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[Disney Princess 6]

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[Lewski709]

Welcome to life.....decisions decisions. You can do a bridge loan, you can also put $$ down and state that the sale is based on the sale of your current residence. Depends a lot on whehter the place is vacant, how long it's been on the market and if the seller is willing to wait. Talk to your realtor.

I am in a similar situation. I want to put our house up NOW and DH wants to wait. We aren't planning to move locally though and I only have a lead on a job in the area. I am sure once there, I would have no trouble. It's not a risk he wants to take.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We have been doing a really treacherous real estate dance as well. We started building our log home with a construction loan that was supposed to be settled by last April. Our house was on the market for nearly a year with a couple of deals that fell through. Finally, everything came together just in time. We were paying double payments only for about 3 months.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Well what you do is prepare your house all winter to be ready for the market in Feb. Then you look and you can put a bid out there contingent on your home selling but if is a "hot" property, and you really, really want it then you can always do the bridge loan and be prepared to pay 2 mortgages.

OR

You sell your home, move into apartment and then look or build.

So I guess you do alot of prep work as necessary or needed. How fast will your house sell? Is it ready?

Good Luck!

 

[chager]

When we were doing this many years ago we put a contract on a house stating we had until X date to sell our home. If it didn't sell then the contract would expire. Long story but we didn't get the house, but it turned out for the best in the end. The person that did get it had to do alot of repair items to it.
My parents just placed a contract on a home with the condition that their home sale and if another offer is made they have the option of purchasing the home first. It turns out their home now has a contract and they will close next week on both houses
I also know someone that sold their house first and moved into an apartment until they found a new home. You should start by finding an agent to work with. Good luck

 

[Disney Princess 6]

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[Disney Princess 6]

We've been out looking for a house for about two months now and also getting our own home ready to go. We finally found the perfect home, but we just don't know what to do.

 

[GlennandAnn]

We bought our new house and then put the old one on the market. I can't remember why (and that was only 8 months ago!!). It was a bit worrisome for me, but in the end it all worked out fine.


Ann

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

I think everyone is in the same boat and you aren't alone.

We were doing the same thing. Before we had our house on the market we were looking at homes and our realtor told us we shouldn't do it that way because if we found something and our house wasn't for sale it wouldn't look good when you put in an offer on a home, especially if the sellers weren't in that situation.
We found a house we really liked but it need alot of elbow work. We did put our house on the market and put a bid on the other house. Well, the guy didn't accept our bid, or even counter offer on it because our house wasn't "sold" or "on deposit". I thought that was pretty stupid, but understandable.

Needless to say, the market went sky high in our area and even though we could get alot of money for our house, we'd have to go up really high to get something that we really wanted and unfortunately I didn't want to have a huge mortgage, so we took our house off the market for now until things get back to normal.

 

[Lewski709]

I think you have answered your own question.
Good Luck. I know how hard it is.

 

[Disney Princess 6]

This is keeping me up at night!

 

[laurie31]

If it's meant to be, then it will happen...but you have to go for it

We had looked for a house for three years, and had finally given up and were going to build. We bought a lot and were saving for a construction loan. Then one day, we passed by the perfect house. We went and looked at it the next day. We decided this was the one, we put our house and our lot on the market the next day, put a contract on the house and crossed our fingers. We had budgeted so if our house didn't sell, we could make payments on both for a few months, but we didn't know what would happen long term. It turned out our house sold in 8 days! We were shocked! Our lot sold quickly as well. We couldn't believe how fast it all happened. We did end up closing on our new house before the sale was completed on our old one. The bank was confused about that - we had to keep insisting we DIDN'T have a contingency contract. It's the way it's done here. I had no idea it wasn't like that everywhere. Are you on the west coast where real estate is so difficult to obtain? Just curious

At any rate, read between the lines and see that you really want this house, and you know your old one will sell in a reasonable time There are no guarentees about anything in life...so you will have to choose the lesser of the two evils - missing out on this house you want, or possibly being stuck with two houses for awhile. Good luck and pixie dust to you

Laurie

 

[KimRaye]

Originally posted by Disney Princess 6
I can definitely say that no one is able to bid with a contingency in my area of the country.

Not even a MORTGAGE contingency?

