first time selling and buying at same time - how do I start?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as bridge financing anymore. We got a loan based on paying both mortgages (i.e. the bank agreed we could afford both assuming our old house didn't sell). To pay for the downpayment, we bored from a HOLC on the first house (get it BEFORE you put your house on the market or apply for a loan). Then we supplemented that with 401K loans.

We closed on our old house one week after closing on the new houses. We paid off the HELOC and the 401K loans. We had also broken the mortgage fro our new house into 2 (a 1st for 417 -- the highest without a jumbo -- and a 2nd, which was actually a HELOC on the second house). We paid off the second HELOC and we have only the primary loan remaining.

Yes, it's risky, but we knew we could make it work for several months if we had to. We also ended up taking less than we might otherwise have to get our first house sold. I was still a very fair price, though, so we're ok with that. We got an amazing deal on an amazing house for our new house, so we couldn't be happier. You had to understand (which we did) that it's not risk free and you have to have enough float in case you can't sell right away (our old house sold after 10 days on the market and we had a very long closing time on our new house).

It's complicated. Good luck!

OP here. I think we're in a similar place. We have about $400k equity in the current house, which we'd like to roll entirely into a new one. We also have about $1M in investments including retirement $, 529s, and stocks/funds, which obviously I'd rather not tap. It seems like we should be able to borrow the $400k out of the current home since we do actually have the $. I'd just like to keep it simple - it seems like borrowing against each of our 401(ks) (what are the rates on that, by the way, and do you have to liquidate your investments to do it?) is a complicated way to pull together $400k when we have the $$ in the market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as bridge financing anymore. We got a loan based on paying both mortgages (i.e. the bank agreed we could afford both assuming our old house didn't sell). To pay for the downpayment, we bored from a HOLC on the first house (get it BEFORE you put your house on the market or apply for a loan). Then we supplemented that with 401K loans.

We closed on our old house one week after closing on the new houses. We paid off the HELOC and the 401K loans. We had also broken the mortgage fro our new house into 2 (a 1st for 417 -- the highest without a jumbo -- and a 2nd, which was actually a HELOC on the second house). We paid off the second HELOC and we have only the primary loan remaining.

Yes, it's risky, but we knew we could make it work for several months if we had to. We also ended up taking less than we might otherwise have to get our first house sold. I was still a very fair price, though, so we're ok with that. We got an amazing deal on an amazing house for our new house, so we couldn't be happier. You had to understand (which we did) that it's not risk free and you have to have enough float in case you can't sell right away (our old house sold after 10 days on the market and we had a very long closing time on our new house).

It's complicated. Good luck!

OP here. I think we're in a similar place. We have about $400k equity in the current house, which we'd like to roll entirely into a new one. We also have about $1M in investments including retirement $, 529s, and stocks/funds, which obviously I'd rather not tap. It seems like we should be able to borrow the $400k out of the current home since we do actually have the $. I'd just like to keep it simple - it seems like borrowing against each of our 401(ks) (what are the rates on that, by the way, and do you have to liquidate your investments to do it?) is a complicated way to pull together $400k when we have the $$ in the market.

The bank will not let you refinance to 100% of your equity. I haven't done a HELOC lately, but I'm guessing 80% of value is the max.

The pp who has the house that hasn't sold has hit upon a very valid point. We just sold and bought a house this summer, both in very "desirable" neighborhoods, and I have been watching real estate market carefully for a while. Perfectly located, beautifully renovated houses in great neighborhoods were selling quickly last summer. However, the real estate market has slowed considerably this fall. In any case, it is my observation that, even last summer, a house with a flaw, particularly a flaw that can't be corrected, like a bad location (e.g., busy street) tend to sit on the market for a long time unless they are VERY aggressively priced. At the peak of the real estate boom, there wasn't as much distinction made with regard to price based upon such factors, but all that has changed. In our new neighborhood, a perfectly lovely house that happens to have an unfortunate lot has been on the market for over a year, while similar houses a few blocks away have sold in less than a week.

We sold first and bought second. It all worked out great, but we just decided that we would rather risk having to move into a short-term rental than risk not being able to sell the old house (and our net worth is several multiples of yours). YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Redfin and zillow are your best bet. If you would like to save money and would like to do alot by your self http://www.virginiamls.com offers a 3.75% sale shaving off 2.25 from your costs.

Only fools attempt to do "a lot by yourself" in this market in the sense that they go cheap on professional representation.