OFFICIAL - Buying / Selling / Moving Thread (3 Viewers)

[krista4]

What's the process for buying then selling?

Own existing outright, want to new home at a comparable price. Want to be closing on the new house before putting the old one the market so we have a place to live and can move from one to the other as seamlessly as possible.

Not thrilled about the interest rates of having a temporary loan while the old house sells. Not thrilled about liquidating investments for a down payment either. Would you need the full 20% down? HELOC? Bridge loan?

I've done this several times in exactly the same position (own existing home outright) and am going to do it again in the next year. Kind of a pain, and interest rates aren't good right now, but I did a HELOC in each case and borrowed on that plus added cash on hand so that I could give a cash offer on the new one. That's been necessary for a while here in order to have any chance of winning the bidding wars. Next move is to Chicago, where the market isn't hot, so maybe there would be other options. I looked at a bridge loan once and honestly can't remember why I ruled that out.

I'll be curious if others have ideas. @Chadstroma might also be a resource in that regard.

Thanks @krista4

The most common approach is to put in offers with a contingent upon sale in it. This eliminates the need for anything other than a normal mortgage and you can use the proceeds to buy the new home. Depending on your market, this may be perfectly normal and accepted (slow to balanced or warm markets) when there is not a lot of competition for the real estate on the market.

If putting a contingency is not really an option as it will put you at too much of a disadvantage in a competitive market, then a bridge loan is usually the route to go here. To simplify it, you are simply using the equity in the current home to with a short term loan secured by the old home. The typical hang up is that most lenders require you to be able to qualify while holding both loans though I believe I have a lender now that does not require that anymore (would need to double check that and make sure it wasn't a dream after losing a deal last summer because none of our lenders would do it without them being able to qualify while carrying both homes).

You can do an equity loan/line. You usually can not do the equity with the property listed (and most lenders I have known in my past had a 6 month seasoning after taking it off market) so you would want to set it up before listing your home. Most equity loans/lines will offer no costs on them but with a pre-payment penalty for a few years. The costs are usually going to be somewhere around $500ish (unless things have changed a ton since I use to be involved in equity lending a lot).

If you want to dig into you situation in more detail, I am happy to assist. I am licensed in about 13 states and my brokerage is licensed in 48 so if not one of the states I am not licensed in, I can either potentially add it quickly or if not, refer to one of my colleagues to take care of the loans. For the two states that we are not, I know brokers that I can refer you to. For equity, we do them but if you just need a vanilla one, you are better off finding a small community bank or credit union and get it through them as their pricing will be better than what I can offer. The times I do equity loans/lines if when the banks/CU's won't do them (need a higher LTV, higher DTI, low credit, etc). I have helped more than a couple of FBG's either personally or by referring to others.

You're amazing as always.

 

[ChiefD]

@Chadstroma - am I remembering correctly you are licensed in Wisconsin now?

 

[Chadstroma]

@Chadstroma - am I remembering correctly you are licensed in Wisconsin now?

Yes sir.

 

[ChiefD]

@Chadstroma - am I remembering correctly you are licensed in Wisconsin now?

Yes sir.

Thanks. PM incoming.

 

[Peggy]

What's the process for buying then selling?

Own existing outright, want to new home at a comparable price. Want to be closing on the new house before putting the old one the market so we have a place to live and can move from one to the other as seamlessly as possible.

Not thrilled about the interest rates of having a temporary loan while the old house sells. Not thrilled about liquidating investments for a down payment either. Would you need the full 20% down? HELOC? Bridge loan?

I've done this several times in exactly the same position (own existing home outright) and am going to do it again in the next year. Kind of a pain, and interest rates aren't good right now, but I did a HELOC in each case and borrowed on that plus added cash on hand so that I could give a cash offer on the new one. That's been necessary for a while here in order to have any chance of winning the bidding wars. Next move is to Chicago, where the market isn't hot, so maybe there would be other options. I looked at a bridge loan once and honestly can't remember why I ruled that out.

I'll be curious if others have ideas. @Chadstroma might also be a resource in that regard.

Probably because a Heloc is a little better suited and lower interest than a bridge from the little I've read about it.

So I take 100K in cash, plus another 100-200K from a Heloc lender to give to another lender as 20% down? Then carry a mortgage plus a heloc until the first house sells?

Seems like a single lender could combine the two and make it all happen. It's just shuffling of the cards, I take the risk and they make interest and closing costs for the time it takes.

I wouldn't even care if interest rates weren't so high.

Oh yeah, I would just do one mortgage if that's what you were doing. I was thinking the HELOC and cash you had could cover the new purchase so that you don't get a mortgage at all. The mortgage is going to be at a lower interest rate than the HELOC, so if you're doing a mortgage just put everything in that. Be aware that you will need to get one that doesn't have a prepayment penalty, since you'll presumably pay it off when you sell your current place. You might still also need to keep it for a certain amount of time, usually less than a year. Your lender can walk you through those options.

I don't want a mortgage. It's just that if the HELOC only allows borrowing up to 80% and you have 20% cash you wouldn't be able to buy a house worth 120% outright until the house sold.

 

[Peggy]

What's the process for buying then selling?

Own existing outright, want to new home at a comparable price. Want to be closing on the new house before putting the old one the market so we have a place to live and can move from one to the other as seamlessly as possible.

Not thrilled about the interest rates of having a temporary loan while the old house sells. Not thrilled about liquidating investments for a down payment either. Would you need the full 20% down? HELOC? Bridge loan?

I've done this several times in exactly the same position (own existing home outright) and am going to do it again in the next year. Kind of a pain, and interest rates aren't good right now, but I did a HELOC in each case and borrowed on that plus added cash on hand so that I could give a cash offer on the new one. That's been necessary for a while here in order to have any chance of winning the bidding wars. Next move is to Chicago, where the market isn't hot, so maybe there would be other options. I looked at a bridge loan once and honestly can't remember why I ruled that out.

I'll be curious if others have ideas. @Chadstroma might also be a resource in that regard.

Thanks @krista4

The most common approach is to put in offers with a contingent upon sale in it. This eliminates the need for anything other than a normal mortgage and you can use the proceeds to buy the new home. Depending on your market, this may be perfectly normal and accepted (slow to balanced or warm markets) when there is not a lot of competition for the real estate on the market.

If putting a contingency is not really an option as it will put you at too much of a disadvantage in a competitive market, then a bridge loan is usually the route to go here. To simplify it, you are simply using the equity in the current home to with a short term loan secured by the old home. The typical hang up is that most lenders require you to be able to qualify while holding both loans though I believe I have a lender now that does not require that anymore (would need to double check that and make sure it wasn't a dream after losing a deal last summer because none of our lenders would do it without them being able to qualify while carrying both homes).

You can do an equity loan/line. You usually can not do the equity with the property listed (and most lenders I have known in my past had a 6 month seasoning after taking it off market) so you would want to set it up before listing your home. Most equity loans/lines will offer no costs on them but with a pre-payment penalty for a few years. The costs are usually going to be somewhere around $500ish (unless things have changed a ton since I use to be involved in equity lending a lot).

If you want to dig into you situation in more detail, I am happy to assist. I am licensed in about 13 states and my brokerage is licensed in 48 so if not one of the states I am not licensed in, I can either potentially add it quickly or if not, refer to one of my colleagues to take care of the loans. For the two states that we are not, I know brokers that I can refer you to. For equity, we do them but if you just need a vanilla one, you are better off finding a small community bank or credit union and get it through them as their pricing will be better than what I can offer. The times I do equity loans/lines if when the banks/CU's won't do them (need a higher LTV, higher DTI, low credit, etc). I have helped more than a couple of FBG's either personally or by referring to others.

Thanks Chad. Still a lot of greek to me.
First paragraph: I submit an offer that has a contingency that my existing home has to sell? Within a certain time period? Then those funds can be used?
Second Paragraph: How much of your current home's value can the bridge load be? And no penalties, just interest owed?
Third Paragraph: Penalties for paying off the loan early? What are the cost again, I thought HELOC were at a cheaper interest rate?

Thanks again.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Is there a thread for this? I've not seen one.... please point if there is.

Anyone else looking at buying/selling coming up? I'm about to shoot my first home to put on market after ~20 years. Longest I've ever lived anywhere. New to this process.

Will discuss here and invite others to do the same.

Destination:
Unsure... 80% Chattanooga TN (Vibe, Location) / 20% Southern Florida (family)

We may be selling then taking our time before buying with the suspicion market will continue to drop in these markets.

Have a month or so of travel for work (including an insane 2 weeks in Europe) in March... and also trying to plan two bbq festivals before mid May. Will be a chaotic stretch.

My selling agent is kinda a doofus. Contractors are sloppy with lots of rework. Just dodged a new furnace ($2k), and had an oven commit Sepaku ($750) so far

South Florida is still going up vs going down
Entry level home in Jupiter-North Palm Beach is running over Half a Million and these are not nice well maintained homes, these are the ones that need work

My son bought a home last year in St Pete for around $275k
I thought he was nuts with the interest rates double or more from 2-3 years ago and that home is worth over $300k now

There is an area North of Tampa to about Ocala and further North, that section of Florida is on sale.
Mother-in-law bought a small home in the Crystal River/Sugarland Mills area for under $140k, there are deals in that section of Florida.
I'm not a fan of O-Town or JAX, prefer South Florida and the Tampa Bay area

They built up that Suncoast Highway and along that road that leads out of Tampa, you can find some decent homes along there in many of the little towns that have popped up

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Ended up with 79 showings and 19 offers.

Accepted one late last night.

Good News!

 

[[icon]]

Is there a thread for this? I've not seen one.... please point if there is.

