What is a move up buyer?
Move up buyers are those that are looking to move up to a larger home either because their family has outgrown their space or for different variables.
Now a big dilemma that buyers face when purchasing a new home when they currently own a home is the financial burden of selling that home and moving into that next home without carrying two mortgages.
Here are 6 mistakes that most homeowners make when making that transition to move into a larger home that we want to help you avoid with different strategies.
1. Rose-colored glasses.
Many times buyers look at their dream home and what they wanted to be and they forget to look at their bank account. Where we come in is that we actually help you assess how much equity you’ll be able to pull out of your current home, in order to put it as a down payment or even pay the entire home cash of the next home that you are going into if you have enough savings.
But with rose colored glasses, we sometimes have the illusion that we will be able to get more out of our current home and be able to buy a larger home than what we really are able to do.
2. Failing to make improvements.
The second mistake that homeowners do when trying to move up to another home is failing to make improvements. Now this is one area that we really tackle with our sellers before we put their home on the market. We want to make sure that we can walk the property and have all the necessary improvements done upfront, so the buyers don’t see the word “work” or “expense” as soon as they walk into your home.
So make sure that you are willing to spend a little bit of money upfront to make your home ready for sale in order for you to purchase and maximize your equity in the home you want to buy.
3. Not selling first.
If you find your dream home and you’ve put in an offer and are ready to move forward on it but you haven’t sold your home, you may be in a catch 22. We want to make sure we can get your home on the market, find you the home you want, and do a simultaneous closing, which we are all too familiar with. We love to make the transition for homeowners looking to move up to their next home, but we have to make sure that we can sell your home first before moving you into a new home.
4. Failing to get preapproved.
The fourth mistake that people do when moving up to a new home is failing to get a mortgage and get preapproved. Just because you own a home and have equity does not mean that you’re necessarily preapproved for the amount that you want to move up to.
We want to make sure that we get you in front of a lender that can qualify you and approve you to be able to get what we assume the equity of this property that you currently own is in order to be able to move up to the next property while you still feel comfortable with your monthly payments. That is always our key.
We want to make sure that our homeowners feel comfortable with how much they are paying monthly.
5. Owning two homes at the same time.
We like to completely remove this risk by making sure that we can set up a timeline, look at when you want to be in a new home, and what we can potentially sell the current home you live in. We do this with a timetable to make sure it is smooth. If it is new construction, it makes it a lot easier because we already have an idea of when you are going to be moving into their new home.
But if you were looking at a resale property, we have to time it out so we can start looking at what is on the market, make sure we have your home ready for sale, and as soon as you like the home we can be ready to list your home and make sure that we can do it as a simultaneous closing.
Again we do this all the time for our buyers and sellers were looking to move up to their next home, but we want to make sure that there is a lot of communication, a time line is being done, and making sure that we are keeping you up to speed every step of the way so that the transition is a smooth one and not a hectic one.
6. Failing to coordinate closings.
You’ve got to make sure that you are closing on the home that you were selling first in order to be able to pull that equity into the next closing. We do not want you to get stuck, again, with not having sufficient down payment because (unless you are able to financially) you don’t have the money to be able to put as your down payment because you needed it from the sale of the house you currently own.
If you want any more tips and understanding on how to move up to your next home give us a call at 407-801-9914.
When you allow us to sell your home and help you buy a home, we give you a 1% rebate on the home that you are purchasing that you can use as cashback, or as closing cost or down payment.