The Chicago real estate market has been strong this year; with homes selling more quickly than before., Homebuyers must be prepared to move when they find the home they love in a competitive market like this.
Buying a home is filled with its own challenges, but what happens when you need to sell your current home as well? If this is your situation, here are some tips on how you can survive selling and buying a home at the same time.
- Decide whether to buy or sell first: The first step is to find out if your local real estate market favors sellers or buyers. Knowing this information will help you to create a better buy/sell strategy. In general, if your market favors sellers, you should buy your new home first before listing your current home and vice versa in a buyer’s market.
- Find a trusted real estate agent: Experienced real estate agents will be able to help you navigate the complicated transactions of selling and buying your new home. Since your real estate agent can represent you as both a seller and buyer, they will be able to easily stay on top of signing deadlines, requirements and contracts so you can focus on finding the right home.
- Know your financing options: When you need to buy and sell a house, you will need to have enough money for the down payment and mortgage payments for the new home in case it takes longer to sell your current home. Because you’ll be carrying more debt, your debt-to-income ratio will be higher so it’ll be important to find a lender who is willing to work with you.
Need help financing a new home? Here are a couple of options: First, you can use contract contingencies stating the new home purchase will be dependent on selling your current home (though this may be risky in a very competitive seller’s market). The second option is securing a bridge loan (a short-term loan based on your current home’s equity) to serve as the down payment for your new home.
Buying and selling a home requires advanced planning to make the entire process more efficient. If you are looking to buy a new home in the Chicagoland area, we have several new home communities where Chicagoans can find a great place to live, a good deal and enduring value. Visit us online today!
