Jim Valentine: When you have to sell to buy today

While there are many cash buyers shopping these days, there are also many people who need to sell their home before they can buy a new one. It is nigh on to impossible to compete in this market with a contingency sale, a sale contingent on the sale of your home.

We just wrote an offer $250,000 over asking price on a home trying to offset the fact that we had two homes to sell in order to buy that one. Even though the time for getting the homes under contract was extremely short, two weeks, the offer was not accepted due to the sale contingency.

So what does one do if you want to “right size,” move up or down, according to your new wants and needs in a home? There are several ways to approach this and be competitive in the purchase market. One thing for sure, you will be able to sell your home quickly even if you are overpriced by a bit. The market is just that dynamic and buyers are just stressed enough to pay more to get what they want, a Northern Nevada residence. Knowing you can sell quickly also presents problems — what can you buy quickly?

One thing you can do is offer your home subject to you being able to find a replacement property. That will help you avoid committing to a sale when you have nowhere to go, but it won’t give you much negotiating power on your buy. Ideally, you can find a buyer for your property that will let you rent the property until you can buy and close on your new home. If you are selling to an investor or someone looking long-range there is a good chance you can put something like that together. In this scenario, you will close escrow and have your equity converted to cash allowing you to compete better when you make offers.

Another idea is to sell and rent a property for a period of time, i.e., six months. This will enable you to capitalize on this booming market, but not be forced to buy the wrong home out of desperation. A few months of rent is much cheaper than buying the wrong house and the financial and emotional losses you may encounter. You can leave the bulk of your belongings in portable storage, thus enabling you to effectively move just once.

Another thing we are seeing our sellers do is sell their home and live in a motorhome or a trailer. They have a lot of room, they own it, and they are mobile. They can travel, or stay at a friend/family member’s house while they wait for the right home buying opportunity. When you do this you’ll need to keep active in your efforts to find your new property. If you are looking at new construction you can contract for a new home to be built and take off in your fifth wheel for a little adventure while it is finished.

Inventory is scarce. Do you know somebody who tried to sell last year and still wants to sell? Call them — you might scoop the market. We did this recently and it worked out well for both parties as the friend that wanted to sell worked with our buyer on his sale contingency, and we gave them their price… without competition.

When you make your offer make it very clean, be generous with the price, and careful with the timing of the transaction. If you miss out make a back up offer. Things happen in escrow and if the primary folds you will automatically be in primary position without having to go through the auction frenzy again.

If you wait for the market to go down, your home value will also decline. Sell high and hope for the best on your new home finding and negotiating efforts. One thing you don’t want to do is sell your home with no exit plan, no place to go or alternative plan to execute. Get with your agent, make a plan and work your plan. You will be successful in your efforts with a clear vision and diligent execution to get it.

Don’t give up, get creative. Somebody will buy the house you want, it might as well be you!

When it comes to choosing professionals to assist you with your Real Estate needs… Experience is Priceless! Jim Valentine, RE/MAX Realty Affiliates, 775-781-3704 or dpwtigers@hotmail.com.