Now, if a mortgage contingency IS acceptable, here's the way to bid, while still having an out......The contract is contingent upon you getting a mortgage....You apply for a mortgage and, the mortgage is contingent upon you selling and closing on your present home (for the funds)....IF you haven't sold or closed, that is your out. You don't have an UNconditional mortgage and, you can't meet the conditions. See? Don't know where you're from but, around here, this is exactly what we do. And, I'd advise getting an attorney to assist you with the dates and timeliness of communications regarding ANY contingencies.

Hope that helps.

 

[thinkerbell]

My husband and I sold our house in Dec. We didn't even start looking until it was sold. I didn't want to find something that I really wanted before we got rid of the first house. Bills drive me crazy and we wouldn't have been able to afford two house payments. We are now in an apartment until the end of June so really, we get to move twice in just a few months instead of once. That is the down side of doing it this way. We have a contract on a house now.

The people who bought our house did buy it without selling their house. They got a bridge loan and they still have not sold their first house.

My in-laws had a contract on their house that was a long term contract (a developer wanted their land--about a year out) so they went and bought a house based on that. The contract fell through and now they have two houses-- both up for sell at this time.

You just never know what the right thing to do is. Good luck on whatever you decide. I definitely feel your pain. I HATE moving and selling houses.

 

[CamColt]

We werent really looking so our house was not up for sale. Then we happened to find our dream home being built. We put our house up for sale and made an offer on the house on the same day. In our P&S agreement we had a clause that if we didnt get funding due to our house not selling, we would lose our deposit. This was put in because we hadnt been prequalified, preapproved or anything. It was totally spur of the moment.
In the end our house sold in 9 days and we schedule the passing of papers for the same day. We sold at 9:00am and were "homeless" until we bought at 11:00am. We needed to sell first to get the check.

 

[Hillbeans]

We had our house on the market and sold before we looked for a new house....we did have to move into an extended stay hotel for 20 days which was not fun, however we made a nice profit and found a place we love.

I do agree though that in today's "hot" market, a seller would take a contingency offer as a last resort. It's too risky.

Good luck to you.

 

[stinkerbelle]

Last year, at around this time, DH and I had been looking at houses for a while...we thought we found "the one" and we put a bid in with "Hubbard Clause" (meaning - we had to sell our house first before we could close on this other house.)

Well...we were outbid and we sold our house after 8 days for full asking price.

so we had 'the fear' in us.

I packed up my house and kept thinking - we have nowhere to go - we just lost a perfectly fine home. (the taxes in the city we were in were KILLING us.)

finally - about 2 weeks before we closed on our house - we found a home...of course, it was a still part of a forest, but we found a home. 4 months! the contractor said.

yeah right.

we got a short term lease at an apartment complex...went from 1400 sq ft house with garage to a barely 800 sq ft 1 bedroom apartment. thankfully 3 weeks before our lease was up - our house was finished and we moved in. (2400 sq ft plus garage and basement!)

even if we hadn't found that house...we at least had someplace to go...yes it was cramped and it sucked and most of our stuff was in storage (AND we were planning our wedding at the same time!) but it all worked out. AND we had the profit from our first house to put down as cash...builders (and I bet sellers) would like that too!

 

[SC Minnie]

I guess we lucked out and it was just 'meant to be' when we moved. We had been kind of looking in an area about 45 minutes away but nearer to work. We stumbled on the perfect house still under construction and put a bid on it and it was accepted. 2 days later we put our house on the market and it sold in less than 3 days. We were able to close on both houses within a week of each other- the new one first.

 

[soccerchick]

Originally posted by KimRaye
Not even a MORTGAGE contingency?

No, in my area there are NO contingencies. Serious buyers are pre-approved. People are buying homes w/o home inspections because the market is so crazy. Prices hve gone up so much that appraisals are even coming in too low and buyers have to pony up more cash. We are getting ready to sell our house and because their is so little in our price range, I expect it to go quickly.

To the OP -- we are buying new, so we bought and will sell this summer. We did look at a few resales. Several owners had a 3 or 4 month period before settlement and/or possession. Make an offer and ask about a flexible settlement date or possession date. Get yours ready to sell and consider a rent-back, etc as needed.

Your real estate agent should really be going over these options with you, and if you love the house, try for it. I love my real estate agent; she knows her stuff and advocates for her clients BIG TIME! This is the second time we've used her and couldn't be happier.

 

[Feralpeg]

I began building my new home in November. I didn't put my current home on the market until January. We will be moving from Kansas City to Orlando on Monday. I was really sweating it until last week. My home in Kansas City sold last Tuesday. It has all come together just perfect. Hope it works out as well for you!