much interest, so we knew we could take our time, since we had to sell our apartment to purchase the home.
We listed our apartment (which we knew would sell quickly) and put in an offer on our home around the same time. We ended up closing on both properties within 2 weeks of each other, which I've heard is not common and we were really lucky with the timing.

However, I wouldn't have felt comfortable making an offer on a home until we had listed our apartment and knew there was strong interest. Our realtor told us that most sellers will not entertain a contingency that the buyer has to sell their home.

Re: Buying and selling your house....

Posted by NYCGirl80

Ack!!! That's my biggest stress right now. We know we're going to sell, but the idea of actually doing it is . Christine, you're on my list to call next month!!

Re: Buying and selling your house....

We did something similar. We found a realtor first. He took us out house hunting one weekend in mid January. Our house was listed on Weds of that week. Had our open house that weekend. Had an offer on Monday, settled on a price by Weds. Spent a little more time house hunting but ultimately put in an offer on the second house we saw.

As per the mortgage company, we didn't "need" to sell our old house to buy the new one, so there was no "contingency" to weaken our offer.

It was challenging to coordinate a buy and sell simultaneously, but we made it work.

Re: Buying and selling your house....UPDATE

This is something I have been thinking about, but scared to do. We bought our house when the market was pretty high, and put money into the house to fix some things up, so I am sure we will lose money... my problem now is our school district while considered "good" is not known to be good for special education, and I have a special needs child. Someone suggested I should sell my house and move to another district that can offer more for my kid, but the thought of it terrifies me! I am glad that it seems to be working out for you though!

Buying and selling your house....UPDATE

That's exciting, best of luck - hope you get it!!!!!!!

Re: Buying and selling your house....UPDATE

sent you fm

Re: Buying and selling your house....UPDATE

Good luck!!!

Buying and selling your house....UPDATE

Update part 2 - the offer on our home fell through. Buyer has a family emergency out of state and decided to back out at this moment.

I'm just mad that I have to continue to keep this house immaculate despite having two under two! Lol.

Re: Buying and selling your house....UPDATE

Aww . Well I am sure if the house had an offer by day 1 it won't be much longer before you get another one. Best of luck!