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Question for those of you knowledgeable in real estate in NH:
How are sellers in southern NH typically dealing with buyers that have a home sale contingency? Obviously, many buyers have this contingency, but I know not all do. Are many sellers passing on these offers? Or something else? Or maybe it's a non-issue?
Like everything else about real estate, in SNH and elsewhere, each situation is unique, and much will depend on the answers to these questions: How long has the property been on the market? Why are they selling (divorce? relo? upsizing or downsizing?) How many showings has it had? How many offers? How close to asking price is this offer? Any seller concessions? How long has your house been on the market? Is it priced right? Has it has showings? Offers?
Your agent is the best one to answer these questions (and they will only know the answers to YOUR side of the transaction--even if they are a disclosed dual agent who has listed the property, they can't share info about their listing with their buyer-client without written permission from their seller-client. What I CAN tell you is that the last several weeks have become a very active market that is strongly favoring Sellers.
This was our recent experience: We had our place on the market for a few weeks and then took it off because although current conditions favored us as sellers, we were at a disadvantage as buyers - the few houses that we were interested in weren't interested in us because we would have been making a contingent offer.
This was our recent experience: We had our place on the market for a few weeks and then took it off because although current conditions favored us as sellers, we were at a disadvantage as buyers - the few houses that we were interested in weren't interested in us because we would have been making a contingent offer.
Wow, fascinating. So your experience has been that the sellers are basically not interested in buyers that have a home to sell. Just seems F'd up to me. Ugh, guess we're doomed as we will have a house to sell.
I mean, is everyone a cash buyer coming out of an apartment??!!
Like everything else about real estate, in SNH and elsewhere, each situation is unique, and much will depend on the answers to these questions: How long has the property been on the market? Why are they selling (divorce? relo? upsizing or downsizing?) How many showings has it had? How many offers? How close to asking price is this offer? Any seller concessions? How long has your house been on the market? Is it priced right? Has it has showings? Offers?
Your agent is the best one to answer these questions (and they will only know the answers to YOUR side of the transaction--even if they are a disclosed dual agent who has listed the property, they can't share info about their listing with their buyer-client without written permission from their seller-client. What I CAN tell you is that the last several weeks have become a very active market that is strongly favoring Sellers.
I get that there are always individual circumstances. I'm wondering about what is typical today in SNH. Of course, a seller with a desirable house that was just listed yesterday is going to be fussy. I would expect that. But what about the average seller (not in a super rush) on for couple months? Long Winter seems to say most sellers are not interested in us current homeowners. I fear that may be true. I've heard that is already happening in some parts of Mass, maybe NH, too...
That has been my experience in the past 6 weeks or so; maybe others have had better/different luck, and maybe things will change as more people list their homes for the spring market. Perhaps Valerie C has better insight here...
I didn't mean to just throw questions back at your original question, sorry. The single most important factor is that EACH seller has their own particular motivation for having their house on the market, and everything else is just small details. If a house has been on for a couple of months without an offer, there may be a larger issue involved. Not sure if you are referring to homes that you're seeing on the market or your own home (and it's none of my business, not asking for those kind of details).
House-to-sell contingencies are tough to peddle to a Seller in this type of market, especially if a house has been listed for more than 30 days without an offer. House-to-close contingencies are far more acceptable. The key is getting YOUR house under contract before you make an offer, but it can be very difficult to sell and buy on the same time frame. This is where some agents may suggest a bridge loan--or my preference: sell your current home and obtain a short term rental so that you can buy the right house when it becomes available. For many, that's far preferable to carrying 2 mortgages... I'm sure that the agent you're working with has been giving you similar advice, but it's nice to have the City Data sounding board in moments of doubt or frustration...
I didn't mean to just throw questions back at your original question, sorry. The single most important factor is that EACH seller has their own particular motivation for having their house on the market, and everything else is just small details. If a house has been on for a couple of months without an offer, there may be a larger issue involved. Not sure if you are referring to homes that you're seeing on the market or your own home (and it's none of my business, not asking for those kind of details).
House-to-sell contingencies are tough to peddle to a Seller in this type of market, especially if a house has been listed for more than 30 days without an offer. House-to-close contingencies are far more acceptable. The key is getting YOUR house under contract before you make an offer, but it can be very difficult to sell and buy on the same time frame. This is where some agents may suggest a bridge loan--or my preference: sell your current home and obtain a short term rental so that you can buy the right house when it becomes available. For many, that's far preferable to carrying 2 mortgages... I'm sure that the agent you're working with has been giving you similar advice, but it's nice to have the City Data sounding board in moments of doubt or frustration...
Thanks, makes sense. Appreciate your thoughts on the topic.
OP, I didn't want to deal with trying to sell and buy at the same time, so I simply rented what is now my former house. I had to have a signed lease with security deposit and my lender only counted 75% of the rent payment, so I had to qualify based on also paying for the difference between 75% of the rent and the mortgage payment on the old house, PLUS everything associated with the new house. I had virtually no other debts and great credit, so I was able to do it.
Of course, being a landlord isn't fun, but I've had decent tenants (especially now) and it's worked out fine (knock wood!!). It helps that I am only a few miles from my old house and can very quickly deal with any issues that arise -- no property management company needed.
OP, I didn't want to deal with trying to sell and buy at the same time, so I simply rented what is now my former house. I had to have a signed lease with security deposit and my lender only counted 75% of the rent payment, so I had to qualify based on also paying for the difference between 75% of the rent and the mortgage payment on the old house, PLUS everything associated with the new house. I had virtually no other debts and great credit, so I was able to do it.
Of course, being a landlord isn't fun, but I've had decent tenants (especially now) and it's worked out fine (knock wood!!). It helps that I am only a few miles from my old house and can very quickly deal with any issues that arise -- no property management company needed.
Make sure and investigate any contingencies with your lender as far as owning a rental property. I had a rental when we purchased our current home. I had to make quite a few phone calls to find a lender who would consider my rental income rather than just looking at my other home's mortgage as debt. Most places required either a 2 year rental history or a specific amount of equity. If you don't have a large enough down payment, the PMI company will have their own requirements as well.
When we bought our current home, our closing date was negotiated based on the seller closing on the home she was purchasing at the time.
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