We started looking for a home before COVID. No deadline but preferred sooner over later. We drive by houses on weekends now but have not done any tours recently.
We really liked one particular house and my spouse was ready to go forward (with an in person tour), but I'm anxious about selling our current home. It needs some work but nothing material. And we have a lot of stuff - we have kids and and all the junk that comes with them. We are in a great location so in a normal situation I think our house would sell quickly - even if we didn't fix these things and instead brought price down a bit. But I'm finding in the current COVID market, houses that looked "lived in" like ours,even if priced well, are not going off the market as fast (or at all). Maybe people see touring as too much of a risk to even bother we these homes. But the idea of getting work done or staging or tours seems too overwhelming. Thoughts on a strategy to sell in this environment? |
Sharper price. |
Do you have to move now? Could you stay put for another year or so and give yourself plenty of time to purge stuff and decide about getting improvements done or going with a lower price? |
Perhaps make an offer with a sale of current home contingency? They may take it in the current market. |
What neighborhood? We have been looking for something that needs work. I still think that there are a good amount of buyers looking, especially since inventory is so low. |
OP here - we are in Takoma Park, walkable to metro. Sharper price sounds like the best move. I worried we would get under valued but maybe a competitive offers will prevail.
The houses we are looking at seem to be flying off the market...I can't imagine an offer with a cntingency of house sale would win. |
In similar boat here. We were actively looking last year and early this year, and haven't had any tour recently. We have decided to wait it out since it's not that urgent for us to move out of the city.
One idea that I did give a thought is: we move to an apartment and start selling the current place( or maybe sell the current one while still living in it), and then buy a new one after selling it. I don't see contingent would work because when it comes to the competitive part of the town, crazy people waives everything and there are a few times it's all cash offer. |
we bought, we moved, we put our old house on market, we sold, in that order. |
OP, we tried this and sellers agents are extremely opposed to it. Hostile even. We had some refuse to unlock a home for us, refuse to present an offer to the seller, etc. it was shocking. My husband is a commercial real estate attorney so he was fully capable of handing all of the paperwork and contracts. This was 7 years ago so maybe things have changed but I doubt it.
We ended up buying a FSBO from a lovely older couple who were incredibly reasonable on price and inspection items. It went really smoothly but we also got really really lucky. |
You should get your house ready to sell before you start making offers on new houses. Then if you can, move out and stage it, price it aggressively, and sell it the first weekend. |
I don’t understand what you’re talking about. |