Anyone else looking at buying/selling coming up? I'm about to shoot my first home to put on market after ~20 years. Longest I've ever lived anywhere. New to this process.

Will discuss here and invite others to do the same.

Destination:
Unsure... 80% Chattanooga TN (Vibe, Location) / 20% Southern Florida (family)

We may be selling then taking our time before buying with the suspicion market will continue to drop in these markets.

Have a month or so of travel for work (including an insane 2 weeks in Europe) in March... and also trying to plan two bbq festivals before mid May. Will be a chaotic stretch.

My selling agent is kinda a doofus. Contractors are sloppy with lots of rework. Just dodged a new furnace ($2k), and had an oven commit Sepaku ($750) so far

South Florida is still going up vs going down
Entry level home in Jupiter-North Palm Beach is running over Half a Million and these are not nice well maintained homes, these are the ones that need work

My son bought a home last year in St Pete for around $275k
I thought he was nuts with the interest rates double or more from 2-3 years ago and that home is worth over $300k now

There is an area North of Tampa to about Ocala and further North, that section of Florida is on sale.
Mother-in-law bought a small home in the Crystal River/Sugarland Mills area for under $140k, there are deals in that section of Florida.
I'm not a fan of O-Town or JAX, prefer South Florida and the Tampa Bay area

They built up that Suncoast Highway and along that road that leads out of Tampa, you can find some decent homes along there in many of the little towns that have popped up

Yeah we talked about it more and the only draw for us in FL was going to be my family... but the quality of life and associated costs of living in Florida are simply no way near what we can find in Chattanooga.

Florida is a nice place to stop by for a bit though, but I don't think we have any desire to live there anymore.

I think if someone gave us a home in Miami area we'd have it on the market before the ink was dry on the transfer.

I have friends looking in the 1-1.5M range on both coasts, and they're seeing price drops of 75k... 100k...

 

[Chadstroma]

What's the process for buying then selling?

Own existing outright, want to new home at a comparable price. Want to be closing on the new house before putting the old one the market so we have a place to live and can move from one to the other as seamlessly as possible.

Not thrilled about the interest rates of having a temporary loan while the old house sells. Not thrilled about liquidating investments for a down payment either. Would you need the full 20% down? HELOC? Bridge loan?

I've done this several times in exactly the same position (own existing home outright) and am going to do it again in the next year. Kind of a pain, and interest rates aren't good right now, but I did a HELOC in each case and borrowed on that plus added cash on hand so that I could give a cash offer on the new one. That's been necessary for a while here in order to have any chance of winning the bidding wars. Next move is to Chicago, where the market isn't hot, so maybe there would be other options. I looked at a bridge loan once and honestly can't remember why I ruled that out.

I'll be curious if others have ideas. @Chadstroma might also be a resource in that regard.

Thanks @krista4

The most common approach is to put in offers with a contingent upon sale in it. This eliminates the need for anything other than a normal mortgage and you can use the proceeds to buy the new home. Depending on your market, this may be perfectly normal and accepted (slow to balanced or warm markets) when there is not a lot of competition for the real estate on the market.

If putting a contingency is not really an option as it will put you at too much of a disadvantage in a competitive market, then a bridge loan is usually the route to go here. To simplify it, you are simply using the equity in the current home to with a short term loan secured by the old home. The typical hang up is that most lenders require you to be able to qualify while holding both loans though I believe I have a lender now that does not require that anymore (would need to double check that and make sure it wasn't a dream after losing a deal last summer because none of our lenders would do it without them being able to qualify while carrying both homes).

You can do an equity loan/line. You usually can not do the equity with the property listed (and most lenders I have known in my past had a 6 month seasoning after taking it off market) so you would want to set it up before listing your home. Most equity loans/lines will offer no costs on them but with a pre-payment penalty for a few years. The costs are usually going to be somewhere around $500ish (unless things have changed a ton since I use to be involved in equity lending a lot).

If you want to dig into you situation in more detail, I am happy to assist. I am licensed in about 13 states and my brokerage is licensed in 48 so if not one of the states I am not licensed in, I can either potentially add it quickly or if not, refer to one of my colleagues to take care of the loans. For the two states that we are not, I know brokers that I can refer you to. For equity, we do them but if you just need a vanilla one, you are better off finding a small community bank or credit union and get it through them as their pricing will be better than what I can offer. The times I do equity loans/lines if when the banks/CU's won't do them (need a higher LTV, higher DTI, low credit, etc). I have helped more than a couple of FBG's either personally or by referring to others.

Thanks Chad. Still a lot of greek to me.
First paragraph: I submit an offer that has a contingency that my existing home has to sell? Within a certain time period? Then those funds can be used?
Second Paragraph: How much of your current home's value can the bridge load be? And no penalties, just interest owed?
Third Paragraph: Penalties for paying off the loan early? What are the cost again, I thought HELOC were at a cheaper interest rate?

Thanks again.

1. Yes, you would submit an offer with a contingency that you need to be under contract or sell your home by X date. This allows you to offer on a new home while you have not yet sold or have a contract on your existing home. The contingency allows you to back out of the purchase if you do not sell your home and get your earnest money back. You can then schedule the closings for both homes even on the same day where the proceeds of the sale then are used for your down/closing costs on your purchase. To clarify, this does not allow you close on the new home with the old home not sold and using those funds.
2. It really depends on the lender. I think the couple of lenders we have go up to 75% of the equity in your property. Fees, interest, etc are dependent on what they are offering in their loan.
3. Again, it really depends on the lender and how they structure their product. It use to be pretty standard that equity products could be done with no cost up front but there would be a penalty for closing it in the first 3 or 5 years etc. The equity products I have available do charge up front. You would just need to find out from whatevever lender you were looking to use what they do with their product as there is no standard and there are not rules saying that they have to or can't charge this way or that.

 

[Chadstroma]

What's the process for buying then selling?

Own existing outright, want to new home at a comparable price. Want to be closing on the new house before putting the old one the market so we have a place to live and can move from one to the other as seamlessly as possible.

Not thrilled about the interest rates of having a temporary loan while the old house sells. Not thrilled about liquidating investments for a down payment either. Would you need the full 20% down? HELOC? Bridge loan?

I've done this several times in exactly the same position (own existing home outright) and am going to do it again in the next year. Kind of a pain, and interest rates aren't good right now, but I did a HELOC in each case and borrowed on that plus added cash on hand so that I could give a cash offer on the new one. That's been necessary for a while here in order to have any chance of winning the bidding wars. Next move is to Chicago, where the market isn't hot, so maybe there would be other options. I looked at a bridge loan once and honestly can't remember why I ruled that out.

I'll be curious if others have ideas. @Chadstroma might also be a resource in that regard.

Probably because a Heloc is a little better suited and lower interest than a bridge from the little I've read about it.

So I take 100K in cash, plus another 100-200K from a Heloc lender to give to another lender as 20% down? Then carry a mortgage plus a heloc until the first house sells?

Seems like a single lender could combine the two and make it all happen. It's just shuffling of the cards, I take the risk and they make interest and closing costs for the time it takes.

I wouldn't even care if interest rates weren't so high.

Oh yeah, I would just do one mortgage if that's what you were doing. I was thinking the HELOC and cash you had could cover the new purchase so that you don't get a mortgage at all. The mortgage is going to be at a lower interest rate than the HELOC, so if you're doing a mortgage just put everything in that. Be aware that you will need to get one that doesn't have a prepayment penalty, since you'll presumably pay it off when you sell your current place. You might still also need to keep it for a certain amount of time, usually less than a year. Your lender can walk you through those options.

I don't want a mortgage. It's just that if the HELOC only allows borrowing up to 80% and you have 20% cash you wouldn't be able to buy a house worth 120% outright until the house sold.

Yes, if you are upgrading and let's say the house you currently own is worth $200K and you owe $100K on the mortgage, you have $100K in equity. If you can borrow 80% CLTV (combined loan to value) on that then you have $60K that you can pull out. If you were hoping to buy a home that was worth $300K and had $60K in cash, your $120K isn't getting you there to buy that new home. Your option in this scenario is to just use your cash to buy the new home (in this scenario, that would make the most sense actually), to get an equity and put down more but still get a new mortgage for the balance or to do a bridge loan.

The trouble for many people in all of this is being able to qualify with the old home, the new home and the equity or bridge loan. I do have a lender that doesn't count the old home in the qualifying, but it is a more expensive option.

 

[Chadstroma]

Your Guide For Moving Up: How to Use Your Equity to Move From Starter Home to Forever Home | Resources | UMortgage

Homeownership comes with plenty of perks that benefit homeowners throughout their lives. One of the primary perks is the building of equity simply by paying a monthly mortgage payment. Life changes quickly and homeowners can quickly outgrow their current home. In this blog, we’ll outline the...

www.umortgage.com

My company just posted this last week and it should be helpful for those in this thread as well as @Peggy

 

[Peggy]

What's the process for buying then selling?

Own existing outright, want to new home at a comparable price. Want to be closing on the new house before putting the old one the market so we have a place to live and can move from one to the other as seamlessly as possible.

Not thrilled about the interest rates of having a temporary loan while the old house sells. Not thrilled about liquidating investments for a down payment either. Would you need the full 20% down? HELOC? Bridge loan?

I've done this several times in exactly the same position (own existing home outright) and am going to do it again in the next year. Kind of a pain, and interest rates aren't good right now, but I did a HELOC in each case and borrowed on that plus added cash on hand so that I could give a cash offer on the new one. That's been necessary for a while here in order to have any chance of winning the bidding wars. Next move is to Chicago, where the market isn't hot, so maybe there would be other options. I looked at a bridge loan once and honestly can't remember why I ruled that out.

I'll be curious if others have ideas. @Chadstroma might also be a resource in that regard.

