8 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying and Selling at the Same Time By Jamie Wiebe Jan 24 2019

Plenty of people find themselves buying and selling a home simultaneously, but knowing that others have gone through the same stress does not make it one bit easier. After all, the stakes are so high: If your buyer backs out, you don’t have any cash to land your next home! Or if your own purchase falls through but your current home sells, you’re homeless!

Breathe in. Don’t panic.

It turns out that most buying-and-selling mistakes are easily avoidable—or at least predictable. Follow these eight tips to enter escrow with eyes wide open.

1. Waiting too long to prep your home for selling

• Every home needs a little work before selling. You might need to repaint some scratched walls, fix broken decking, or add grout in a rarely used bathroom. Don’t wait until the last minute to kick-start this process, otherwise you could wind up in a bind.

2. Skipping the backup plan

• Assume that you won’t be able to buy and sell at exactly the same time. Keep your emergency fund well-stocked. In a best-case scenario, you may simply need a hotel for a week.

3. Buying too big

• One of the biggest mistakes that we see that simultaneous buyers and sellers make is the same one that many first-time buyers make: They fail to get pre-approved on their new loan.

4. Working with too little cushion

• If you’re hoping to use the entire sale price as a down payment on another home, move forward with the assumption your home will sell for less than expected.

5. Failing to compromise

• One mistake is expecting so much from the people selling the home, but not being willing to give anything to the buyers of their own home.

6. Using two different real estate agents

• Having control and insight over both transactions allows a Realtor to make sure that we close both homes simultaneously

7. Closing on a Friday…

• Bank transfers can take a few days to go through. In order to ensure there’s money in your account when the time comes, buffer a few days to transfer funds.

8. …or late in the afternoon

• Banks usually stop wire transfers by 3 p.m. in the time zone where the property is located.

For more information on mistakes to avoid when buying and selling a home go to bmre.us/tip19