Deciding To Sell

Why Sell? There are so many reasons why you may decide to put your home on the market: Perhaps you and your family have outgrown your existing home and need something larger. Or, you may be seeking a smaller home because your children have grown and moved out on their own. Maybe your goal is to move into a specific neighborhood or school district. Or maybe a career opportunity has you relocating away from the Washington DC. Some sellers find themselves in a position of having to sell their current home because they have become unable to afford it due to a career change, divorce, injury or sickness, death in the family or other event. Still others are selling to "cash out" the significant value gains their property has realized over the past several years. Whatever your reasons to sell, be sure that your decision to put your current home on the market is a fully informed one and that you evaluate whether the primary drivers to your decision to sell are substantial enough to counter-balance or outweigh the inevitable impacts on you and your family's lifestyle, finances, and opportunities. As your real estate agent, I can help you to identify the financial, lifestyle, and opportunity costs and benefits associated with selling your current home.

When Should You Sell? Once you have decided to sell your home, you should then establish your desired time frame for selling. As you plan your time frame, be sure to include sufficient time to properly prepare your home for sale including repair and cleaning projects. You might schedule your home sale to coincide with the peak selling season, which in the Washington DC area is usually the late spring/early summer time frame. However, if the peak selling season is months away and the current market is very strong for sellers, I would recommend not waiting and taking advantage of the seller's market, since there is no telling what the condition of the market may be in the months ahead. Also, if you require a quick sale, you might not be able to wait until the peak selling season rolls around, so you may have to employ aggressive selling strategies that might garner a quicker sale, such as buyer incentives or a below-market price. As your agent, I will work with you identify the best schedule and selling strategy to meet your preferred selling timeframe.

What are the Current Market Conditions? Markets generally don't radically change over night, but they do evolve with some speed. Don't be caught selling in today's market using the tools and customs that were appropriate in a totally different market. Knowing the type of market you're in when you prepare to sell your home will give you a better grasp on what will be involved in preparing your home for sale and how long it might take to sell. When you work with me, you can be sure that you'll have my knowledge, expertise and negotiating skills at work for you to arrive at the best selling strategy for your home. I will keep you up-to-date on what is happening in the marketplace and the price, financing, terms and conditions of competing properties. I will work with you to give you the knowledge to know how to price and when to sell your home.

Should You Buy Your Next Home Before You Sell Your Current Home? If you are selling your home in order to purchase a different home, it is essential to assess what is the best sequence of events - should you sell your current home first (or at least have it under a non-contingent contract) or can you risk buying your new home while your current one is unsold? There certainly are risks involved in signing a contract to buy a new home before your existing home is at least firmly under contract (with no walk-away rights remaining for the buyer). If you can't find a buyer for your home, and were relying on the sale of your existing home for the down payment on your new home, you may have to find another source for the down payment or, if possible, take a home equity line to pull cash from the existing home. If your financing for the new home is contingent on selling your existing home, and that home has yet to sell, your financing may fall apart and you may not be able to go to settlement on the new home, causing you to risk losing your earnest-money deposit on the new home. Even if you can obtain financing on the new home purchase even though your existing home is not sold, for how long could you afford to pay two mortgages (as well as taxes, insurance, and utilities) each month?

The risks of buying before selling are more or less serious depending on the state of the real estate market at the time you considering buying or selling. In a balanced market or a buyer's market, selling your home may take some time and that time can be further extended if your home is not fully prepared to sell or if your home is not appropriately priced. Also, if you're under extra pressure to sell fast in order to buy your new home, you may put yourself in a position to ask for or accept less than the full market value in exchange for a speedier sale. In a white hot seller's market, it can be much harder to find and win a new home to purchase than it may be to sell your existing home, so contracting to buy a new home may be a smaller risk since selling your existing home should not take long (but, remember that houses that are in good condition, priced appropriately and show well will always sell faster in any market than houses that don't meet these criteria). In a seller's market, waiting to buy a home only after you have a contract to sell your existing home may create different issues. What happens if you cannot find a new home and close on it in time to move out of your existing home and turn it over to the new buyer? You may have to make temporary living arrangements.

Asking for a "Sale of Home" contingency as part of your purchase offer on your new home may be an option. A "Sale of Home" contingency generally states that the buyer's obligation to purchase the seller's property is contingent on the buyer first selling his existing home within a certain timeframe. However, would you, as a seller, be willing to agree to such a provision? Would you be willing to take your home off of the market for a buyer that has to sell his existing home in order to buy yours? It may mean losing valuable marketing time only to have the buyer cancel the contract because he is unable to find a qualified buyer for his home in the requisite timeframe.

As your agent, I will help you assess the current market conditions and establish the best plan of attack for selling of your current home and buying your new home.

© Nadia Nejaime, 2006