Selling Your House to Buy Another

Home ownership on the Monterey Peninsula

The Monterey Peninsula is a luxury real estate market, and one of the more desirable living destinations in the world. For this reason, home values on the Monterey Peninsula are considerably higher than state and national averages.  If you own a home on the Monterey Peninsula, you own a valuable asset, one that could potentially allow you access to considerable equity.

If you are like many of my clients, it’s possible that you want to sell your home and buy a new home here on the Monterey Peninsula.  For some clients, this is a two step process: you take your time and buy your new dream home, and then once moved in, you list your other property for sale on the market.  However, the majority of homeowners may not be in a position to own more than one home at a time. When you are looking to trade-in your home — whether you are a growing family, looking to sell your starter house to move-up in size, or a retiring couple looking to sell the family home and downsize into something more manageable — you may need more help deciding the best strategy to accomplish your goals.

Buy the New Home First

As mentioned above, you may have the means to buy another home outright. This affords you the benefit of being able to take your time shopping, and then move into this new home before making a decision on what to do with the first property. Ways to do this include:

Use Cash Savings — if you have the funds available.

Qualify for temporary financing — such as with a Home Equity Line of Credit, or a “Bridge Loan.”

Buy an Investment Property — and use the established rental income to offset your ability to make payments.

Rent out your own home — and use the established rental income to offset your ability to make payments.

Sell Your Existing Home First

If you have some flexibility in your life situation, it may be a good idea to sell your home first and then take your time deciding what to do next. In this situation, you can be patient in fielding offers for your home. You can put your profits in the bank, and let the dust settle before deciding what type of purchase to make next. This is especially helpful if you are relocating, as it will give you a chance to get to know the new area before committing to buying a home. However, it can mean having to move your possessions more than once, or finding a storage solution. Ways to do this include:

Rent for a year — while taking your time to study the market.

Find a month-to-month rental — to hold you over until you find your next house to buy.

Put your possessions in storage — and go on a vacation or stay in a hotel. This is a possibility when you have identified your replacement property, and just need to bridge the gap between moving out of the old place and into the new. Several moving companies combine moving and storage. They pack your possessions in a shipping container and store them until you move in to the new place.

Rent back — this can be built into the contract for the sale of your house. Your buyer agrees to let you stay in the home after closing, for a set time (30, 60, 90 days, etc). The purchase closes, you receive the profits, and then stay in the home and pay the buyer rent until the agreed move out date. This can be a useful scenario but it will limit buyer interest in your listing to some degree.

Selling as a Contingency of Buying

Another common way to facilitate the need to move-up or downsize to your next home is to make a contingent offer. You can make an offer to buy a home, with the condition that you are successfully able to sell your own home first. If you end up unable to sell your own home, you can back out of the purchase.  This contingency allows you the convenience of shopping for a new home without having the sale of your current property finalized.

In a strong seller’s market, it’s important to work with an agent who is doing a lot of business in your area, and understands the finer points of strategy when it comes to contingent offers.  If you write a strong contingent offer, you have a good chance of getting your offer accepted.  In order to do that, though, you will want your listing looking great and positioned to sell.  Below are some important points to consider:

Be in Escrow — Ideally, you will want to have your own property already in contract before making a contingent offer.  This way we will show the seller, “Look, here is our sale contract, we already have our property in escrow and we will close on this date.”  The further along you are into your own escrow, the better.

Be Active on the Market — If your house isn’t in escrow yet, the next best scenario is to be actively listed on the market.  This way, we can say, “Look, here is our beautiful listing, look how it is positioned to sell, we will be in escrow in no time.”  We can invite the agent and/or seller to come preview the property to see for themselves.  We can also build a case by providing a detailed market report on why the home is priced well, and what we are doing to get it sold.

Be Coming Soon — If your own listing is not active yet, it is still possible to make a contingent offer.  But if we want to convince the seller to accept our offer, we will need to build the best case possible.  Again, as above, we will show what we are doing to get your listing ready, where it will be priced, and when it will go live on the market.

Make a strong contingent offer — If you end up competing with other offers, it helps to do what you can to make your offer as attractive as possible.  You may need to offer a higher price than a cash buyer, for instance, because your offer is coming with more risk and a longer wait time to close.  It can also help to sweeten some of the terms in the contract, like paying for costs and fees not typical for the buyer, or shortening other contingency periods, etc.  

However, if the house has been sitting on the market, with no offers, you may hold leverage in the negotiations, even with a contingent offer.  This is all a part of the negotiation process and is something that a skilled agent will offer guidance on.  The end result is to accomplish your goals, while getting you the best result possible!

Your Trusted Guide Through the Process

A local resource you can trust

If you or someone you know is thinking about selling a home in order to buy another, it helps to have a trusted resource to call on.  Whether your goal is to move up to a larger home, or to downsize into something more manageable, it is important to have the right professional there to guide you through the process.  

I encourage you to call me at 831-869-6117 so we can discuss the current market dynamics and review your options for getting the absolute best results possible.