Probably because a Heloc is a little better suited and lower interest than a bridge from the little I've read about it.

So I take 100K in cash, plus another 100-200K from a Heloc lender to give to another lender as 20% down? Then carry a mortgage plus a heloc until the first house sells?

Seems like a single lender could combine the two and make it all happen. It's just shuffling of the cards, I take the risk and they make interest and closing costs for the time it takes.

I wouldn't even care if interest rates weren't so high.

Oh yeah, I would just do one mortgage if that's what you were doing. I was thinking the HELOC and cash you had could cover the new purchase so that you don't get a mortgage at all. The mortgage is going to be at a lower interest rate than the HELOC, so if you're doing a mortgage just put everything in that. Be aware that you will need to get one that doesn't have a prepayment penalty, since you'll presumably pay it off when you sell your current place. You might still also need to keep it for a certain amount of time, usually less than a year. Your lender can walk you through those options.

I don't want a mortgage. It's just that if the HELOC only allows borrowing up to 80% and you have 20% cash you wouldn't be able to buy a house worth 120% outright until the house sold.

Yes, if you are upgrading and let's say the house you currently own is worth $200K and you owe $100K on the mortgage, you have $100K in equity. If you can borrow 80% CLTV (combined loan to value) on that then you have $60K that you can pull out. If you were hoping to buy a home that was worth $300K and had $60K in cash, your $120K isn't getting you there to buy that new home. Your option in this scenario is to just use your cash to buy the new home (in this scenario, that would make the most sense actually), to get an equity and put down more but still get a new mortgage for the balance or to do a bridge loan.

The trouble for many people in all of this is being able to qualify with the old home, the new home and the equity or bridge loan. I do have a lender that doesn't count the old home in the qualifying, but it is a more expensive option.

Thanks for all 3 replies. I have a feeling I would qualify for whatever loan(s) is best, and normally wouldn't really care, but the current interest rates don't have me too excite. I think you've cleared it all up for me though, appreciate it.

 

[dkp993]

Ended up with 79 showings and 19 offers.

Accepted one late last night.

Congrats!

 

[Chadstroma]

What's the process for buying then selling?

Own existing outright, want to new home at a comparable price. Want to be closing on the new house before putting the old one the market so we have a place to live and can move from one to the other as seamlessly as possible.

Not thrilled about the interest rates of having a temporary loan while the old house sells. Not thrilled about liquidating investments for a down payment either. Would you need the full 20% down? HELOC? Bridge loan?

I've done this several times in exactly the same position (own existing home outright) and am going to do it again in the next year. Kind of a pain, and interest rates aren't good right now, but I did a HELOC in each case and borrowed on that plus added cash on hand so that I could give a cash offer on the new one. That's been necessary for a while here in order to have any chance of winning the bidding wars. Next move is to Chicago, where the market isn't hot, so maybe there would be other options. I looked at a bridge loan once and honestly can't remember why I ruled that out.

I'll be curious if others have ideas. @Chadstroma might also be a resource in that regard.

Probably because a Heloc is a little better suited and lower interest than a bridge from the little I've read about it.

So I take 100K in cash, plus another 100-200K from a Heloc lender to give to another lender as 20% down? Then carry a mortgage plus a heloc until the first house sells?

Seems like a single lender could combine the two and make it all happen. It's just shuffling of the cards, I take the risk and they make interest and closing costs for the time it takes.

I wouldn't even care if interest rates weren't so high.

Oh yeah, I would just do one mortgage if that's what you were doing. I was thinking the HELOC and cash you had could cover the new purchase so that you don't get a mortgage at all. The mortgage is going to be at a lower interest rate than the HELOC, so if you're doing a mortgage just put everything in that. Be aware that you will need to get one that doesn't have a prepayment penalty, since you'll presumably pay it off when you sell your current place. You might still also need to keep it for a certain amount of time, usually less than a year. Your lender can walk you through those options.

I don't want a mortgage. It's just that if the HELOC only allows borrowing up to 80% and you have 20% cash you wouldn't be able to buy a house worth 120% outright until the house sold.

Yes, if you are upgrading and let's say the house you currently own is worth $200K and you owe $100K on the mortgage, you have $100K in equity. If you can borrow 80% CLTV (combined loan to value) on that then you have $60K that you can pull out. If you were hoping to buy a home that was worth $300K and had $60K in cash, your $120K isn't getting you there to buy that new home. Your option in this scenario is to just use your cash to buy the new home (in this scenario, that would make the most sense actually), to get an equity and put down more but still get a new mortgage for the balance or to do a bridge loan.

The trouble for many people in all of this is being able to qualify with the old home, the new home and the equity or bridge loan. I do have a lender that doesn't count the old home in the qualifying, but it is a more expensive option.

Thanks for all 3 replies. I have a feeling I would qualify for whatever loan(s) is best, and normally wouldn't really care, but the current interest rates don't have me too excite. I think you've cleared it all up for me though, appreciate it.

If your decision is "we really don't want to give up our 3% mortgage on this house. We will stay and make invest in it etc" that is one thing. However, if your thinking is "we are going to move but we are going to wait for interest rates to come down." I would give some food for thought on that...

As interest rates go down, the market will heat up. More buyers will enter the market. Why? Because there are more people just like you thinking the same thing. That will mean more competition for the homes on the market. Many markets will see extremely competitive buying markets. It will depend on the market and how far rates go down but seeing things like multiple bids on homes within hours of them being listed, bids way over asking price, waiving basic contingencies in the contract, etc will likely be seen again. This versus, if you buy with a higher interest rate now in a less competitive market and then interest rates fall, you can take advantage of the lower interest rates and refinance while everything around you goes crazy in the RE market. You can refinance higher interest rates when rates go down, you can not recover from over paying on a property- you just have to hope it continues to valuate higher.

Now, if you are staying within market- it is less important on a financial side. As you will likely get over paid on selling in that scenario just as much as you will over pay in it. However, it will absolutely be a harder market to navigate with those lower rates. Making it harder on you from an emotional/mental side of things and perhaps practically as those markets we saw just a couple of years ago in some areas was absolutely insane. In order to buy, you basically had to check off every normal and rational way of buying and had to strip off all your protections as a buyer and hope it didn't blow up in your face.

 

[Peggy]

What's the process for buying then selling?

Own existing outright, want to new home at a comparable price. Want to be closing on the new house before putting the old one the market so we have a place to live and can move from one to the other as seamlessly as possible.

Not thrilled about the interest rates of having a temporary loan while the old house sells. Not thrilled about liquidating investments for a down payment either. Would you need the full 20% down? HELOC? Bridge loan?

I've done this several times in exactly the same position (own existing home outright) and am going to do it again in the next year. Kind of a pain, and interest rates aren't good right now, but I did a HELOC in each case and borrowed on that plus added cash on hand so that I could give a cash offer on the new one. That's been necessary for a while here in order to have any chance of winning the bidding wars. Next move is to Chicago, where the market isn't hot, so maybe there would be other options. I looked at a bridge loan once and honestly can't remember why I ruled that out.

I'll be curious if others have ideas. @Chadstroma might also be a resource in that regard.

Probably because a Heloc is a little better suited and lower interest than a bridge from the little I've read about it.

So I take 100K in cash, plus another 100-200K from a Heloc lender to give to another lender as 20% down? Then carry a mortgage plus a heloc until the first house sells?

Seems like a single lender could combine the two and make it all happen. It's just shuffling of the cards, I take the risk and they make interest and closing costs for the time it takes.

I wouldn't even care if interest rates weren't so high.

Oh yeah, I would just do one mortgage if that's what you were doing. I was thinking the HELOC and cash you had could cover the new purchase so that you don't get a mortgage at all. The mortgage is going to be at a lower interest rate than the HELOC, so if you're doing a mortgage just put everything in that. Be aware that you will need to get one that doesn't have a prepayment penalty, since you'll presumably pay it off when you sell your current place. You might still also need to keep it for a certain amount of time, usually less than a year. Your lender can walk you through those options.

I don't want a mortgage. It's just that if the HELOC only allows borrowing up to 80% and you have 20% cash you wouldn't be able to buy a house worth 120% outright until the house sold.

Yes, if you are upgrading and let's say the house you currently own is worth $200K and you owe $100K on the mortgage, you have $100K in equity. If you can borrow 80% CLTV (combined loan to value) on that then you have $60K that you can pull out. If you were hoping to buy a home that was worth $300K and had $60K in cash, your $120K isn't getting you there to buy that new home. Your option in this scenario is to just use your cash to buy the new home (in this scenario, that would make the most sense actually), to get an equity and put down more but still get a new mortgage for the balance or to do a bridge loan.

The trouble for many people in all of this is being able to qualify with the old home, the new home and the equity or bridge loan. I do have a lender that doesn't count the old home in the qualifying, but it is a more expensive option.

Thanks for all 3 replies. I have a feeling I would qualify for whatever loan(s) is best, and normally wouldn't really care, but the current interest rates don't have me too excite. I think you've cleared it all up for me though, appreciate it.

If your decision is "we really don't want to give up our 3% mortgage on this house. We will stay and make invest in it etc" that is one thing. However, if your thinking is "we are going to move but we are going to wait for interest rates to come down." I would give some food for thought on that...

As interest rates go down, the market will heat up. More buyers will enter the market. Why? Because there are more people just like you thinking the same thing. That will mean more competition for the homes on the market. Many markets will see extremely competitive buying markets. It will depend on the market and how far rates go down but seeing things like multiple bids on homes within hours of them being listed, bids way over asking price, waiving basic contingencies in the contract, etc will likely be seen again. This versus, if you buy with a higher interest rate now in a less competitive market and then interest rates fall, you can take advantage of the lower interest rates and refinance while everything around you goes crazy in the RE market. You can refinance higher interest rates when rates go down, you can not recover from over paying on a property- you just have to hope it continues to valuate higher.

