I just went through it and I'll do my best to give you some insight.
First thing you need to decide is, are you buying first? or are you going to sell first.
I bought first, the reason for it was that I wanted to find the house I wanted and not have to compromise and rush because the closing date of the house you sold is approaching.
On the flip side, if you buy first then you might have to compromise on the price of your current house and closing dates because you need to sell.
I had a couple of real state agents in mind, told both what I wanted, the area and my expectations, did not sign with neither of them and let them go to work. One was trying to under price my house so she could sell it fast, sent me a bunch of listings for an area I didn't want.
The other sent me a few good listings, took us there and never put any pressure on us to sign or buy, we end up finding a house we wanted and she was very clear on the information she gave us with no BS, so we went with her into a multiple offer situation and won, we then sign with her to sell our house. She staged our home completely and bought a few fixtures and installed our back splash, all we did was pay for the material she bought at discounted prices - so my point, choosing the real state agent is key.
One was 5% if the buyer belong to another agent and 3% if it was one of her own clients.
The other we negotiated 4 percent regardless. First thing she said was, don't screw with the buyers agent commission or no one will bring their clients, so that 2.5 is untouchable, the other 2.5 is negotiable.
So now we bought a house and need to sell:
Ensure the real state agent gives you a lot of comparables and don't set the price too high but don't go low because you feel the pressure to sell - The house will sell.
Be prepared to be flexible on the closing date, you might have to put your stuff in storage and move somewhere for a period of time. remember if you are flexible your pool of buyers increases, it seems in my experience that an early closing date is very desired and it could be the deal breaker. We had to put everything in storage with PODS and moved to my moms basement for 3 weeks (that was fun) but the priority is to sell the house.
Also keep in mind, the bank won't give you a bridge loan unless you have a closing date for the house you sold, so the risk is if you buy first and don't sell before the closing date of the house you bought you are **** out of luck because the bank won't give you a second loan. Edit: Unless as Bryan said, you put a condition when you made the offer, in my case with 8 other people wanting the same house, I had to go in with no conditions and pray I sold my house, risky but payed off - if you are looking in a desirable area, good luck buying something with a financing condition or any condition.
Always... ALWAYS ensure you do a full pre-inspection, you might lose 300 bucks but eliminating that condition can make the difference in getting the house you want or it going to someone else (Sellers Market right now)
Anyways, everything was very stressful and a pain but we are now half the way closer to work in a beautiful house in a great area because we took our time finding the home we wanted without rush.
Not sure what else I am missing but if I think on something else I will post. Good luck
For the amount of information out there regarding buying a home, not much is available on selling one.
We'd like to sell out current "starter" home and move to another one more suitable to our(read: my) needs.
I want a workshop and current house cant accommodate that, hence the need to move.
Fiancee would also like more land between us and neighbors. Id also love to convert new home to semi-renewable energy. Lots of things i wanna do to the new home.
Anyone whos gone through the trouble of listing their home while shopping for another have any tips or tricks? How to you juggle simulaneous selling and buying? Did you use the same realtor for both transactions? What if any discounts did you get on the realtor fees?
