So according to everyone I ask, contengecys are impossible.i have seen them, but I'm being told by my realtor I'm essentially shit out of luck. I have a home to sell, but I can't list it, because I would be contingent on buying a new one, and buyers don't want that. I can't buy another house, because mine isn't sold, and sellers don't like that. I can't rent anything because it's more than my mortgage. I have 3 animals and two small children, also not able to find local rental places with animals and all that comes with. My realtor is trying to talk me into a bank buy as a backup, bank buys the house for me, and I have to then buy it from the bank, including extra fees, and still hope mine sells. So what do I do? Leave the market, one less house available to sell to someone else? My area (PA) houses are on the market for 1 day, and getting 15 diff offers. One I looked at two weeks ago, had 40 offers. I can't possibly compete unless I have massive cash reserves. Is it hopeless?
Can't sell, because I can't get a house, can't get a house because I haven't sold mine
byu/frankenboobehs inRealEstate
Posted by frankenboobehs
36 Comments
Try open door. They are flexible with closing
That seems insane. I lost a sale of a house because the people buying our house had their buyers back out. So I know it at least used to be a thing.
Good luck.
Sell. Rent MTM or airbnb. Buy
You don’t have many choices. The most simple would be to sell and rent for a few months while you find and close on a new place.
IMO: One option would be to just sell and ask for a long closing, and hope that you can get into something in the intervening time, with some backup plans. If your property is in demand, someone will agree probably buy with a longish closing because they’re as desperate as you are. Do you have any friends or family who would take your animals? Try pet sitters in your area: some may offer boarding for a reasonable price. If you can get the animals looked after for a few months there will be ways to make a gap work, sublet or a extended stay hotel maybe. But if you are tight on money and you are looking to trade properties upwards in a hot market, it’s going to be an expensive proposition. There’s no point in selling if you wouldn’t net enough to be able to move into the kind of property you’re targeting, so be ultra-realistic about that.
You can absolutely find a buyer that can delay closing for you to close on another house.
I just did that two years ago as a buyer. My sellers pushed back closing twice as their new house was delayed.
I did not mind as I paid a little less for that.
If your house is a nice house then buyers will be flexible if they want it.
Many buyers are moving from apartments, not selling their current house, or staying elsewhere and can be flexible.
You can even write this into the contract. That is normal and OK to do.
Also find a new realtor. Your realtor is slimy and giving you bad advice.
They are crazy to say to buy a new house before you sell the current one. They are crazy to offers some kind of scammy bank buy back deal. That makes no sense.
I’ve done contingency deals twice. They are a bit of a pain, but they are 100% possible.
If you go into this journey assuming you can’t do what you want and that everything is impossible, you indeed will never get a new house.
Bridge loan is an option but a potentially risky one
I just did a contingent. My agent said it was the first she’s done in 5 years. So if you price your house to sell and find a home that’s been on the market a while and that seller is motivated and flexible on timing, it can happen.
So it’s possible but was super stressful and I’m surprised it happened.
You’re either paying for a short term rental or you’re rolling the dice — in most markets.
Have you looked into a bridge loan? That was our original plan. We were going to utilize a small bridge loan to put the minimum down payment on the house and then pay it off with the sell of the house.
Instead we are going with a fixer upper that was cheap enough that we could pay the deposit. It is in good enough condition to live in and once we sell our house we will tackle all the repairs.
Keep trying to sell using your house. Lots of houses get sold like that. My partner did 2 last year with the sellers situation the same as yours.
That’s weird. In my area, contingencies are common. The house behind me sold in less than 24 hours and contingent on the sale of the buyers prior property. Maybe your realtor just doesn’t want to deal with it?
Find a new realtor and list on contingency…you’ll eventually find a buyer
Find out the monthly costs to you of a private bridge loan. That allows you to be a cash buyer, at the same time calculate what your home will sell for quickly and efficiently. That is what it will cost you (dearly) for a new house. Then mortgage your new home.
They are not impossible. You will lose some interest. Your realtor doesn’t want the hassle and is giving you bad advice
Contingencies are totally doable as I do them all the time. Just disclose it in the private remarks. Some buyers are totally okay waiting to close, especially now that rates are expected to drop. Just price your home aggressively so it sells quickly.
