Want to sell your current home and buy your new house simultaneously?
- Don’t get a house under contract to buy until your home for sale goes under contract. Going under contract to buy without yet finding a buyer for your home will put way too much pressure to accept unfavorable terms for the sale of your home. Keep in mind that most sellers want their home sold in 45 days or less. That means, if you go under contract to buy, you only have a limited time to sell.
- As you are making an offer to buy, don’t make the purchase contingent on the sale of your home. I have yet to meet a seller that will wait till you sell your home to buy theirs. Would you? Disclosing the latter is disclosing a weakness (your need to sell before your buy) during negotiations. There are many other terms which give you ways out of a contract without disclosing weakness. Just make sure your agent explains them to you.
- Request from buyers that are buying your house to let you stay (rent) in the home for a few days after closing. There is a 50%-50% chance that the buyers will agree, so there is nothing to lose.
- A simultaneous purchase and sale involves some risk. So when it comes to making a decision and your head is saying “don’t do it”, but your guts are saying “yes”? Do it! Specially in a double closing, it is the time to be aggressive.
Mario Avalos 