Now, if you are staying within market- it is less important on a financial side. As you will likely get over paid on selling in that scenario just as much as you will over pay in it. However, it will absolutely be a harder market to navigate with those lower rates. Making it harder on you from an emotional/mental side of things and perhaps practically as those markets we saw just a couple of years ago in some areas was absolutely insane. In order to buy, you basically had to check off every normal and rational way of buying and had to strip off all your protections as a buyer and hope it didn't blow up in your face.

I don't have a mortgage and don't want one, especially at a high interest rate. But, spot on and sound advise why I should consider the higher interest rate as being ok temporarily because of what might happen in the market. Thank you, great perspective!

I don't have a lot of control over the timing anyway, it's the end of this year beginning of next. And we do want to pick our dream house so more choices is a lot more important than worrying about interest rates.

 

[Chadstroma]

What's the process for buying then selling?

Own existing outright, want to new home at a comparable price. Want to be closing on the new house before putting the old one the market so we have a place to live and can move from one to the other as seamlessly as possible.

Not thrilled about the interest rates of having a temporary loan while the old house sells. Not thrilled about liquidating investments for a down payment either. Would you need the full 20% down? HELOC? Bridge loan?

I've done this several times in exactly the same position (own existing home outright) and am going to do it again in the next year. Kind of a pain, and interest rates aren't good right now, but I did a HELOC in each case and borrowed on that plus added cash on hand so that I could give a cash offer on the new one. That's been necessary for a while here in order to have any chance of winning the bidding wars. Next move is to Chicago, where the market isn't hot, so maybe there would be other options. I looked at a bridge loan once and honestly can't remember why I ruled that out.

I'll be curious if others have ideas. @Chadstroma might also be a resource in that regard.

Probably because a Heloc is a little better suited and lower interest than a bridge from the little I've read about it.

So I take 100K in cash, plus another 100-200K from a Heloc lender to give to another lender as 20% down? Then carry a mortgage plus a heloc until the first house sells?

Seems like a single lender could combine the two and make it all happen. It's just shuffling of the cards, I take the risk and they make interest and closing costs for the time it takes.

I wouldn't even care if interest rates weren't so high.

Oh yeah, I would just do one mortgage if that's what you were doing. I was thinking the HELOC and cash you had could cover the new purchase so that you don't get a mortgage at all. The mortgage is going to be at a lower interest rate than the HELOC, so if you're doing a mortgage just put everything in that. Be aware that you will need to get one that doesn't have a prepayment penalty, since you'll presumably pay it off when you sell your current place. You might still also need to keep it for a certain amount of time, usually less than a year. Your lender can walk you through those options.

I don't want a mortgage. It's just that if the HELOC only allows borrowing up to 80% and you have 20% cash you wouldn't be able to buy a house worth 120% outright until the house sold.

Yes, if you are upgrading and let's say the house you currently own is worth $200K and you owe $100K on the mortgage, you have $100K in equity. If you can borrow 80% CLTV (combined loan to value) on that then you have $60K that you can pull out. If you were hoping to buy a home that was worth $300K and had $60K in cash, your $120K isn't getting you there to buy that new home. Your option in this scenario is to just use your cash to buy the new home (in this scenario, that would make the most sense actually), to get an equity and put down more but still get a new mortgage for the balance or to do a bridge loan.

The trouble for many people in all of this is being able to qualify with the old home, the new home and the equity or bridge loan. I do have a lender that doesn't count the old home in the qualifying, but it is a more expensive option.

Thanks for all 3 replies. I have a feeling I would qualify for whatever loan(s) is best, and normally wouldn't really care, but the current interest rates don't have me too excite. I think you've cleared it all up for me though, appreciate it.

If your decision is "we really don't want to give up our 3% mortgage on this house. We will stay and make invest in it etc" that is one thing. However, if your thinking is "we are going to move but we are going to wait for interest rates to come down." I would give some food for thought on that...

As interest rates go down, the market will heat up. More buyers will enter the market. Why? Because there are more people just like you thinking the same thing. That will mean more competition for the homes on the market. Many markets will see extremely competitive buying markets. It will depend on the market and how far rates go down but seeing things like multiple bids on homes within hours of them being listed, bids way over asking price, waiving basic contingencies in the contract, etc will likely be seen again. This versus, if you buy with a higher interest rate now in a less competitive market and then interest rates fall, you can take advantage of the lower interest rates and refinance while everything around you goes crazy in the RE market. You can refinance higher interest rates when rates go down, you can not recover from over paying on a property- you just have to hope it continues to valuate higher.

Now, if you are staying within market- it is less important on a financial side. As you will likely get over paid on selling in that scenario just as much as you will over pay in it. However, it will absolutely be a harder market to navigate with those lower rates. Making it harder on you from an emotional/mental side of things and perhaps practically as those markets we saw just a couple of years ago in some areas was absolutely insane. In order to buy, you basically had to check off every normal and rational way of buying and had to strip off all your protections as a buyer and hope it didn't blow up in your face.

I don't have a mortgage and don't want one, especially at a high interest rate. But, spot on and sound advise why I should consider the higher interest rate as being ok temporarily because of what might happen in the market. Thank you, great perspective!

I don't have a lot of control over the timing anyway, it's the end of this year beginning of next. And we do want to pick our dream house so more choices is a lot more important than worrying about interest rates.

Yea, it is going to be a mental leap to get over no mortgage to whatever rates... though I will say that you are most likely going to see lower rates in that time period you are looking to buy than what we have now. But then you can keep in mind that if rates go lower, you can always refinance to get those lower rates and lower your costs.

 

[Poke_4_Life]

As always @Chadstroma knows his lending stuff.

One option for lending in buying a house and selling your current house that I haven't seen mentioned yet is one my local CU offered us last time. We ended up not needing it but it was interesting.

They were offering a 95/5 loan. So 5% down. But the interesting twist was they also offered a one-time reamoritization. So it's not a bridge loan, but would work the same. Lets say I was buying a new to me 500k house. I could start a new loan with 5% down, 25k. Then after I sold my current house I could put the equity into the new 95/5 loan and it would allow the CU to recalculate the monthly P&I (payment) for the rest of the length of the loan.

 

[Peggy]

As always @Chadstroma knows his lending stuff.

One option for lending in buying a house and selling your current house that I haven't seen mentioned yet is one my local CU offered us last time. We ended up not needing it but it was interesting.

They were offering a 95/5 loan. So 5% down. But the interesting twist was they also offered a one-time reamoritization. So it's not a bridge loan, but would work the same. Lets say I was buying a new to me 500k house. I could start a new loan with 5% down, 25k. Then after I sold my current house I could put the equity into the new 95/5 loan and it would allow the CU to recalculate the monthly P&I (payment) for the rest of the length of the loan.

 

[Chadstroma]

As always @Chadstroma knows his lending stuff.

One option for lending in buying a house and selling your current house that I haven't seen mentioned yet is one my local CU offered us last time. We ended up not needing it but it was interesting.

They were offering a 95/5 loan. So 5% down. But the interesting twist was they also offered a one-time reamoritization. So it's not a bridge loan, but would work the same. Lets say I was buying a new to me 500k house. I could start a new loan with 5% down, 25k. Then after I sold my current house I could put the equity into the new 95/5 loan and it would allow the CU to recalculate the monthly P&I (payment) for the rest of the length of the loan.

Thanks.

Yes, this is something you can do for sure of you buy a home before selling and then want to pay down your loan, then change the payment to reflect the new amortization. This is called a recast. Not all lenders will do this but many will.

After a large principal payment is made you can then contact the lender. If your current P&I payments are based on a 30 year loan with a balance of $400K and then you pay $200K down, the recast would lower the payments from there.

This was very useful when rstes were lower. Now, in general, I would not recast unless you absolutely need the increased cash flow. Instead continue to make payments with more of the payment going to princpal reduction and wait until rates drop enough to refinance.

 

[[icon]]

Put my Memphis home on the market. 3 offers at or over ask (which was top of comps). Sold in 72 hours.

Hit Chattanooga and looked at 14 houses in the first weekend. Found the place right away. Perfect.. everything we wanted, and more (4 sleep/work spaces down, very nice kitchen and master suite, high ceilings, newer construction, backing up to woods, etc). It was literally the only house on market that met our criteria and price point.

We find out the owners have been relocated… wife staying back to sell the house. On market 2 months and counting. Yahtzee.

Ask 525.
Offer 480
Counter 510
Offer 487 final > Accepted

Under contract and hoping to close early May…. Knock on wood. Sparkling inspection. Great home. HVAC fix (running weak) and irrigation hookup pending before close.

Gonna have fun with this one. Building a Huge outdoor sunroom/patio/kitchen. Matrix video wall in living room (four 65” TCL Q6) for theater experience or Sunday Ticket / Masters eye candy.

 

[krista4]

Congrats, icon!!!

I'm driving myself mad every day trying to figure out the optimal way to do my buy first, sell after plan. In a nutshell, the problem is that I would likely do what I did the last time, which is use a HELOC and cash on hand to pay cash for the new place, then pay off the HELOC when I sell. in this higher interest rate environment, though, that is only desirable to me if I know I'll only have it outstanding for 2-3 months. Given that we don't plan to move until next spring we'd buy around March 1, get the place on the market within a month, and likely sell it relatively quickly. Easy, right?

Then I remember I'm me. And that I have a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to show my mom and her husband some neighborhoods and places they might wish to live. And since I've been on Zillow for a couple of hours a day for three months, I'll probably look at a few places myself. And that I'll want to buy one and all that will go out the window. If I were to buy and hold it for more than a few months, a regular mortgage might be better.

