Buying & Selling Your Home at The Same Time: Real Estate Industry Secrets by Argent Realty

Buying or selling a home on its own can be overwhelming for many, and are usually time consuming and detail-focused tasks. Unless it’s a time sensitive situation, like a job transfer that’s forcing you to move quickly, the biggest factor to consider as a seller or a buyer is the market. If you’re going to sell your home, you would ideally want to sell during a seller’s market, when there are less homes available to the pool of buyers. Similarly, as a buyer, you’d want to buy during a buyer’s market, when there are more homes for sale than buyers.

Considering the fact that you can’t have a buyer’s and seller’s market at the same time, what do you do when you’re buying and selling your home at the same time?  For many reasons, concurrent buying and selling is becoming more and more common. Because timing is the major factor, this can be a tricky accomplishment. However, tricky doesn’t have to mean impossible or stressful and your Chevy Chase real estate experts at Argent Realty are sharing some industry secrets that will help you successfully do both.

Founded by two entrepreneurs of the 19th century, Chevy Chase was designed as a parklike suburb to our nation’s capital, allowing for residents to commute to their jobs in the “big city” by electric streetcar or rail. Chevy Chase real estate was made up of lovely homes, wide streets and parks with necessary local conveniences such as schools, churches and recreational facilities.

Today’s Chevy Chase has a population of just under 10,000 and, in addition to the parks, it has plenty of restaurants and coffee shops. Residents describe it as “welcoming,” “close-knit,” and “fun and family friendly.” While still primarily a residential community, neighboring Friendship Heights offers a popular shopping district. Replacing the streetcar of the 19th century is the Metro, which will quickly transport residents to the big cities while leaving Chevy Chase someplace to “come home” to everyday.

Buying and selling a home requires lots of preparation and being prepared is the key to your success in doing both at the same time. Preparing to buy and sell a house comes with different sets of items to focus on for each side. For instance, preparing your home to sell will include making repairs and staging your home by painting, decluttering, depersonalizing, and deep cleaning. Preparing to buy at the same time primarily requires that you have your finances in order so there are no last-minute surprises if you’re ready to make an offer. In other words, don’t assume your credit report is where you think it is and consider how you might fund a down payment on your new home if your closing gets delayed on your existing home.

Like with anything, knowledge is power. Knowing what the current real estate market trends are will also help you prepare for your endeavor to buy and sell at the same time. Market predictions for the last quarter of 2022 are still a little blurry as the housing prices are continuing to rise, along with the interest rates, creating something of a “stand-off.” Despite the economic factors, that also include inflation, we are still technically in a seller’s market. This means there are fewer homes for sale than buyers and knowing this will help you know where to focus your efforts first.

In a seller’s market, it makes better sense to find and make an offer on a new home before accepting an offer on your existing home. It’s important to remember that offers with contingencies are less appealing to most sellers. If you include a contingency on your offer to purchase, keep in mind that there are probably offers without. You will want to make considerations such as:

Additionally, as a seller, you may accept an offer contingent on being able to lease back, allowing time to complete your purchase without having to store belongings or move twice. Regardless of contingencies, it’s always a good idea to have a back-up plan in place should something out of your control disrupt “Plan A”.

Compromise and flexibility are key when trying to multitask a home purchase and sale. As mentioned above, contingencies can be less appealing to sellers. If you find a home you want to purchase, an example of a compromise might be making a higher offer to help “balance” out the contingency. Another example of flexibility and compromise might be listing your home for a little less, especially if you find a new home quickly, to speed up the sale. Making a list of needs and wants on both sides will help when it comes time to flex.

Your real estate partner will not only be familiar with the local market but will also have an established network of professionals who will be able to assist with from preparation to closing. It’s their job to understand the market, know where the listings are and ultimately make the entire process as smooth and stress free as possible. Most importantly, they are experienced and savvy negotiators, a very necessary skill with an undertaking like this.

For more information on buying and selling your home, at the same time or otherwise, contact Argent Realty. Their experienced team focuses on building long lasting relationships with their clients and industry colleagues alike while using the most up to date marketing and technology.