Should I Sell My House First?

Should I Buy a House First?

The age old question.

• Should I sell my house first, before I buy another property?
• Should I put a conditional offer in on a property and then hope my house sells, before someone else buys my new dream home?



• Perhaps I should just take a chance, put in an unconditional offer on a home and then hope everything works out and my present home sells.

These are all good questions whether you should buy or sell first and the answer to all of them is;

First of all, whether you decide to put an unconditional offer, a conditional offer, or decide to sell your house first, you should have all the necessary contract forms on hand.

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Should I sell my house first? Lets examine the factors that come into play and how you might come to your personal best solution.

How are your personal finances? If you had to, could you manage to own two properties at the same time for a possible extended period of time including perhaps two mortgages?

If the answer is yes, then the decision is entirely up to you. It then becomes a question of, "Do I want to?"

If you can't afford to carry two properties for any length of time without financial hardship, should I sell my house first may be an easy decision.

If you can carry two houses for say, 6 months or so, then a good idea is to look at some of the other criteria below for a decision.

The next question you need to ask yourself, when it comes to should I sell my house first, is what are the market like where I'm living now?

It could be:

• A blazing hot market.
• A sellers market.
• A balanced market.
• A buyers market.
• A "Nothing is Selling" market.

Unless you have cash available, go to your mortgage lender or mortgage broker, explain your situation and get qualified for a Bridge Loan, or another 1st mortgage for the new house.

You then, if desired, would be able to shop for your new home, and purchase before your own house is sold, or even on the market.

Not familiar with mortgage brokers? For an explanation, go from Should I Sell My House to What is a Mortgage Broker

CAUTION: Markets can change suddenly due to unforeseen calamities! Make sure you are comfortable before proceeding with the above.

If it's a good solid sellers market, you might proceed as above, but you might want to make your closing date further down the road.

If it's a balanced market tread carefully, but you probably might want to consider a conditional offer, or just wait and see how the sale of your present property proceeds.

If its a buyers market you might want to consider two different choices:

• Wait until your house sells first
• Put a conditional offer in on your next house. You can always firm it up later if you are comfortable doing so.

Just put all your efforts into marketing and selling your own home and worry about buying later. There will be plenty of homes to choose from so there is no pressure.

If you decide to put in an unconditional offer on a house before your house is sold, there are some real issues that could come back and bite you later.

If you aren't excited about owning two properties at the same time and renting one of the houses gives you a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, you may just get desperate after a period of time and start your own "Going out of Business" sale.

You start getting desperate to sell and start to lower the asking price of your house in a rapid fashion.

The downward spiral of the asking price might also be brought on after you move into your new house, only to discover you can't really carry both homes and keep a lifestyle close to what you are accustomed.

If you decide to put in a conditional offer subject to the sale of your present property, you are probably going to pay more for the property you are buying.

An unconditional offer is much easier to negotiate a lower price.

In summary, the question of should I sell my house first or buy first boils down to this personal opinion.

The only time I personally feel that it might be to most people's advantage to buy before you sell, is during those super "hot" markets when you can't even get your sign planted and the offers start coming.

You may want to read this excellent (2 part) article on Should I Sell My House First? The site also has some mortgage calculators for the U.S.A. and Canada.

Note: Another one of my: "That always amazes me" moments.

I've seen some of those "hot" markets before and could never understand why in most cases, owners would hire a Realtor^® to sell their house.

Why would they pay someone perhaps $10,000 - 15,000. for what might be a few hours work, when they could do it on their own?

I am of course a big for sale by owner fan so I could be bias! :-)

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