There are so many variables that go into deciding where to live. What schools are best for your children? Is the location convenient for work, activities, and family? What are the nearby amenities? Do you have to travel far for groceries? Then you go even smaller, and you wonder about neighbors. How loud is the neighborhood? Do people around you keep up their property, or do they let everything get overgrown? Do they let their houses get covered with green mold? All of these things can be figured out by discussing what your family wants out of a home. Once you know that, the hard part happens.
At least that’s what I found out recently. I’ll share my experience, I will name a great local contact who has been instrumental in keeping me sane through this process, and I’ll share lessons learned.
My family lives in a surrounding county of Lexington. Both my wife and I work in Lexington, and my son plays sports in Lexington. That makes for long commutes that made us decide to start looking around for a “forever” type of home for us. There was no reason for a rush or hurry, as we are pretty picky about what type of home we want to live in. We decided not to take anything less than perfect, so there was no pressure when we were looking. Then the best/worst thing happened.
We found the perfect home. A ranch with a finished basement. All brick. On a cul de sac. Big backyard. Nice built-ins throughout the house. Old, but not too old. We could grow old in this house. Great neighborhood! Let’s buy it! We made an offer, and it was accepted! We knew we needed to sell our house, but a realtor told us, “No problem!” It will fly off the market! So we made an offer “contingent on the sale” of our house.
That’s where the problem started. There was initial interest when the house came on the market, but then nothing. Apparently everyone decided to sell their house at the start of the summer, and there is a glut on the market of the same price homes. The cheapest are selling, but everyone else is just sitting and waiting. That means every morning we have to ensure the house is immaculate in case someone comes to look at the property. That sounds easy, but you have to keep garbage cans empty. Beds are made perfectly. Nothing out of place. Lots of daily pressure, and it’s “rewarded” with no one coming to see the house. The main problem is we do not want to carry two mortgages, and we do not want to drag out the process through the summer. If the house doesn’t sell before school starts, we don’t want to move our son to a new school halfway through the year. That makes us have a drop dead date to sell by.
We could wait, and we could extend the contract on our new home to be. Instead, we have decided to let the process take care of itself. If the house doesn’t sell by the contract date of the new home, we will just pull it off the market. We will back out of the purchase with no harm done to us. We still get our deposit back. We just lost what we thought was the home of our dreams. It has taken a month of heartache to come to that decision, but we don’t want to make a lifelong mistake by trying to carry two mortgages.
Someone who has helped throughout this process is Braeden Finch from Field & Main Bank in Lexington. Braeden is a Mortgage Loan Officer, and his knowledge is unsurpassed. He helped set us up with the best possible deal for our new mortgage (if it happens), and he has been the voice of reason throughout this whole process. When I was ready to buy the house without selling my house, Braeden walked through what that looks like with financing. He didn’t direct me to make a decision one way or another. He just presented the facts to help my family decide what would work best for us. He is quick to respond to messages, and he keeps a level head while discussing something that could have so many emotions involved for us as his clients. I highly recommend talking to Braeden Finch for all of your mortgage needs.
The lesson learned by me throughout this process? If you believe you will be potentially buying a home, put your home on the market before finding that house. If you sell the house at a price you are willing to let it go for, you can always do a short term rental while looking for your “forever” home. Some say we waited two weeks too late to be in the wild seller’s market that seemed to happen all around us. That will not happen again.
Meet with a Mortgage Loan Officer like Braeden from the start. Find out what your price range truly is, and you will be fully armed to find your dream home. With your current home ready to sell, you will be fully prepared to make an easy move for you and your family.
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