Selling your house and buying a new one in NOVA : How do people do that? (real estate, rent)

[Carlingtonian]

We've moved from a condo to a small house to a medium-sized house in the last 10 years, and we have never held two mortgages at once. You have to focus on selling the house you're in--and then worry about finding another house when that's done. In this market, you should line up some kind of short-term rental as an option.

As to buying the next house, a sale-of-current-home contingency is going to lose every time in this market. You're competing with all-cash buyers in many cases. Appraisal and home inspection shoudl be your only contingencies--and if you can ogle enough on a walk-through (especially if you have a handyman-type friend with you), you might even consider waiving the latter to be competitive.

If you want to move into a more expensive home, that of course does mean you'll have to have more saved up and have higher incomes than you did when you bought the current home.

[ACWhite]

Some of it depends on how rare the type of house is that you are seeking. If it is going to take you many months to find a house to your liking (one that you won't feel forced to "settle for"), then you may decide to stay in your current house until you find the new one, at the risk of carrying two mortgages. Or you could move into a short term lease and have to move twice. But if there are a lot of houses that could satisfy you, then it might make more sense to sell your current place first.

[hilsmom]

we had also priced out the storage+short-term apartment rental option just in case. It came out to about the same as our TH mortgage.

[Grsz11]

You could rent the old property for a year to cover the mortgage and give you time.

[dmv101010]

We sold and moved in with in laws for a few months. Now way I would have risked my condo NOT selling and being stuck with both!

[newnewsmama]

Originally Posted by Grsz11

You could rent the old property for a year to cover the mortgage and give you time.

Most buyers won't agree with this.

[dtt99]

Hi,

I am also contemplating this route but I think I not qualified for 2 mortgages with the price I am looking for with my current income. I believe I would be able to with a co-signer and my sister would agree to do this. However, when I asked a loan officer last year, he said that co-signer are no longer allowed in a mortgage with the current lending rules. Is it true? I read some online comments recently and they still mentioned co-signer.

Thanks.

[NovaOne]

We are going to have to carry two mortgages. We will probably start selling our current home 2 months prior to the firm date of when our new home will be complete (being built). We will shoot for a 2-week overlap so that we have plenty of time to move. Fingers crossed.

[ReblTeen84]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

As to buying the next house, a sale-of-current-home contingency is going to lose every time in this market. You're competing with all-cash buyers in many cases. Appraisal and home inspection shoudl be your only contingencies--and if you can ogle enough on a walk-through (especially if you have a handyman-type friend with you), you might even consider waiving the latter to be competitive.

There is no way I'd ever waive a home inspection - no one should. You might get lucky and there won't be anything wrong, or you wind up in the situation my grandparents did. House looked great, beautiful redone kitchen...they've since had to replace the furnace, A/C, the flooring in the kitchen was done wrong, the roof had to be replaced, windows had to be replaced, doors had to be replaced, yard needed drainage work, there were some wiring issues, piping issues, insulation issues...the list goes on. This was all in probably the last 6 or so years. Some of it is general maintenance of course, but a fair amount of this would have been caught on an inspection and could have either been negotiated in the price or they probably would have completely turned the house down.

That said, the wife and I are looking at going from our TH to a SF. We'll either time the sale so that we go to closing on both houses around the same time or we'll sell ours first, store our stuff and stay in an extended stay hotel or rent back for a month or two while we find ourselves a house. I don't want two mortgages, and I want the equity out of the current house for the down payment on the next one.

[Oldhag1]

Originally Posted by newnewsmama

Most buyers won't agree with this.

I think he means that instead of putting the old house on the market, to rent it out to someone on a one year lease and after that ends putting it on the market then.