Moving is not something that any one enjoys thinking about. When you are moving and need to sell your house, there are so many things that have to be coordinated. I moved across the state of Kansas and had to make big decisions quickly on location and timing so the move could happen prior to the start of a school year. Dealing with the current home became a barrier and a hassle. I wanted to buy a new house, yet I still had a mortgage on my current one. I didn’t know anything about renting property, so that didn’t seem like a helpful option to me. All I wanted to do was get packed and get my daughter into a good school.
There are so many details to keep together, plus there is often stress associated with the move from the start. Many people move for new jobs or to take care of sick relatives and these kinds of life transitions alone can be more than you want to deal with.
So how do you make the most out of a difficult situation?
Plan For Your Move
Planning for a move when faced with the task of selling your house to avoid paying two mortgages requires careful consideration and strategic steps. Determine what options you have so that you can plan accordingly. A little bit of planning will be so beneficial to you in the long run, even if it seems overwhelming now. Firstly, it is crucial to establish a realistic timeline for selling your current home. Conducting thorough market research, consulting with real estate professionals, and evaluating recent comparable sales will help you determine a competitive listing price. Enhancing your home’s appeal through staging, repairs, and decluttering can also attract potential buyers. Simultaneously, it’s essential to begin searching for your next home, factoring in your desired location, budget, and any specific requirements. You will know what dates and deadlines are not flexible for you. When I moved, my job start date was flexible, but the first day of school was not, so everything had to be in place before that deadline. Will you need to wait until your current house sells before you can buy another home or can you qualify for two mortgages?
Qualifying for two mortgages and having full means to pay two mortgages are two very separate things. Consider all your options and don’t allow yourself to get stuck. Being financially prepared by saving for a potential overlap period between mortgages and understanding your contingency options can alleviate stress during this transitional phase. By proactively managing these steps, you can increase the likelihood of a smooth transition and minimize the financial burden of paying two mortgages.
So how do you make the right choices when you’re moving and need to sell your house in Kansas City ?
Take These Basic Steps
It probably seems very overwhelming and you have very few ideas of where to start. We have been there and wondering if we should rent or sell or what we needed to do to make our property marketable. Here are a few things that you can do to get started:
- Find out what your house is worth: To do this you can hire a real estate agent or connect with us and we can give you a no cost no obligation valuation on your property. A word of advice is to never trust the Zillow estimates as usually they are widely inaccurate. There are many factors that go into analyzing property value and you must make sure that you are only comparing to like properties. It doesn’t matter that the house next door sold for $200k if it is a 4 bedroom and yours is only 2 bedrooms because it is not an accurate comparison. Once you know what the house may be able to sell for in the current market, that sets the basis for how long you may or may not be able / willing to sell the house.
- Decide how fast you need to sell your house after you move or if you need to sell before you move: Consider how quickly houses are selling once they are listed and determine how many months you can afford to pay two mortgages. I moved across the state and was stuck paying two mortgages for a long while because my renter fell through and the market was very slow. I ended up selling for much less than I wanted and still had to bring closing costs to the table. It was a truly awful situation.
- Find a good listing agent BEFORE you start packing boxes: A great listing agent will be able to advise you on what to do and what not to do. In order to find one, do your research and check credentials and recent sales. If you choose to use an agent who doesn’t have any experience, you may end up wasting time. It costs you money the longer it takes to sell your house. We often see people choose to list with their daughter-in-law or their niece because they want to offer them some business. This is great if you have time to wait on the sale. Be very cautious about putting others needs before your own. When you need to sell quickly, you need the agent who knows exactly what they are doing and are skilled at marketing, not the one who is selling houses as a second job to supplement income. If you would rather not hire a listing agent, we are local Kansas city home buyers and can help you to solve your problem. If you are ready to discuss your options, Just fill out the form through this link to get started >>
Calculate Your Selling Costs
We all want to sell our houses for as much as possible. What we end up with on our closing statement is our sales price minus all of the costs to sell including paying the 3-6% agent fees. That sales price is reduced by the amount that you spend to hold the property and make repairs that are needed to before listing. Holding costs involved include the mortgage, insurance, taxes, utilities, and maintenance. This was our experience. The property sat on the market for 9 months and put us in a very difficult financial situation. When it finally did sell, we had to bring money to the table for closing costs.
EXAMPLE
Sell your house for $200,000. Mortgage payment is $1,200/mo, taxes $200/mo, Insurance $100/mo, and maintenance $100/mo, totaling $1600/month. If it takes you 7 months to sell that house, then for that $200,000, holding costs add up to $11,200 + you pay $12,000 in real estate agent fees. This loss of money, doesn’t even account for the value of your time, your stress in thinking about that property sitting on the market.
We Can Help You If You’re Moving And Need To Sell Your House Fast In Kansas City ?
We love helping people solve complicated problems, so if you are willing to share all of the details with us about your situation and what you need to accomplish, we will work on finding the solution that is right for you.
You may want to market your property for rent and sale at the same time, just to make sure that you don’t end up paying two mortgages. However, this is a lot to juggle along with preparing yourself and your family for a move. If you want to rent and need an approved renter quickly, let us be your tenant. We can sublease the property, but you never have to worry about vacancy. We can also manage a lease with option to purchase agreement through which your property is leased to someone who intends to buy it.
With any of our solutions, we take the action and the stress off you, so you don’t have to be concerned with tenants, or maintenance, or payments.
When you are under the stress of moving, we can help alleviate some of the stress. When you sell your house to us, we offer a full service of convenience and will advise you on packing, storage, handling utilities, and may other things that must be taken care of during relocation. In your situation, where affording two mortgages is not feasible and you recently refinanced, the lack of sufficient equity to pay a real estate agent adds an additional challenge to the process.
In my situation shared above, I couldn’t afford two mortgages and I had just refinanced so I didn’t have enough equity in my property to even pay a real estate agent. I had been updating my house, but in order to sell it, I had to repaint everything to more neutral and “sellable” colors. This was a hassle on top of stress.
We are local Kansas City home buyers. We support our families and beautify neighborhoods by buying houses from Kansas City home owners who need to sell fast for one reason or another. We are passionate about helping people, and we believe in the Kansas City community. We’re honest and straightforward.
We’ll quote you a fair price, and we can close fast with cash.
We’re happy to help you find answers to your toughest questions about your Kansas City real estate, so please feel free to call us at (816) 750-5325 to chat anytime.