Then I get bummed out and turn it over in my head 571,646 more times per hour.

Help? Maybe I should PM @Chadstroma .

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Congrats, icon!!!

I'm driving myself mad every day trying to figure out the optimal way to do my buy first, sell after plan. In a nutshell, the problem is that I would likely do what I did the last time, which is use a HELOC and cash on hand to pay cash for the new place, then pay off the HELOC when I sell. in this higher interest rate environment, though, that is only desirable to me if I know I'll only have it outstanding for 2-3 months. Given that we don't plan to move until next spring we'd buy around March 1, get the place on the market within a month, and likely sell it relatively quickly. Easy, right?

Then I remember I'm me. And that I have a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to show my mom and her husband some neighborhoods and places they might wish to live. And since I've been on Zillow for a couple of hours a day for three months, I'll probably look at a few places myself. And that I'll want to buy one and all that will go out the window. If I were to buy and hold it for more than a few months, a regular mortgage might be better.

Then I get bummed out and turn it over in my head 571,646 more times per hour.

Help? Maybe I should PM @Chadstroma .

Or hire Mr R. He had been looking at the local market for ages. So when the time came, he knew what to expect. It also really helped that we had an excellent real estate agent. She knows her stuff. Sure made everything easier. Do you have one on either side of your transaction? Having an idea of how fast you can expect the current place to sell and what you have to do to make that happen can be reassuring.

 

[krista4]

Congrats, icon!!!

I'm driving myself mad every day trying to figure out the optimal way to do my buy first, sell after plan. In a nutshell, the problem is that I would likely do what I did the last time, which is use a HELOC and cash on hand to pay cash for the new place, then pay off the HELOC when I sell. in this higher interest rate environment, though, that is only desirable to me if I know I'll only have it outstanding for 2-3 months. Given that we don't plan to move until next spring we'd buy around March 1, get the place on the market within a month, and likely sell it relatively quickly. Easy, right?

Then I remember I'm me. And that I have a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to show my mom and her husband some neighborhoods and places they might wish to live. And since I've been on Zillow for a couple of hours a day for three months, I'll probably look at a few places myself. And that I'll want to buy one and all that will go out the window. If I were to buy and hold it for more than a few months, a regular mortgage might be better.

Then I get bummed out and turn it over in my head 571,646 more times per hour.

Help? Maybe I should PM @Chadstroma .

Or hire Mr R. He had been looking at the local market for ages. So when the time came, he knew what to expect. It also really helped that we had an excellent real estate agent. She knows her stuff. Sure made everything easier. Do you have one on either side of your transaction? Having an idea of how fast you can expect the current place to sell and what you have to do to make that happen can be reassuring.

Ah, I didn’t explain the timing factor well. I’m not worried about holding my current place for more than a few months because I don’t know how quickly it will sell. I have little concern there. I would end up holding it because I’m not moving until next year no matter what (for various reasons) and have to live here.

As to realtors, my guy here retired so I’ll have to find a new one. Any tips there are welcome. I have very trusted people in Chicago.

 

[Chadstroma]

Congrats, icon!!!

I'm driving myself mad every day trying to figure out the optimal way to do my buy first, sell after plan. In a nutshell, the problem is that I would likely do what I did the last time, which is use a HELOC and cash on hand to pay cash for the new place, then pay off the HELOC when I sell. in this higher interest rate environment, though, that is only desirable to me if I know I'll only have it outstanding for 2-3 months. Given that we don't plan to move until next spring we'd buy around March 1, get the place on the market within a month, and likely sell it relatively quickly. Easy, right?

Then I remember I'm me. And that I have a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to show my mom and her husband some neighborhoods and places they might wish to live. And since I've been on Zillow for a couple of hours a day for three months, I'll probably look at a few places myself. And that I'll want to buy one and all that will go out the window. If I were to buy and hold it for more than a few months, a regular mortgage might be better.

Then I get bummed out and turn it over in my head 571,646 more times per hour.

Help? Maybe I should PM @Chadstroma .

Happy to chat with you whenever/if you want. Also have several realtors in the area that I could introduce you to if you would like.

 

[Chadstroma]

So....

Now I am here in this thread not as a 'professional' but as a buyer/seller/mover. Unexpectedly.

Late last week, my wife comes over to me and does her 'excited' flop. Explains that a house that is across the street and one house down from my in laws is going to be for sale. My in laws are both getting older as it happens and both are noticeably less capable than they were just a few years ago. We are currently about a 12 minute drive from them but my wife really likes the idea (obviously) of living across the street to help and what not. Her sister bought a house on the same street about a 5 minute walk down the road from them... so I think that is another thing that makes her like this idea.

Currently it has a 'coming soon' sign. I reached out to the realtor and she said that she can't show the home right now because the estate sale people closed it off until they are done for insurance purposes. I plan on going to the estate sale and hopefully there is access to the whole house or maybe I will try to ninja it.

In comparison to our current home.... it is about 600 sqft larger than our current home goes from 3 to 4 bedrooms. (which my boys love the idea of each having their own bedroom now). It is one year older than our current home but has a brand new (like last week brand new) roof. From the outside, it looks very well kept. It is the original owners so I told my wife that likely will need a good amount of updating... however, honestly, our current home is still outdated as we haven't been able to get to some projects like we would want. The realtor basically confirmed that. "Good bones" so to speak and should only need updating rather than repairs. It has an full unfinished basement versus our current half finished basement. I know a wish list for me would be to finish it but I know that the price tag on that will be a significant one and I am not sure I am up to the task myself. The realtor did send over the floor plan which I did like. One thought I had was potentially taking the dining room and converting it into an office. We really have only used our current dining room for actual dinning room things twice since we bought 12 years ago and the in law house is still the go to house for all our family functions anyways. I don't really see losing that as something that is too hard to overcome. I guess we could make the living room the dinning room since that is another room that we basically never used at our current home... which makes more sense to having? A living room or a dining room? I alwasy got a kick out of it called the living room which is the room you do the least amount of living in!

The one thing that hurts.... going from a 2.9% rate to in the 7 or maybe even 8's depending on where rates go. But like I tell everyone else... the decision to not buy shouldn't be driven on the rate you get. There is some decision making to be done when contrasting that to a current rate you hold on another house and this isn't a financially beneficial move for sure because of the cost difference in rate but we can always refinance as rates come down. Most likely will not get a 2.9% again but money is money. The cancer scare with my wife makes decisions like this a whole lot easier because what good is it if we save some money, when either of us or both of us could die tomorrow. Of course, there is being reckless with finances and you can't just spend without making good underlining financial decisions but this is more of a quality of life improvement (a little bit in terms of the home but prob more emotionally/mentally for my wife) which the added cost is an easy no brainer for me.

So, as is now.... the plan is to see the house on the estate sale. If we like it, I might see if my FIL (who offered to help with the down since we are drained financially after the cancer battle and were still healing from past setbacks before that) will do a cash buy. It will make our offer stronger and then I can get in and have some time of doing some DIY projects before we move in and make it all much harder to do. Then do delayed financing to pay the FIL back for the majority of it.

We shall see.

 

[krista4]

Congrats, icon!!!

I'm driving myself mad every day trying to figure out the optimal way to do my buy first, sell after plan. In a nutshell, the problem is that I would likely do what I did the last time, which is use a HELOC and cash on hand to pay cash for the new place, then pay off the HELOC when I sell. in this higher interest rate environment, though, that is only desirable to me if I know I'll only have it outstanding for 2-3 months. Given that we don't plan to move until next spring we'd buy around March 1, get the place on the market within a month, and likely sell it relatively quickly. Easy, right?

Then I remember I'm me. And that I have a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to show my mom and her husband some neighborhoods and places they might wish to live. And since I've been on Zillow for a couple of hours a day for three months, I'll probably look at a few places myself. And that I'll want to buy one and all that will go out the window. If I were to buy and hold it for more than a few months, a regular mortgage might be better.

Then I get bummed out and turn it over in my head 571,646 more times per hour.

Help? Maybe I should PM @Chadstroma .

Happy to chat with you whenever/if you want. Also have several realtors in the area that I could introduce you to if you would like.

I'm good on realtors in the Chicago area, but if anyone has someone they love in the Seattle area, I have not one but two houses (mine and my mom's) that will go on the market.

I might PM you on the financing options to buy before selling. I've done it three different ways in the past, but right now I'm wracked with confusion.

Most of all, excited for your possible move! Sounds like it could be a fantastic place for you.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Congrats, icon!!!

I'm driving myself mad every day trying to figure out the optimal way to do my buy first, sell after plan. In a nutshell, the problem is that I would likely do what I did the last time, which is use a HELOC and cash on hand to pay cash for the new place, then pay off the HELOC when I sell. in this higher interest rate environment, though, that is only desirable to me if I know I'll only have it outstanding for 2-3 months. Given that we don't plan to move until next spring we'd buy around March 1, get the place on the market within a month, and likely sell it relatively quickly. Easy, right?

Then I remember I'm me. And that I have a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to show my mom and her husband some neighborhoods and places they might wish to live. And since I've been on Zillow for a couple of hours a day for three months, I'll probably look at a few places myself. And that I'll want to buy one and all that will go out the window. If I were to buy and hold it for more than a few months, a regular mortgage might be better.

Then I get bummed out and turn it over in my head 571,646 more times per hour.

Help? Maybe I should PM @Chadstroma .

Or hire Mr R. He had been looking at the local market for ages. So when the time came, he knew what to expect. It also really helped that we had an excellent real estate agent. She knows her stuff. Sure made everything easier. Do you have one on either side of your transaction? Having an idea of how fast you can expect the current place to sell and what you have to do to make that happen can be reassuring.

