Professional real estate agents are often presented with the classic chicken and egg dilemma with clients. The questions go something like: “Do we buy the house to move to first and then sell our home?” OR “Do we sell the house we live in not knowing where we will go after it sells?”
I begin the dialogue with people in this situation by inquiring: “Can you qualify and afford to own two homes at the same time?” If the client is not capable of that financially, then the question has already been answered. They will have to sell and then figure out where to go. That may entail living in temporary housing or renting while determining the next move.
If one can qualify and afford to own two homes at the same time, then the next question is: “Do they want to?” Many people cannot tolerate the risk associated with that scenario. So once again, the question has already been answered, put the home on the market and get it under contract, then go out and purchase a home requesting coinciding settlements in the offer.
Coinciding settlements is where the money that is coming from the sale of the current residence will be applied to the purchase of the next residence. It is important to be mindful of the jurisdictional and legal requirements that come into play with the use of this type of clause. Lending guidelines as well may make coordinating simultaneous settlements challenging. This scenario played out with seller clients who were moving out of state. First, they put their home under contract locally and then went to their new location and quickly identified a home and put it under contract, timing the settlements accordingly.
The question on the other side of the coin is: “Can you tolerate not knowing where you will move if your present home does sell first?” Often when buyers have very specific requirements for their next home and satisfying those are the priority, then that determines the order. That was the case for another client’s family. There were only a couple of town home communities where they wanted to live. At the same time we were confident their single family home would sell if priced correctly for the market. The client shared that the family would be living in the town home for some time to come and thus that was their priority, which easily answered the dilemma.
Karen Briscoe and Lizzy Conroy and their team are active and experienced Realtors® in the Northern Virginia, Washington DC and Maryland market place. Should you or someone you know desire guidance from a professional Realtor®, please visit our website for more information at: www.HBCGroupKW.com. Please contact via the means most convenient for you: 703-734-0192, Homes@HBCGroupKW.com
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