No doubt about it, selling a home and making a move has always been nerve-racking and stressful. Nowadays it has been compounded by the fact that there are far fewer homes for sale, that’s making it difficult to find a replacement home. We have noticed that this is caused additional fear and uncertainty for our home sellers.
Selling a home has always taken a leap of faith. Almost always homeowners need to sell their current home and use those funds in order to purchase their next home. Up until about six months ago it was almost always possible to write an offer on a new home that was contingent on the sale of the current home. When there was more than one offer on a house it was more challenging, but still possible. It seems like overnight this all changed when nearly every home was receiving four or more offers. It became difficult to compete when the majority of buyers did not need to also sell a home.
Because of this it has actually complicated the scenario, as many people who would be selling their homes have decided not to face this challenge. Thus deepening the issue of low inventory.
How do we overcome this? We have found that if someone is motivated enough then they are willing to get creative. The most common option right now is to put a home your the market, accept an offer within a week, and then start looking for your new home. Home buyers are so eager right now that they are often giving two months of time after the close of escrow for a home seller to find their new home.
What if that isn’t long enough? Sometimes the 2 to 3 months to find the replacement home isn’t enough time. This does mean having a back up plan. We get it, having to move twice is a pain in the you know what and certainly isn’t ideal! For those that are motivated it can still be made rather seamless. It’s all about putting the pieces of the puzzle together ahead of time as opposed to being last minute. Working with a skilled realtor can take a lot of the stress off of you and make finding your new home fun and exciting. There are many intricate details to this process, and many more options than what was just talked about in this article. If you have further questions, we would love to answer them.