Have you heard the news? We moved!!! The process can be a little stressful at times. Here’s what you need to know when selling a home and buying at same time.
The real estate market has been nuts over the last few years.
There was such a buying and selling frenzy that we got into the game.
We’ve always talked about moving when our kids graduated from high school.
So we casually started looking and BAM!
We found a great house that we wanted to buy and started down the rabbit hole of the moving process.
I want to preface this post by saying I am not a real estate expert; however, I just went through this process and want to share how to get through it.
Because it can be an emotional rollercoaster!
In general, moving is a huge life event that can be super stressful.
It ranks up there with weddings, deaths, illness, divorce, etc.
From the offer to acceptance, the inspections, re-negotiations, packing, and coordinating the move, it is a huge weight, am I right?
And if you are doing it all through the holidays, add double the amount of stress!
But I’ve got a few tips to make the buying and selling process feel a little less stressful.
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5 Tips to Selling a Home and Buying at the Same Time Without Losing Your Mind
If you’ve gone through the moving process before, you know how much stress and anxiety it brings.
There are so many moving parts that have to get done at the same time and it’s stressful trying to figure out how to get it all done.
When selling your home, there are things to do to get your house ready for sale.
I’m not addressing that here, but you can CLICK HERE for some best practice tips to preparing your home for sale.
And if you are looking for packing tips? CLICK HERE.
Let Go of Things You Cannot Control
This is a big one.
And one that I struggled with during the sale of our house.
My best advice is…do what you can to be as helpful as possible to potential buyers and your realtor.
But don’t sweat the small stuff.
Let go of the things you cannot control and focus on the things that are within your control.
Clean Clean Clean
Do a deep cleaning and start purging stuff you don’t need if you haven’t started that process already.
Remove extra things from counters and start paring things down.
But keep your house clean.
And I know that can be tough, especially if you have kids.
Pick it up daily so it’s not a huge deal when buyers come to the house.
A clean home that presents well will help sell your home faster.
Keeping it relatively clean daily will reduce stress because you’ll be ready to show your home at the drop of a hat.
And when you are selling home and buying at same time, timing is everything.
Things can happen really quick and you’ve got to be ready.
Try to sell things you don’t want anymore on Facebook marketplace or garage sales if you can.
Donate to thrift stores, churches, etc.
And rent a dumpster to quickly get rid of the rest.
If you’ve got a tight moving timeline as we did, you’ll need it.
Pro Tip: Before renting a dumpster, check with your realtor regarding inspections and time the rental accordingly.
Take Really Deep Breaths
When things don’t go your way, and things won’t always go your way, take a HUGE deep breath.
Breathe it in and hold for 10 seconds.
Exhale for 10 seconds.
Then repeat until you can mentally get a grip.
It’s so hard sometimes, I know.
But take that deep breath because it will work out the way that it should in the end.
Be Realistic With Expectations
As much as I’m a do-it-yourselfer, I have a family of 5 and we have a lot of stuff.
We planned to pack as much as we could on our own.
But the truth of the matter is, we needed help with the move.
With two kids in college and one in high school plus my husband and I both work full time, we had to be realistic about our time, our jobs, as well as the size and scale of the move.
And when you are selling a home and buying at same time, the move might span over the course of a few days.
So think it through and be real with what you can actually do.
Do you need to rent storage space? Will movers be able to hold your items on their truck?
In our case, we had to pack up and move out the day before closing.
So all of our stuff had to be held somewhere until we closed on the new house the day after.
It’s a lot of moving parts and we just couldn’t do it by ourselves.
As much as we want to do-it-yourself, we had to farm it out.
And while movers can get expensive, it was worth every penny.
Be Organized
Even if organization is not your strong suit, do your best at organizing so the process is easier and less stressful.
Get your financial information together and located in one place for the mortgage company.
Expect the mortgagor to want more and more details.
Try to think about all the things they’ll want back up details for so you can start pulling it together early.
They’ll still want more, but at least you’ll have a good head start.
Organize your packing.
Group boxes by room.
Label label label.
And purchase colored dots like THESE so you can make a legend to know what boxes go where in the new house.
Move-in day will be SO MUCH EASIER if you are really organized with the move.
Be True to Your Intentions
There’s a book everyone should read about the power of intention.
It’s a great book about staying focused on what you want, rather than focusing on what you think you should have.
And if you say you are going to do something – be true to those intentions.
There are so many things that can happen when buying or selling a home.
If everyone would just stay focused on the end result and not try to game for a better deal, things would go much smoother.
At the end of the day, gaming the system isn’t a winning strategy.
Be a Good Human
At the end of the day, be a good human to the other party.
The attorneys and real estate agents will tell you that you should or can do X or Y.
But at the end of the day?
It’s your decision and you don’t have to follow every bit of advice.
You can hear the advice and still decide to be a good human.
Be true to your intentions.
And consider the other party.
Attorneys and realtors can kill deals just as easily as they can make them.
The real estate process is stressful for both the buyer and seller.
While you should always keep your best interests in mind, consider the other party and what is reasonable.
Can you be helpful to them without a negative impact on you?
Maybe you can, maybe you can’t.
But if you can be helpful? Just do it.
It makes for a better sale with both parties working better together and feeling better about the process.
Maybe that’s overly optimistic, but it’s not impossible.
Thinking About Moving?
If you have not embarked on the selling and buying process yet but are thinking about moving in the near future, start donating, selling and tossing things you don’t need now.
Use the lens of “do I want to pay to move this?” with every single item.
Because trust me, if you don’t use that lens?
You’ll probably keep much more than you need.
Although we hadn’t committed to moving yet, we started cleaning things out of the attic before the remodel as well as the garden shed.
I regularly cleaned out and kept up on our basement and garage, but looking back, there was so much down there that we really didn’t need.
So I suggest starting this process much sooner when you start toying with the idea of moving.
Selling My Home and Buying at the Same Time
There are so many ups and downs.
Moving is a lot of work.
It brings a lot of stress and anxiety.
And the unknown can be paralyzing.
Prepare as best as you can and you’ll get through it.
Hiccups will happen.
Expect bumps in the road.
But things will work out as they should.
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Thank you so much for following along.
Enjoy a beautiful day! xo
