Money Advice Guide

Buying a home and selling a home at the same time can be one of the most difficult and nerve wracking of all real estate transactions. Many people wonder how to juggle the selling of one home with the purchase of another. They may be worried that their home will not sell by the time the money is due on the new home, or that they will be unable to find a suitable home after their home has sold.

These are certainly valid concerns, but there are steps the smart homeowner can take to increase the chances of a smooth buying and selling transaction.

Right timing to buy and sell

The timing of the two transactions can be very important. Many people find that they have the best chance of buying and selling a home in the spring and summer months. The spring and summer months of the year are typically the time when the inventory of homes on the market is at the highest level. If you need to sell your home in the fall or winter of the year, the time period between finding a buyer for your current home and finding a new home could be much longer.

Add contingency clause

It is also a good idea to tie the sale of your home to the purchase of a new home. Consider specifying in the sales contract that the sale of your current home is contingent on your finding a new place to live. Failure to write this contingency into the contract could leave you searching for a temporary place to live if your home sells before you find a new one. It is fairly easy to add a clause to your sales offer that your offer is contingent upon the sale of your existing home. This will protect you in case your home takes longer time to sell than anticipated.

Sell first buy later

You’re encouraged to put your home on the market before you begin the search for a new property. That time differential will allow you to gauge the local housing market and give you an idea of how long it will take your home to sell. It will also give you the ability to negotiate the escrow period in order to give yourself plenty of time to find a new place to live.

When buying and selling a home, it is a good idea to have the transactions close simultaneously if at all possible. This will help you avoid the situation where you have to get out of your present home before you can move into your new one.

Utilize same services

It is also important to remember that you are not obligated to use the same agent for the purchase and sales transaction. That said, using the same agent for the purchase and the sale might give you leverage when it comes to negotiating the real estate commissions.

Even though it is not necessary to use the same real estate agent for the purchase and sale, it is advised to use the same title or escrow company and the same real estate attorney to handle the transfer of both properties. Using the same companies for these important transactions will help ensure that both transactions go as smoothly as possible.

In addition, make sure you get all your financial documents in order and to fully investigate your financing options while your home is on the market. This is crucial, especially, for buyers who are selling their current home and looking for a more expensive one. Furthermore, having a pre-approval loan document in hand will give you greater negotiating power on the purchase of your new home. Using the time your home is on the market in a constructive way will help you a great deal.

Andrew is the web owner of Home Buying Tips: How to buy a house, a website that provides informational guide on home buying and selling, mortgage loan, foreclosure, real estate investment and more. You can visit his website at: http://www.buy-and-sell-house-fast.com/

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The equity you’ve built on your home can help you finance improvements. The equity is the difference between the property’s whole value and the remaining debt of your mortgage loan. That proportion of your property’s value can be used to secure another loan so you can get finance at very reasonable rates.

Home Improvement Equity Loans

Home improvement equity loans are loans specially tailored to be used for making home improvements. They are similar to home loans only that instead of used for the acquisition of a property, they are destined to improve the property’s value by repairing or redoing the property’s interiors and exteriors.

Whether you want to do repairs, change or fix floors, add or change carpets or tiles, repaint the outer or inner surface of the house, make roof repairs, add floors, remove or add windows, chimneys or decoration, etc. you can always resort to home improvement equity loans.

How Do They Work?

Home improvement equity loans are secured loans, they are guaranteed with the same property that a home loan. The asset securing the loan has to have enough free equity to cope with all the expenses generated by the improvements you are about to undertake. You could also request a line of credit that provides more flexible finance without having to apply for extra cash again if you run out of it in the middle of the repairing. However, lines of credit usually charge higher interest rates than home improvement equity loans.

Nevertheless, since these are secured loans, the interest rate charged is considerably lower than that of regular personal loans or than using your credit card to buy materials and pay for professional services. Besides, you can agree with the lender shorter or longer repayment programs so the loan installments are affordable enough to suit your budget.

Increasing the Property’s Value

One of the biggest benefits of these loans is that they almost pay for themselves. Since the money is used to make home improvements , the result of these improvements will probably be an increase on the property’s value which at the same time will increase the equity on your home.

More equity means more credit available for you that you can use to reduce your debt exposure and save thousands of dollars. Home equity debt is always cheaper than other forms of debt like personal loans and credit card financing. If you use the equity on your home to your advantage you can easily compensate the money you spent on your home improvements which, by the way will remain in your possession and become part of your assets. As you can see, it’s a win-win situation!

Tags: budget, credit card financing, home improvement equity loans, mortgage loan, secured loansbudget, credit card financing, home improvement equity loans, mortgage loan, secured loans

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