Ah, I didn’t explain the timing factor well. I’m not worried about holding my current place for more than a few months because I don’t know how quickly it will sell. I have little concern there. I would end up holding it because I’m not moving until next year no matter what (for various reasons) and have to live here.

As to realtors, my guy here retired so I’ll have to find a new one. Any tips there are welcome. I have very trusted people in Chicago.

I thought you meant buying early next year.

 

[Peggy]

Put my Memphis home on the market. 3 offers at or over ask (which was top of comps). Sold in 72 hours.

Hit Chattanooga and looked at 14 houses in the first weekend. Found the place right away. Perfect.. everything we wanted, and more (4 sleep/work spaces down, very nice kitchen and master suite, high ceilings, newer construction, backing up to woods, etc). It was literally the only house on market that met our criteria and price point.

We find out the owners have been relocated… wife staying back to sell the house. On market 2 months and counting. Yahtzee.

Ask 525.
Offer 480
Counter 510
Offer 487 final > Accepted

Under contract and hoping to close early May…. Knock on wood. Sparkling inspection. Great home. HVAC fix (running weak) and irrigation hookup pending before close.

Gonna have fun with this one. Building a Huge outdoor sunroom/patio/kitchen. Matrix video wall in living room (four 65” TCL Q6) for theater experience or Sunday Ticket / Masters eye candy.

Congrats!

 

[Peggy]

Congrats, icon!!!

I'm driving myself mad every day trying to figure out the optimal way to do my buy first, sell after plan. In a nutshell, the problem is that I would likely do what I did the last time, which is use a HELOC and cash on hand to pay cash for the new place, then pay off the HELOC when I sell. in this higher interest rate environment, though, that is only desirable to me if I know I'll only have it outstanding for 2-3 months. Given that we don't plan to move until next spring we'd buy around March 1, get the place on the market within a month, and likely sell it relatively quickly. Easy, right?

Then I remember I'm me. And that I have a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to show my mom and her husband some neighborhoods and places they might wish to live. And since I've been on Zillow for a couple of hours a day for three months, I'll probably look at a few places myself. And that I'll want to buy one and all that will go out the window. If I were to buy and hold it for more than a few months, a regular mortgage might be better.

Then I get bummed out and turn it over in my head 571,646 more times per hour.

Help? Maybe I should PM @Chadstroma .

I'm in the exact same situation. Going to look in August - September. Might need to keep current house until the end of the year.

Zillow is like crack.

What's the plan to move all your stuff? @Chadstroma just needs to move down the street, that's easy compared to 2000 mile across country.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

Congrats, icon!!!

I'm driving myself mad every day trying to figure out the optimal way to do my buy first, sell after plan. In a nutshell, the problem is that I would likely do what I did the last time, which is use a HELOC and cash on hand to pay cash for the new place, then pay off the HELOC when I sell. in this higher interest rate environment, though, that is only desirable to me if I know I'll only have it outstanding for 2-3 months. Given that we don't plan to move until next spring we'd buy around March 1, get the place on the market within a month, and likely sell it relatively quickly. Easy, right?

Then I remember I'm me. And that I have a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to show my mom and her husband some neighborhoods and places they might wish to live. And since I've been on Zillow for a couple of hours a day for three months, I'll probably look at a few places myself. And that I'll want to buy one and all that will go out the window. If I were to buy and hold it for more than a few months, a regular mortgage might be better.

Then I get bummed out and turn it over in my head 571,646 more times per hour.

Help? Maybe I should PM @Chadstroma .

Happy to chat with you whenever/if you want. Also have several realtors in the area that I could introduce you to if you would like.

I'm good on realtors in the Chicago area, but if anyone has someone they love in the Seattle area, I have not one but two houses (mine and my mom's) that will go on the market.

I might PM you on the financing options to buy before selling. I've done it three different ways in the past, but right now I'm wracked with confusion.

Most of all, excited for your possible move! Sounds like it could be a fantastic place for you.

Wait a minute. Krista's buying a house!?!? Next thing you'll be telling me fish has a crazy new girlfriend.

 

[krista4]

I'm in the exact same situation. Going to look in August - September. Might need to keep current house until the end of the year.

Zillow is like crack.

What's the plan to move all your stuff? @Chadstroma just needs to move down the street, that's easy compared to 2000 mile across country.

Zillow is totally crack. Several times I've been thisclose to hopping on a plane on a moment's notice to see "the perfect place." Then the next perfect place comes along.

Part of the complication for me is that I'm moving not only my household but my mom's. That's affecting timing a lot. @Mrs. Rannous my post was intended that I might, on my trip to Chicago in three weeks, suddenly find myself buying a house even though I won't move until next spring. Part of the reason for not moving until then is that I can't leave my mom and her husband behind, and I don't want to force them into trying to sell this year. They're just getting used to the idea and going through all their stuff, and I don't want to put pressure on their timing.

So anyway, back to moving across the country, the last time I did a non-local move was 10 years ago, and I used movers that turned out to be fine. But my (several) local moves here have made me skittish about letting anyone touch the good stuff. For instance, we have a lot of art, so I've moved that all very carefully myself. Might do something similar here and take at least one one-way trip in a Ryder truck.

Making it even more fun, we have seven cats between the two households. Mr. krista doesn't seem to like my idea that we load them all in an RV for a cross-country trip. Well, we moved four cats to Nicaragua and back, so it'll be OK...eventually.

 

[[icon]]

So....

Now I am here in this thread not as a 'professional' but as a buyer/seller/mover. Unexpectedly.

Late last week, my wife comes over to me and does her 'excited' flop. Explains that a house that is across the street and one house down from my in laws is going to be for sale. My in laws are both getting older as it happens and both are noticeably less capable than they were just a few years ago. We are currently about a 12 minute drive from them but my wife really likes the idea (obviously) of living across the street to help and what not. Her sister bought a house on the same street about a 5 minute walk down the road from them... so I think that is another thing that makes her like this idea.

Currently it has a 'coming soon' sign. I reached out to the realtor and she said that she can't show the home right now because the estate sale people closed it off until they are done for insurance purposes. I plan on going to the estate sale and hopefully there is access to the whole house or maybe I will try to ninja it.

In comparison to our current home.... it is about 600 sqft larger than our current home goes from 3 to 4 bedrooms. (which my boys love the idea of each having their own bedroom now). It is one year older than our current home but has a brand new (like last week brand new) roof. From the outside, it looks very well kept. It is the original owners so I told my wife that likely will need a good amount of updating... however, honestly, our current home is still outdated as we haven't been able to get to some projects like we would want. The realtor basically confirmed that. "Good bones" so to speak and should only need updating rather than repairs. It has an full unfinished basement versus our current half finished basement. I know a wish list for me would be to finish it but I know that the price tag on that will be a significant one and I am not sure I am up to the task myself. The realtor did send over the floor plan which I did like. One thought I had was potentially taking the dining room and converting it into an office. We really have only used our current dining room for actual dinning room things twice since we bought 12 years ago and the in law house is still the go to house for all our family functions anyways. I don't really see losing that as something that is too hard to overcome. I guess we could make the living room the dinning room since that is another room that we basically never used at our current home... which makes more sense to having? A living room or a dining room? I alwasy got a kick out of it called the living room which is the room you do the least amount of living in!

The one thing that hurts.... going from a 2.9% rate to in the 7 or maybe even 8's depending on where rates go. But like I tell everyone else... the decision to not buy shouldn't be driven on the rate you get. There is some decision making to be done when contrasting that to a current rate you hold on another house and this isn't a financially beneficial move for sure because of the cost difference in rate but we can always refinance as rates come down. Most likely will not get a 2.9% again but money is money. The cancer scare with my wife makes decisions like this a whole lot easier because what good is it if we save some money, when either of us or both of us could die tomorrow. Of course, there is being reckless with finances and you can't just spend without making good underlining financial decisions but this is more of a quality of life improvement (a little bit in terms of the home but prob more emotionally/mentally for my wife) which the added cost is an easy no brainer for me.

So, as is now.... the plan is to see the house on the estate sale. If we like it, I might see if my FIL (who offered to help with the down since we are drained financially after the cancer battle and were still healing from past setbacks before that) will do a cash buy. It will make our offer stronger and then I can get in and have some time of doing some DIY projects before we move in and make it all much harder to do. Then do delayed financing to pay the FIL back for the majority of it.

We shall see.

Wow. This is one of the better posts I’ve seen on this forum.

Cheers on the opportunity to upgrade and hope it works out! Agreed on not obsessing over financing for the right place at the right price.

Life is short. The right house can have a monster impact on your day to day.

Good luck mane!

 

[[icon]]

I'm in the exact same situation. Going to look in August - September. Might need to keep current house until the end of the year.

Zillow is like crack.

What's the plan to move all your stuff? @Chadstroma just needs to move down the street, that's easy compared to 2000 mile across country.

Zillow is totally crack. Several times I've been thisclose to hopping on a plane on a moment's notice to see "the perfect place." Then the next perfect place comes along.

Part of the complication for me is that I'm moving not only my household but my mom's. That's affecting timing a lot. @Mrs. Rannous my post was intended that I might, on my trip to Chicago in three weeks, suddenly find myself buying a house even though I won't move until next spring. Part of the reason for not moving until then is that I can't leave my mom and her husband behind, and I don't want to force them into trying to sell this year. They're just getting used to the idea and going through all their stuff, and I don't want to put pressure on their timing.

So anyway, back to moving across the country, the last time I did a non-local move was 10 years ago, and I used movers that turned out to be fine. But my (several) local moves here have made me skittish about letting anyone touch the good stuff. For instance, we have a lot of art, so I've moved that all very carefully myself. Might do something similar here and take at least one one-way trip in a Ryder truck.