Try first. I’ve seen this working just fine. In last two years. The issue comes from the state of the market. I would first get the data and confirmed his statements. According to what I see, you are either buying in the district you can’t afford or you went full retard and just eat whatever realtor tells you. Confirm for you zip and get rid of him if he’s bs-ing you.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEDDAYONMARPA
https://parealtor.app.box.com/s/6sncnp3fp0e8c99kf170fbglowu8v40d
https://www.redfin.com/state/Pennsylvania/housing-market#supply
Cash offer loan.
Hurst Lending out of Dallas did mine.
5% down, 1.5% fee. I had their cash to buy my new home
My old home has been listed for 18 days, I’ve been moved in for a month.
Requesting a contingency in the sale, or at least requesting a flexible move-out date while finding your own place, happens often, and works. The agent’s advice is fine, but you have the final word and they can make it work. The risk is that your house sells a little slower and has less competition.
If you follow their advice, you are trying to maximize profit by instead taking a risk that you’d have to rent for a few months (with the proceeds of the sale and no mortgage to pay) while you find a place within your budget.
Either case will work, you just can’t have it both ways with no risk.
Everytime I sell it is on a contingency.
In the Midwest, the market is hot! We see sellers sell “contingent upon the sellers finding suitable housing” word for word daily. There is low inventory so it’s not up to the buyers and what they want lol.
List it. In my experience contingent on finding housing isn’t a big issue for quite a few buyers.
I just bought a house in a hot market in NJ contingent on selling my house. Did I lose out on the first three homes we put offers on? Sure did. But the one we landed on is far better than the other 3.
It’s possible. Dont be discouraged. List your house, put in offers. Make everything contingent on the sales. It’ll happen.
I have put contracts together that had FOUR contingencies, this had to sell for this next one to sell for this next one to sell for this next one to sell and all those dominoes fell, all those transactions happened.
Probably not helpful when you are competing in that hot of a market.
You need to get yours under contract to make your offers stronger.
Have you thought about putting it up subject to you purchasing a home that you like? With this market, you should be able to find a buyer.
Get a new realtor.
Everything we finance nowadays has a sale contingency. Our market would be completely screwed without it. Totally possible, but you need to list it. You might miss out on some buyer but the right buyer would be happy to wait it out because they need time themselves. There are buyers that dont want to be forced into a 30 day close, believe it or not
I don’t have any advice, but I am in basically the same situation so I sympathize. In my case, I have farm animals and there is only one neighborhood properly zoned for them where I’d want to live. I could sell, but it could be many months before something comes up in that neighborhood, and I certainly can’t rent with them. I know boarding is an option but I’m not willing to do that to them when it really could be many months. I know this isn’t really an answer but, at least for your animals, you could put them into boarding while you AirBnB. If your market really does move that quickly it might only be a month or two. No consolation other than you’re not unreasonable being frustrated by this. Good luck!
Get a new realtor, contingency deals happen all the time
I just helped a client buy a house with a contingency
It’s doable. Get a better realtor that will fight for what you want
Our market was similar when we wanted to move to a new house. We stayed put until we had a downpayment and the means to buy without a contingency (5 extra years). If you must move, then your other option is to rent. Or you can wait until the market begins to tank and sellers are more open to a contingency.
I did it. I was under contract with my house. I found a house wrote the offer added a contingent of sale of my current property.
Closed on my property 2 weeks later I closed on my new home.
I also had a post occupancy agreement with the buyers of my old home.
I’ve closed two contingency deals in the last four months. Sounds like your agent is too lazy to get involved with that or has no experience. Here’s the trick. Do not make an offer on another house until your house is in escrow, and has passed all the inspections and appraisal. At that point, you become a fairly safe buyer. Offer them nonrefundable earnest money, that also helps. This situations don’t always go as planned so you could potentially have to rent short term for a week or two weeks in between if the deals don’t close simultaneously. That is the primary difficulty with contingency deals
Our house is in contract. We close around October 20. Putting my stuff in storage and then renting short term (3 month) furnished house. We found the rental on furnishedfinders.com.
We’ll use what we were paying for mortgage for rent/storage fees. I’m finding it less stressful this way.
Good luck.
Buy with 5% down. Sell your house. use the funds from the sale to have the loan recast. That essentially revises the loan to seem like you put all the profits down and is NOT the same as refinancing. Talk to your finance people about that. There is no guarantee that your lender will do something like that but it’s a viable option.