A Team Homes By Ash Case Study – Selling a Home with a Busy-Work-From Home Environment and Busy Family Lifestyle<
In an era of a global health pandemic - where more and more people were forced to work from home – we saw a huge rise in real estate activity last year speared by buyers who were looking to find a space of their own for a multitude of reasons. Some were seeking more yard space so they could continue to connect with family and friends outside. Some buyers wanted to take advantage of low-interest lending opportunities and purchase their first home to be used as a place to grow a family or a long-term investment. And some just needed more space to continue their work in privacy away from the 24/7 hustle and bustle of a busy family household.
There were plenty of other driving factors as well, but those who already owned a home and needed to make a move to a new home due to space or career relocation factors were facing some logistical challenges and concerns. And, it is in this scenario that we dive into for our first case-study this spring.
Selling a Home with a Busy Work-From-Home Environment
Jodi and Sam wanted to sell their existing home but were concerned about how to best accomplish this goal when they were both working from home. Operating a busy household that included a large dog and two children who were home participating in virtual schooling would be challenging enough when you need to coordinate preparing a home to market for sale, but then you add two work-from-home businesses on top of it… …that doesn’t leave a lot of flexibility during the day for cleaning, fixing, staging, or photoshoots let alone the extra time for paperwork, phone calls, and email updates. And what would happen when a showing was requested? The thought was a little overwhelming.
They were also having a tough time finding a home to move to because the market offered limited inventory to purchase; most likely because of other sellers facing similar concerns or reservations. And those homes that were on the market for sale were so competitive because there were more buyers than sellers in the market, and most home sellers would not even consider entertaining a contingent offer based on a buyer’s need to sell their existing home first.
Upon the recommendation of a friend, Jodi and Sam asked me to do a market analysis for their home and were very excited to find out about the equitable value their home had accrued. They planned to use this equity towards the down payment on the financing and purchase of their new home.
They knew if they waited, equitable fluctuations and rising interest rates later could affect their ability to make a move and they wanted to take advantage of their financial position right then - but how could they possibly manage it all and make that transition with the least amount of negative impact and stress to their family?
We outlined their concerns and created a strategy to overcome them.
Some of the struggles they were facing were how to be out of the house for showings and having the time to get the house ‘show ready’ while working and schooling from there.
We needed to review their concerns and address all of their options before walking them through the best possible strategy. One of the first things we did was to have them talk to one of our trusted home loan partners about their ability to purchase and close on a new home before selling their existing home.
In Jodi’s and Sam’s case, they were able to qualify for a new home loan without having to worry about pulling that equity first, so they chose to start the home buying process right then. Within weeks we found the perfect home for them, but they then found themselves in multiple offers – as expected.
Multiple-offer scenarios were – and remain to be – a common challenge for buyers in this type of market. However, because Jodi and Sam followed our recommendations on structuring their competitive offer – knowing exactly what they would include, making it the strongest offer possible, (a dear seller letter as an example), their offer was the one accepted.
Jodi and Sam were able to close and move into their new home quickly. This gave them the benefit of extra time and an opportunity to get a painter and cleaning person into the home they still needed to sell. And, once that home went on the market, they had multiple offers on it and received and accepted an offer within 3 days.
There was more great news in this Case Study.
One of the great things about this scenario is Jodi and Sam were able to take the proceeds from their sale, pay it down on their new home loan, and have the lender re-cast (re-amortize) the loan for a minimal fee, versus spending thousands of dollars for a refinance so at the end of the day, they were still able to leverage all that equitable growth from their first home to reduce costs associated with their new home and possible taxable income.
How Would Your Home Selling Scenario Play Out? Let’s Talk.
Let Team Homes By Ash help you find and purchase your next home this year with our award-winning leadership and solutions behind you every step of the way.