Making it even more fun, we have seven cats between the two households. Mr. krista doesn't seem to like my idea that we load them all in an RV for a cross-country trip. Well, we moved four cats to Nicaragua and back, so it'll be OK...eventually.

Holy hell I thought my situation was a little complex. You’re a maniac and I love ya for it.

No advice you can’t get a better version of elsewhere

BTW if you’re in Memphis in a few weeks… we’re at R020. Getting back to basics. It’ll be my last lap on the big show. I’ll feed ya and buy ya a Yuengling if you’re able To make it by

 

[[icon]]

Congrats, icon!!!

I'm driving myself mad every day trying to figure out the optimal way to do my buy first, sell after plan. In a nutshell, the problem is that I would likely do what I did the last time, which is use a HELOC and cash on hand to pay cash for the new place, then pay off the HELOC when I sell. in this higher interest rate environment, though, that is only desirable to me if I know I'll only have it outstanding for 2-3 months. Given that we don't plan to move until next spring we'd buy around March 1, get the place on the market within a month, and likely sell it relatively quickly. Easy, right?

Then I remember I'm me. And that I have a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to show my mom and her husband some neighborhoods and places they might wish to live. And since I've been on Zillow for a couple of hours a day for three months, I'll probably look at a few places myself. And that I'll want to buy one and all that will go out the window. If I were to buy and hold it for more than a few months, a regular mortgage might be better.

Then I get bummed out and turn it over in my head 571,646 more times per hour.

Help? Maybe I should PM @Chadstroma .

Happy to chat with you whenever/if you want. Also have several realtors in the area that I could introduce you to if you would like.

I'm good on realtors in the Chicago area, but if anyone has someone they love in the Seattle area, I have not one but two houses (mine and my mom's) that will go on the market.

I might PM you on the financing options to buy before selling. I've done it three different ways in the past, but right now I'm wracked with confusion.

Most of all, excited for your possible move! Sounds like it could be a fantastic place for you.

Wait a minute. Krista's buying a house!?!? Next thing you'll be telling me fish has a crazy new girlfriend.

 

[[icon]]

Put my Memphis home on the market. 3 offers at or over ask (which was top of comps). Sold in 72 hours.

Hit Chattanooga and looked at 14 houses in the first weekend. Found the place right away. Perfect.. everything we wanted, and more (4 sleep/work spaces down, very nice kitchen and master suite, high ceilings, newer construction, backing up to woods, etc). It was literally the only house on market that met our criteria and price point.

We find out the owners have been relocated… wife staying back to sell the house. On market 2 months and counting. Yahtzee.

Ask 525.
Offer 480
Counter 510
Offer 487 final > Accepted

Under contract and hoping to close early May…. Knock on wood. Sparkling inspection. Great home. HVAC fix (running weak) and irrigation hookup pending before close.

Gonna have fun with this one. Building a Huge outdoor sunroom/patio/kitchen. Matrix video wall in living room (four 65” TCL Q6) for theater experience or Sunday Ticket / Masters eye candy.

Update : never count yo chickens

Got the call today
1) weak main A/C turned out to be dead blower fan. $1050 quote. Why $1050? Well…

2) Turns out builder forgot to register HVAC. Two A/C units and two furnaces. Zero covered by Warranty. ******* that’s an impressive show of ****ery

3) HVAC guy thankfully also checked upstairs unit. She’s low on coolant too. He needed a heat collar to stress the system to bring it to the surface but I’m glad he did. Was someone lazy at install or is there another repair lying in wait. Find out tomorrow.

Can’t believe how important a good inspector and or systems guy is.

Today was a dumpster fire of frantic texts and calls. The “wife” wasn’t letting it get away but I had to play bad cop. End result, they’re eating all repairs, signed off on by my HVAC guy, and want to quick close on 5/1. Husband coming in. So bizarre.

They’re Throwing in a warranty. I did a search and Elite seems good? Anyone used them?)

**** it.

 

[Chadstroma]

Congrats, icon!!!

I'm driving myself mad every day trying to figure out the optimal way to do my buy first, sell after plan. In a nutshell, the problem is that I would likely do what I did the last time, which is use a HELOC and cash on hand to pay cash for the new place, then pay off the HELOC when I sell. in this higher interest rate environment, though, that is only desirable to me if I know I'll only have it outstanding for 2-3 months. Given that we don't plan to move until next spring we'd buy around March 1, get the place on the market within a month, and likely sell it relatively quickly. Easy, right?

Then I remember I'm me. And that I have a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to show my mom and her husband some neighborhoods and places they might wish to live. And since I've been on Zillow for a couple of hours a day for three months, I'll probably look at a few places myself. And that I'll want to buy one and all that will go out the window. If I were to buy and hold it for more than a few months, a regular mortgage might be better.

Then I get bummed out and turn it over in my head 571,646 more times per hour.

Help? Maybe I should PM @Chadstroma .

I'm in the exact same situation. Going to look in August - September. Might need to keep current house until the end of the year.

Zillow is like crack.

What's the plan to move all your stuff? @Chadstroma just needs to move down the street, that's easy compared to 2000 mile across country.

Funny thing for me is that the move across the country was easy (I had a moving company do it). With this move... specially with my plan of not really moving in for several months, it might be a hybrid of small trips and then one big final move. My sister in law moved to their new place down the street from my in laws and where we might live but only lived about 5 minutes away. They did basically the same thing I am thinking of where they did a good amount of work on it before moving and then kind of slowly moved in. The idea of moving is not very exciting either way.

 

[Chadstroma]

Put my Memphis home on the market. 3 offers at or over ask (which was top of comps). Sold in 72 hours.

Hit Chattanooga and looked at 14 houses in the first weekend. Found the place right away. Perfect.. everything we wanted, and more (4 sleep/work spaces down, very nice kitchen and master suite, high ceilings, newer construction, backing up to woods, etc). It was literally the only house on market that met our criteria and price point.

We find out the owners have been relocated… wife staying back to sell the house. On market 2 months and counting. Yahtzee.

Ask 525.
Offer 480
Counter 510
Offer 487 final > Accepted

Under contract and hoping to close early May…. Knock on wood. Sparkling inspection. Great home. HVAC fix (running weak) and irrigation hookup pending before close.

Gonna have fun with this one. Building a Huge outdoor sunroom/patio/kitchen. Matrix video wall in living room (four 65” TCL Q6) for theater experience or Sunday Ticket / Masters eye candy.

Update : never count yo chickens

Got the call today
1) weak main A/C turned out to be dead blower fan. $1050 quote. Why $1050? Well…

2) Turns out builder forgot to register HVAC. Two A/C units and two furnaces. Zero covered by Warranty. ******* that’s an impressive show of ****ery

3) HVAC guy thankfully also checked upstairs unit. She’s low on coolant too. He needed a heat collar to stress the system to bring it to the surface but I’m glad he did. Was someone lazy at install or is there another repair lying in wait. Find out tomorrow.

Can’t believe how important a good inspector and or systems guy is.

Today was a dumpster fire of frantic texts and calls. The “wife” wasn’t letting it get away but I had to play bad cop. End result, they’re eating all repairs, signed off on by my HVAC guy, and want to quick close on 5/1. Husband coming in. So bizarre.

They’re Throwing in a warranty. I did a search and Elite seems good? Anyone used them?)

**** it.

I am pretty flexible with my clients wishes and wants but one thing that I press on all (with the exception of my investors) is get an inspection. Don't skimp on a few hundred dollars on doing your due diligence on a couple hundred thousand dollar investment. Back when the market was going crazy in many parts of the country, people were waiving their inspection contingency. I was horrified by that. Can't imagine how many people got burned by doing that. Before we bought our current home, we went back and forth on one house (about a slightly over 5 minute walk from my in laws actually) and they wanted me to waive the inspection.... with the house having been built in 1975. HELLLLLLLLLLLL NO. You can never be too in love with a property to waive the inspection contigency.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

The idea of living that close to my SIL gives me hives.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Put my Memphis home on the market. 3 offers at or over ask (which was top of comps). Sold in 72 hours.

Hit Chattanooga and looked at 14 houses in the first weekend. Found the place right away. Perfect.. everything we wanted, and more (4 sleep/work spaces down, very nice kitchen and master suite, high ceilings, newer construction, backing up to woods, etc). It was literally the only house on market that met our criteria and price point.

We find out the owners have been relocated… wife staying back to sell the house. On market 2 months and counting. Yahtzee.

Ask 525.
Offer 480
Counter 510
Offer 487 final > Accepted

Under contract and hoping to close early May…. Knock on wood. Sparkling inspection. Great home. HVAC fix (running weak) and irrigation hookup pending before close.

Gonna have fun with this one. Building a Huge outdoor sunroom/patio/kitchen. Matrix video wall in living room (four 65” TCL Q6) for theater experience or Sunday Ticket / Masters eye candy.

Update : never count yo chickens

Got the call today
1) weak main A/C turned out to be dead blower fan. $1050 quote. Why $1050? Well…

2) Turns out builder forgot to register HVAC. Two A/C units and two furnaces. Zero covered by Warranty. ******* that’s an impressive show of ****ery

3) HVAC guy thankfully also checked upstairs unit. She’s low on coolant too. He needed a heat collar to stress the system to bring it to the surface but I’m glad he did. Was someone lazy at install or is there another repair lying in wait. Find out tomorrow.

Can’t believe how important a good inspector and or systems guy is.

Today was a dumpster fire of frantic texts and calls. The “wife” wasn’t letting it get away but I had to play bad cop. End result, they’re eating all repairs, signed off on by my HVAC guy, and want to quick close on 5/1. Husband coming in. So bizarre.

