Brought to you by Scott P. Rogers, Funkhouser Real Estate Group, 540-578-0102, scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com
Brought to you by Scott P. Rogers, Funkhouser Real Estate Group, 540-578-0102, scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
If you have to sell your current home in order to buy a new home - there are (at least) three ways to do that...
- Make an offer before your home is listed for sale.
- Make an offer after your home is listed for sale but before it is under contract.
- Make an offer after your home is listed for sale and after it is under contract.
If you're making an offer on a new-ish listing then Option 1 and Option 2 are not likely to be successful strategies to securing a contract on the house you want to buy.
The best bet is to wait until you have your house listed for sale AND under contract - Option 3 - because at that point your have positioned yourself (and your home sale contingency) as best as you possibly can from the seller's perspective.
A few additional, related, notes...
- Making an offer with Option 1 or Option 2 will give leverage to the seller to circle back around to other possibly interested buyers to see if they want to make an offer. If any of those other buyers do not have a home to sell, then your contingent offer will have then served as a means by which the seller is able to find another buyer (not you) to buy their house. Thus, the value of Option 3.
- Even if you go with Option 3- and you are making an offer on a house once your house is under contract - you may not be able to fully complete with another offer that does not have that same contingency. A seller will, reasonably, lean towards an offer without a home sale contingency - even if the home that you need to sell is already under contract.
- It might depend on who you ask, but in my book Option 2 (listed but not under contract) is much closer to Option 1 (not listed) than it is to Option 3 (listed, under contract).
Selling and buying simultaneously can be tricky, complicated and frustrating -- but it is possible! Feel free to be in touch if you want to talk through the options outlined above as they pertain to your situation.
