5 Preparation Tips When Buying & Selling Your Home Simultaneously

Buying and selling houses for sale in Jersey City at the same time is challenging, but it’s not impossible. There are a few things you can do ahead of time that will prepare you for the road ahead and increase your chances of completing both transactions successfully. Here are a few tips and tricks to follow that will equip you to better manage the process and seamlessly move from one home to the other.

Buying and selling homes doesn’t happen overnight. If you were only looking to handle one transaction, you would still invest several months from start to finish in order to effectively complete each step of the process. It will take you a few weeks to find a home that you like and make an offer that the seller accepts. Once you have a deal to buy a home, you’ll spend 30 to 45 days getting ready for closing. During this time, you’ll have to be involved with the inspection, appraisal, and transfer of the title. If you’re selling, it will take some time for you to get your home ready to go on the market. You’ll work with a real estate agent to create your home listing and develop a plan for marketing your home. After your home sells (which might take a few weeks or more), you’ll have several weeks to prepare for the closing date. Commit to remaining focused and diligent throughout the entire process. It will require a great deal of your time and energy.

There’s a chance that you’ll have to manage multiple mortgages at one time. You can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to sell your current home before you begin making payments on your new home. You could certainly wait to begin shopping for your next home until after your current home sells, but where will you live in the meantime? Reach out to your lender to discuss your options. The main thing your lender will work to assess is how long you could handle both mortgage payments before it becomes a significant financial burden for you. You’ll also need to have enough cash on hand to pay for your next down payment and to handle your share of closing costs. In most transactions, the buyer’s share of closing costs amounts to somewhere between 2% and 5% of the total cost of the home.

In a perfect world, you could complete both closings on the same day. You would close on the home that you’re selling in the morning and drive to your afternoon closing for the home that you’re purchasing in a fully packed moving truck. After you sign the papers and receive the keys, you head over to your new home to begin unpacking your boxes. Some people are lucky enough to have their sale and purchase time out this way. For most people, the process isn’t quite as easy. You may need to have a short-term plan for where you’ll live while you’re in between homes. If your closings are only a few days apart, you can stay with a friend or check into a hotel. If you’re going to be waiting longer than a week or two, you might have to pursue another option. Perhaps you can convince the person buying your previous home to agree to a rent-back deal. This will allow you to stay in your home while you search for a new home to buy. Usually, this clause can last a maximum of sixty days, but most people don’t even need this much time. Buyers don’t have any incentive to accept this sort of clause, so you may have to package it in an offer with a lower asking price or another incentive that is favorable for the buyer. You could also consider a short-term rental property, or you could include a seller’s contingency in the contract for the home that you’re selling that allows you to void the deal if you can’t find another home to buy.

Buyers and sellers of houses for sale in Jersey City each have unique roles in their respective transactions. You’ll prepare to shop for a home by getting pre-approved for a loan and understanding what you want in your new property. In order to get ready to sell, you’ll have to consider where you might price your home and what sort of upgrades will be necessary to make your home stand out on the market. It’s also wise to think about the time of year when you’ll be buying and selling homes. The market rises and falls throughout the year. Summer is often a more profitable time for sellers, while buyers tend to have more negotiating power during the fall and winter. Think about how the time of year when you’ll be working on buying and selling homes could impact the sort of return that you receive or the financial commitment you must put forth.

Ideally, you’ll work with the same real estate agent on both transactions. An experienced realtor knows what it’s like to have multiple home deals happening at the same time. They will be able to effectively help you navigate your way through both transactions, especially since they will understand each one on a deep level. The Sutherlin Group is a great group to contact when looking for houses for sale in Jersey City. They have been one of the top-producing real estate teams in the entire Jersey City area for the last decade. Each of their agents has a deep knowledge of the area and the current state of the market. They work hard to assess each client’s needs and fulfill their expectations. They will serve you with commitment and integrity and look forward to getting your call.