The last few years have been very difficult for home sellers.  But, now with the market on the mend you might want to think about becoming a move-up buyer.  The move-up buyer is a homeowner who has to sell their current home to move UP to maybe their dream home.  Did you purchase your first home prior to the market decline?  You might be able to make the step up to a home that fits your needs more than your “first-time-buyer” home.  Your life has probably changed which means your housing needs probably have also.

Your home might have lost some equity in the market down-turn and it might not be acquiring equity as fast as we here in the West Sound are use to.  You probably are worried about not getting what you think you should when selling your home after this down-turn.

Let’s do the math: Home sellers sometimes get overwhelmed thinking about how much less they might receive for their home when they have to sell in or just after a market down turn. They usually forget to look at the flip side:  how much less they will pay for their next home.

Look at this example, if your home is worth $250,000 and you want to buy a home that is $400,000, the difference in value is seemingly $100,000.  However with home prices that have decreased roughly 10%* on average in today’s market, your current home’s value would be $225,000 and the home you want to move up to would be worth $360,000.  So while your home value has decreased by only $25,000, the home you want has decreased $40,000!

So, how do you start this move-up process?  What are the steps?  What do you do first?  Sell?  Buy?  Can you list and then purchase contingent in this market?

Step 1:  First we need to start with a loan qualification.  Figure out what type of payment you want to have on your new property, contact one of our preferred lenders, have them work the math and tell us how much home you can purchase.

Step 2:  We need to find out what your current home will sell for in today’s market.  We will perform a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA).  This shows us what homes are selling for that are similar to yours.

Step 3:  Get ready to list the home for sale.  Do some de-cluttering, check they systems, make repairs and stage for photos.

Step 4:  List home For Sale!

Step 5:  Start looking at home to move-up to.  This might be a tricky part.  You might find a home you love and want to make an offer.  You can make an offer that is contingent on the sale of your current home, but the sellers don’t have to accept it.  If they don’t accept your offer, that’s fine, we will just continue to market your home so that you can write a non-contingent offer.  Homes in the Port Orchard area have a market time of about 35 days.  You have some time.  Sure the home might sell but new homes come on the market daily.  There will be another, maybe even better.

*  Port Orchard median sold price for homes in 2005 was $234,900.  In 2012 the median sold price was $211,000 which would be a decrease of $23,900 or 10.175%.  Homes sold in 2013 are helping bridge the gap.  So far this year the median sold price is $221,250 which is just about a 6% decrease.  Port Orchard is making gains.