They’re Throwing in a warranty. I did a search and Elite seems good? Anyone used them?)

**** it.

I am pretty flexible with my clients wishes and wants but one thing that I press on all (with the exception of my investors) is get an inspection. Don't skimp on a few hundred dollars on doing your due diligence on a couple hundred thousand dollar investment. Back when the market was going crazy in many parts of the country, people were waiving their inspection contingency. I was horrified by that. Can't imagine how many people got burned by doing that. Before we bought our current home, we went back and forth on one house (about a slightly over 5 minute walk from my in laws actually) and they wanted me to waive the inspection.... with the house having been built in 1975. HELLLLLLLLLLLL NO. You can never be too in love with a property to waive the inspection contigency.

Oh, yeah. My realtor got medieval on the buyer's agent when they didn't do that and complained about something.

 

[WVU Alum]

Today I saw a house on the market that advertises the option to assume the mortgage. Had never seen that before. They are touting the 3.25% rate of the current mortgage. How does this even work when home prices have doubled in my area since the time of the 3% interest rates?

 

[Nugget]

Today I saw a house on the market that advertises the option to assume the mortgage. Had never seen that before. They are touting the 3.25% rate of the current mortgage. How does this even work when home prices have doubled in my area since the time of the 3% interest rates?

If you qualify, you can assume their mortgage. You have to come up with the rest of the purchase price another way. This won’t work for most buyers.

 

[Peggy]

Congrats, icon!!!

I'm driving myself mad every day trying to figure out the optimal way to do my buy first, sell after plan. In a nutshell, the problem is that I would likely do what I did the last time, which is use a HELOC and cash on hand to pay cash for the new place, then pay off the HELOC when I sell. in this higher interest rate environment, though, that is only desirable to me if I know I'll only have it outstanding for 2-3 months. Given that we don't plan to move until next spring we'd buy around March 1, get the place on the market within a month, and likely sell it relatively quickly. Easy, right?

Then I remember I'm me. And that I have a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to show my mom and her husband some neighborhoods and places they might wish to live. And since I've been on Zillow for a couple of hours a day for three months, I'll probably look at a few places myself. And that I'll want to buy one and all that will go out the window. If I were to buy and hold it for more than a few months, a regular mortgage might be better.

Then I get bummed out and turn it over in my head 571,646 more times per hour.

Help? Maybe I should PM @Chadstroma .

I'm in the exact same situation. Going to look in August - September. Might need to keep current house until the end of the year.

Zillow is like crack.

What's the plan to move all your stuff? @Chadstroma just needs to move down the street, that's easy compared to 2000 mile across country.

Funny thing for me is that the move across the country was easy (I had a moving company do it). With this move... specially with my plan of not really moving in for several months, it might be a hybrid of small trips and then one big final move. My sister in law moved to their new place down the street from my in laws and where we might live but only lived about 5 minutes away. They did basically the same thing I am thinking of where they did a good amount of work on it before moving and then kind of slowly moved in. The idea of moving is not very exciting either way.

I've moved 5 times for my company where moving companies did everything and then once just across town on my own. I'd rather do across town on my own. Yeah it takes 3 or 4 days and 5 or 7 trips with a giant u-haul, but, I feel at least I have control of everything. Having rando day laborers show up to pack all your stuff, and you have to be there anyways, then all your stuff disappears for a week plus until it meets you at the new location always bothered me.

 

[Van Dyman]

As always @Chadstroma knows his lending stuff.

One option for lending in buying a house and selling your current house that I haven't seen mentioned yet is one my local CU offered us last time. We ended up not needing it but it was interesting.

They were offering a 95/5 loan. So 5% down. But the interesting twist was they also offered a one-time reamoritization. So it's not a bridge loan, but would work the same. Lets say I was buying a new to me 500k house. I could start a new loan with 5% down, 25k. Then after I sold my current house I could put the equity into the new 95/5 loan and it would allow the CU to recalculate the monthly P&I (payment) for the rest of the length of the loan.

Hate to bump an old post but this isn't that different from a standard "recast" which I think most lenders allow. A "recast" which is where you (after selling the old house) dump a lump sum toward the new loan's principal and they recalculate the P&I using the same interest rate & maturity date (re-amortize). I did this. Bought the new house with something like 20% down, sold the old house the following month, recast the new mortgage immediately. Worked like a charm without having to make the purchase contingent on the sale of my first house. Of course, you must qualify and the first payments would be pretty high if you don't recast quickly.

Mortgage Recasting: What It Is And How It Works | Bankrate

Some lenders offer homeowners a chance to lower their monthly payments by recasting their mortgage. Here are the benefits and drawbacks.

www.bankrate.com

 

[Chadstroma]

The idea of living that close to my SIL gives me hives.

My in laws are great. I really don't have any negative emotions about that at all. If anything, it will be helpful to me as my FIL is Mr. Does it all.... seriously, he is a retired Dr that did almost all his own DIY work on his house and cars. When we moved into this house, he rewired an outlet so I could plug in my electric dryer replacing the previous owners gas dryer. My old furnace pilot light was not lighting the furnace and he fixed that. He was like "I fix people and homes and cars." really an amazing man. He is physically not able to do much now with getting old but he can tell me what to do on some things.

 

[Chadstroma]

Today I saw a house on the market that advertises the option to assume the mortgage. Had never seen that before. They are touting the 3.25% rate of the current mortgage. How does this even work when home prices have doubled in my area since the time of the 3% interest rates?

An assumable mortgage is where you take over that current mortgage. So whatever they have.... in this case, 3.25% you now are paying.

The pitfalls of it are really two things:
1) Horrible reputation of time and pain in the 'loan' process. You still need to qualify for the loan. The lender servicing the loan has no real incentive of doing a good job so what I have heard of is a lot of instances of taking several months and issues/frustration along the way.
2) You have to come up with the difference. So, if the purchase is for $200K and the current loan balance is $100K, you need to come to close with $100K plus closing costs.

Other that that, if you can get an assumable at 3.25% that is awesome as that is half or more the rate you will get on a current mortgage.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

The idea of living that close to my SIL gives me hives.

My in laws are great. I really don't have any negative emotions about that at all. If anything, it will be helpful to me as my FIL is Mr. Does it all.... seriously, he is a retired Dr that did almost all his own DIY work on his house and cars. When we moved into this house, he rewired an outlet so I could plug in my electric dryer replacing the previous owners gas dryer. My old furnace pilot light was not lighting the furnace and he fixed that. He was like "I fix people and homes and cars." really an amazing man. He is physically not able to do much now with getting old but he can tell me what to do on some things.

Oh, we're 15-20 mins from my MIL/FIL. They're great.

 

[Chadstroma]

The idea of living that close to my SIL gives me hives.

My in laws are great. I really don't have any negative emotions about that at all. If anything, it will be helpful to me as my FIL is Mr. Does it all.... seriously, he is a retired Dr that did almost all his own DIY work on his house and cars. When we moved into this house, he rewired an outlet so I could plug in my electric dryer replacing the previous owners gas dryer. My old furnace pilot light was not lighting the furnace and he fixed that. He was like "I fix people and homes and cars." really an amazing man. He is physically not able to do much now with getting old but he can tell me what to do on some things.

Oh, we're 15-20 mins from my MIL/FIL. They're great.

Oh yea, SIL is ok. Her husband and I never meshed but it is amicable. I think for some reason both of them didn't like me early on. The SIL seems to have come around but the husband I just say hi and bye and that is pretty close to the extent of our interactions. I wouldnt say he doesn't like me now but we aren't friends either. Though even with people he likes he isn't the most social person in the world. We just don't really interact much. Basically my wife and SIL are best friends.

 

[Chadstroma]

As always @Chadstroma knows his lending stuff.

One option for lending in buying a house and selling your current house that I haven't seen mentioned yet is one my local CU offered us last time. We ended up not needing it but it was interesting.

They were offering a 95/5 loan. So 5% down. But the interesting twist was they also offered a one-time reamoritization. So it's not a bridge loan, but would work the same. Lets say I was buying a new to me 500k house. I could start a new loan with 5% down, 25k. Then after I sold my current house I could put the equity into the new 95/5 loan and it would allow the CU to recalculate the monthly P&I (payment) for the rest of the length of the loan.

Hate to bump an old post but this isn't that different from a standard "recast" which I think most lenders allow. A "recast" which is where you (after selling the old house) dump a lump sum toward the new loan's principal and they recalculate the P&I using the same interest rate & maturity date (re-amortize). I did this. Bought the new house with something like 20% down, sold the old house the following month, recast the new mortgage immediately. Worked like a charm without having to make the purchase contingent on the sale of my first house. Of course, you must qualify and the first payments would be pretty high if you don't recast quickly.

Mortgage Recasting: What It Is And How It Works | Bankrate

Some lenders offer homeowners a chance to lower their monthly payments by recasting their mortgage. Here are the benefits and drawbacks.

www.bankrate.com

I may have stated it before but not all loan types and not all lenders will do a recast. Also, they are more useful in a low rate environment versus a high rate environment because a refi, assuming rates go down from where you were, will act as a recast (if you wish) and lower your rate. However, if you really want the cash flow then recasting doesn't hurt at all if it is available to you.

 

[krista4]

Crap. I talked to my credit union, and while they do HELOCs, they have a maximum of $250k. That's not going to do it for the "buy using my HELOC and cash on hand" scenario. Does this seem unusual? When I did it before using a local bank, there wasn't a cap (or at least not one that I was borrowing enough to hit). I'm not sure where to go from here.

ETA: Nevermind, I've been researching others and see various caps. My credit union one is just very low. Going to have to find someone else to use.