Buy First or Sell First?

[Rick Howell]

It’s the classic move up dilemma: Which should you do first, buy the new home or sell the old one? The way you work through that problem will depend on your finances and on local market conditions.

You would be able to sell the house in a world made perfect for the home buyer, but make the deal contingent on your finding a suitable replacement home. In a strong seller’s market where there are many more buyers than homes available for sale then you may get away with it – the current reality of most markets, however, is that they are buyer’s market. So, be sure to get the contingency clause into the sales contract before you sign your acceptance.

Ideally, on a buyer’s market, a better position is to sell first and buy second, which will give you some negotiating clout when purchasing the new home.

If you are in the situation where you need to buy before you sell your current home, you face a very real possibility of having to pay mortgages on both homes for a while… so make sure that you have room in your monthly budget that can can pull it off.