Selling and buying in the East Valley
Selling your East Valley home and buying the next one.
You've got a home to sell and a home to buy, and they have to happen in some order. There are three ways to line them up. I'll be honest with you, each one costs something. The way I look at it, the cost is easier to carry once you've seen it in days and dollars.
Three orders, and what each one costs.
-
Sell first, then buy.
You close your sale, then shop with the proceeds in hand, and your offer doesn't depend on selling anything.
The cost: you're between homes. Either your buyer agrees to a rent-back, so you stay on after closing and pay them rent for a set time, or you rent somewhere and move twice.
-
Buy first, with your offer contingent on your sale.
You write on the next home now, and the purchase goes through only if your current home sells.
The cost: the contingency is what you pay with. Next to an offer with no condition on it, yours is the weaker one, and a seller who wants certainty can take the other offer, sometimes even at a lower price.
-
Buy first, then sell.
You write an offer on the next home with no sale condition, move once, then list the one you left.
The cost: you carry two payments until the home you left closes, and the down payment has to come from somewhere other than the sale, because the sale hasn't happened yet. What you get for it is one move and an offer that competes on its own terms.
Can you carry both payments for a while? That's your lender's call, not mine. Lenders weigh all your monthly debt against your income, so I'd talk to yours before you pick an order. Treat this as a map of the options, not a verdict on which one's open to you.
Size the gap before you pick.
The gap between your two closings has two numbers in it.
- Days. If you buy first, it's how long homes like yours, near you, are taking to sell right now, plus escrow. That's something we can look up together on the call, not a rule of thumb.
- Dollars. What the gap costs each month: the payment, taxes, insurance, HOA and utilities on the home you're leaving, or the rent if you sold first, times the months in the gap.
Say it costs $3,000 a month and the gap runs two months. That's $6,000. Is one move instead of two worth that to you? Sometimes it is. I'd want you to know the number before you're in it, not after.
“Timing was everything with this move, and Josh and Jacqui helped us secure a new home with same-day closing as our previous home.”
Caitlyn, sold and bought with us, Google reviewWant to see all three with your numbers in them?
Book a 30-minute call and we'll run your home and your next one through each order. Rather text first? That works too. Josh or Jacqui replies personally.
Only selling? See the Sell page.