If you are a homeowner and you’re looking to move, it’s more than likely that you will need to sell your current home in order to be able to buy the new one. Thus, a dilemma arises: should you put your current home on the market while looking for your new home, or should you wait until you have found a new home before looking to sell your current one?
While there is no hard and fast right answer to this question, there are a couple of things you should consider which might help you decide on the best course of action for yourself.
The benefits of waiting until you’ve found a new home
If you wait until you’ve found and secured a new home before putting yours on the market, you reduce the risk of someone buying yours before you’ve found another place to live. In other words, you’ve reduced your risk of potentially being made homeless and being forced into moving into a friend’s spare room or paying to rent temporary accommodation.
Furthermore, if you wait to put your home on the market, you are giving yourself room to change your mind about moving, should circumstances force you to do so.
Also, if you have found a buyer for your home, you don’t necessarily need to feel pressured into moving quickly. If the buyer is particularly keen on your home, chances are they will be happy to wait a few weeks to allow you to find a new place. To this end, it’s good to try and enter a dialogue with the buyer, form a relationship, and hopefully create a situation where they are sympathetic to your cause.
The benefits of putting your home on the market straight away
To buy your new home, you probably need to sell your current home. It makes sense, therefore, that you ensure you have the money in your pocket before putting in an offer. Doing so would also mean you are ready to move quickly which is often appealing to sellers who want to avoid getting mixed up in a chain.
Just like you, they probably need to sell their own home before they can pay for their new one. Should you find yourself in a situation where another buyer is interested in the same property you are, being ‘ready to go’ will give you a great advantage and may be the difference between securing or losing your dream home.
Study your specific situation and market
As you can see, there are benefits and downsides to both methods. This means you need to consider your own specific situation in order to make the best decision for you.
Can you, if needs be, afford to pay for some temporary accommodation if someone buys your home before you find a new one? If so, putting your home on the market and getting yourself ‘ready to go’ might be the best option.
Are there lots of properties that you like currently on the market, or is your search going to take you a long time? If there are lots of available properties, stick your home on the market, sell it, and then quickly get the ball rolling on buying your new one. If your search criteria means your choices are limited, it’s probably best to wait before marketing your current abode.
How quickly do homes like yours sell in your area? If they get snapped up quickly and you’re confident a buyer will easily be found, you can probably afford to wait until you’ve found a new home before marketing your current one. But if your local market is notoriously sluggish and homes are listed for months before finding a buyer, it’s wise to get it on the market ASAP to avoid a long and painful wait while you have to watch homes you love come to market and get snapped up before you can afford to act.
It’s a dilemma, that’s for sure, and just one of things that can make moving so infamously stressful. But isn’t years of happiness in your dream home worth a little stress? We certainly think so. In some ways, it makes that first night in your new home, whenever that moment comes, all the more sweet.
Did you put your home on the market straight away, or did you wait? How did it work out for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
And if you have any questions about this, or would like some advice on which option you should go for, let us know in the comments below and our property expert, Russell Quirk, will get right back to you.
