For those who have been thinking about selling but feeling hesitant because they’re not sure
where they can go and they have to sell to be able to buy, here are some tips!
1. First things first, pick the realtor you would like to use and schedule a listing appointment.
Have them go over with you everything they will do to sell your home. Sign the listing
agreement, and get to work! You can prepare your home for sale by clearing out any clutter and
putting as much of your furniture as you can into storage. Get your home professionally staged
(our team offers staging as part of our listing agreement!), and get professional photos done and
ready to go.
2. Start getting an idea of the neighborhoods you might want to move to, research and see
what’s available. Be prepared to be competitive, having to write an offer when you’re contingent
on the sale of your home is tough, but if you have a great real estate agent, they’ll be able to still
write you a competitive offer. Having your house prepared to go on market (pics taken,
agreement signed) will be super important to the seller whose house you want to buy. If you can
get your house on the market FIRST that would be ideal.
3. If you decide to put your house on the market first before starting to write offers, there are a
few options for you: decide if you want to find a house in the window of your house getting an
offer and the closing date, or if you want to find alternative living arrangements for the
in-between, or if you want to do a rent back.
A. If you decide to find a house in the window of getting an offer on your house and the
closing date, be aware that this can have its own issues. If you have to sell to buy, that means
your current home has to close in order for you to close on the new home, therefore if anything
happens with your home’s deal, you may risk losing your new home. It’s the worst case
scenario, but it’s better to be prepared.
B. If you want a longer time frame to find your new home but don’t want to find new living
arrangements (short term rental, airbnb, RV, etc.), you can request a longer escrow period or a
rent back in your current home.
C. Or you can get your home put up for sale, under contract and then sold and find
alternative living arrangements, and spend as long as you need searching for your dream home.
There are plenty of possibilities when it comes to selling your current home and buying a new
one at the same time, being prepared is the most important part and having a great real estate
agent by your side to guide you and advise you cannot be recommended enough!
