Problems with Selling Your Old House When Your New House is in a Different Place
The difficulties faced by buyer-sellers who have already moved into their new home but are waiting to sell their old -- long-distance
Most homeowners (and even renters) know that both buying and selling residential real estate is complicated, occasionally unpleasant, time-consuming, and expensive -- no matter where you live. Unfortunately, all of these difficulties are compounded when an owner is both buying and selling within the same window. This incredibly time-sensitive and complex situation -- with so many moving parts and involved parties -- is made even more complex when a buyer-seller has already purchased their new home but is still waiting to secure a sale on their previous property.
However, no residential real estate situation is more complicated than one in which the two properties exist in different cities or states and the owner has attempted to complete the sale all on their own -- especially as experts agree that the most effective way to tackle this kind of situation is to find the right team to help. Follow below to learn more about the difficulties associated with long-distance buying-selling and how to address each issue.
An Impossible Commute
A 2017 survey recently cited in the 2020 Business News Daily article “The Real Reasons Employees Are Late for Work” found that a third of workers arrived late to work at least once per month, with 49% of people who reported arriving late to work or another engagement cited traffic while another “26% said it was due to bad weather.” Trying to commute to another city for showings, open houses, and meetings with potential buyers can be impossible and would likely result in a late arrival on the seller’s part if driving in from out of town. Furthermore, some buyers might request access to the property on the same day they contact the seller about an appointment and may become frustrated when they learn that the seller is not immediately available or must always commute from elsewhere, thereby slowing down the selling process.
Dealing While in a Different World
The article “How To Buy A Home In A Different City: 12 Things You Need To Know” by Palo Alto-based California investment service firm Wealthfront notes that when trying to sell a home in a city far from the one you have moved to, your previous “life might be in one place, but your mind might very well already be nesting and setting up shop somewhere else entirely.” Your mind has already moved into your new house, the same way you and your family physically have. As such, your attention cannot be on your old home the way it should be as the sale process progresses. The same article recommends that “for out-of-state or international moves especially, it’s wise to have a reliable agent help facilitate the process” because “sometimes staying in control of the important parts of your life is less about doing everything yourself and more about being an excellent project manager who delegates to a trusted team.”
The Danger of Going it Alone
When a buyer-seller has already purchased and begun the moving process to their new home -- without having sold their previous home -- emotions are already running high. According to a report released by the National Association of Realtors, “the typical home seller in 2017...lived in their home for 10 years,” meaning that the average home sold was filled with a decade of memories the seller may not be ready to let go of. However, some buyer-sellers feel the opposite -- they cannot wait to leave their old home behind and get a fresh start in their new home. Whichever way the buyer-seller might be feeling, emotions can easily get out of hand when they attempt to juggle both the purchase of their new home and the sale of their old on their own. An unclear head and skewed understanding of the previous home’s value in the current market can undercut a reasonable prospective sale. According to NAR, homes sold by their owners (FSBOs) sold for an average $80,000 less than “agent-assisted home sales.”
The article “Is It Better To Sell Home By Owner Or Use a Real Estate Agent?” published by Women Who Money explains that the number one reason homeowners decide to sell without the help of a team is to save money, especially given that “hiring a real estate agent means paying commissions, which average around 6% of the sales price of the home.” Of course, with everything else burdening a buyer-seller -- from juggling work and moving as well as the actual costs of relocating -- “the thought of shelling money out, on top of other moving-related expenses isn’t appealing.” Of course, the benefits of hiring the right team far outweigh the upfront costs because these costs are typically made up with an average $80,000 higher sale. Furthermore, the majority of buyers approach purchasing a new home with the help of a team, statistics released by NAR show, with “89% of buyers purchasing their home through a real estate agent or broker [in 2018]—a share that has steadily increased from 69 percent in 2001.”
The right team of stagers, listers, real estate agents, and marketers will know how to present the home to buyers and how to handle all the legal aspects of the sale. Time for marketing, know-how of staging, and understanding of the law are all often lacking in FSBO’s. The National Association of Realtors suggests that many buyer-sellers neither have the time to market their homes nor the resources to do so. According to a report released by NAR, 36% of sellers trying to sell their home completely on their own “did not actively market [their] home,” with less than 24% even offering an open house for the property. The NAR listed the most difficult aspects of owner-led home sales as “getting the price right, preparing the home for sale [including “fixing up” and staging], selling within the planned length of time, having enough time to devote to all aspects of the sale, and understanding and performing [necessary] paperwork.”
How Sandpiper Can Help
Hiring the right team is essential to achieving a smooth selling process, responsibilities you can comfortably manage, and a reasonable sale price at the end of the process. When selling a previous house from out of town -- or out of state -- hiring the right team to handle day-to-day activities, whether these activities include showings and open houses or staging the home and listing the property. Sandpiper is that “right team” because the company provides buyer-sellers with a way to keep their home on the market long enough to secure the best offer without losing money. Sandpiper works with stagers, real estate agents, brokerages, and marketers to list your home on reputable short-term rental sites while your house sits on the market.
Sandpiper offers buyer-sellers the option to have their previous home staged properly - with wall art, furniture, and soft finishings throughout each room -- to make the home equally attractive to prospective buyers and short-term renters like conference-goers and out-of-town professionals in town for an important meeting. Sandpiper offers buyer-sellers who have already bought their new home but have not yet sold their old home a way to “create an income for home owners by staging their home with our furniture and letting our verified renters stay during the time house is for sale.” By staging, listing, and marketing the client’s previous property while the client moves into their new home in another city or state, Sandpiper takes over the responsibilities that plague long-distance buyer-sellers.
Sandpiper lists your old house on multiple reputable short-term rental sites in order to produce supplementary income that can cover your new monthly housing payments -- learn more about this in the article “Dealing with a Double Mortgage.” This extra cash allows you to keep your home on the market as long as necessary to produce the desired sale price while also providing access to an entirely new group of buyers through short-term rental listings. Furthermore, Sandpiper has all the knowledge necessary -- and so uncommon of FSBO residential real estate listings -- to provide a practiced home stager, connect you with a brokerage or realtor who understands local laws and requirements, give you access to a team that knows how to sell your home in a historic pandemic, and offer you high-quality marketing for your property. Above all, Sandpiper will enable you to create an alternative source of income and will support you as you wait to receive the right offer.
