So you’ve decided it’s time to purchase a new home and maybe you’ve even thought about putting an offer in. But now you find yourself holding back because you’re worried about the closing dates and whether or not you’ll find yourself without a place to live during that time.  

During the home buying process, many people are afraid if they sell their house they won’t have anywhere to move to. The thing I tell my clients most is that risk equals reward in a hot market. This problem also exists on the flip side too. If you sell your house before you find a house you want to buy, you’re in an even more precarious situation than you would be if you had found a home, bought it and then listed your own home.  

The best way to avoid this problem is to include a conditional offer on your home. Here are two different types of conditions that you can use in your offers: 

  1. Conditional offer on finding a new home. This little condition isn’t as well knows as the latter. It means that an offer to purchase your home only goes through if you are able to find a new home. The length of this type of condition is generally about six weeks long. Keep in mind that the buyer can also keep looking for other homes if they want to, though once they’ve fallen in love with your home and gone through the process, this isn’t likely to happen. You will also be given the opportunity to, first, firm up the sale or put the home back on the market should this scenario arise.  
     
  2. Conditional offer on selling your home. This well known condition is the most popular if you need to sell before you can buy. It stipulates that your offer to purchase a new home will only go through when you find someone to buy your current home. This condition is fairly common, but is almost impossible to use if you are competing for a home.  

If these conditions don’t work out in your favour, there are other options for how to bridge that length of time between when you move out of your old house and into your new one: 

  • Find a short term lease. Sure, you’ll have to sacrifice the short term rental for long-term gain, but this eliminates the stress factor of where you’ll live during that time. Most short-term rental units are furnished so all you’ll need to worry about is where to store your stuff.  
  • Move in with family or friends. Depending on your situation and the space that your friend or family member has, you might be able to stay with them. And if you’re lucky, you might even be able to use their basement to store some of your things! 

If you don’t have somewhere to store your things, there are a few good options. Aside from renting a storage unit, many moving companies will store your stuff for you, which is very convenient when the time comes to move into your new place. Another good option is to rent a pod to store your things in. Your pod will stay on your driveway until moving day. They will then take it to their storage facility until you move into your new home, at which point it will be dropped off in your new driveway.  

Posted by Greg Dewar on
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