When You Are Thinking of Selling Your Home, What Are The First 2 Questions I Ask?

Putting your home up for sale is a big decision: a very big decision. So when I meet with you, I have 2 important first questions. One:  Where do you want to move to?  Two: Do you need to sell your home (and the proceeds from the sale) before you buy a new one?

Let's start with the 2nd question first.

One of the most crucial responsibilities I have is to protect you financially.  And this means making sure you don't have to carry two homes at the same time ie: the home you're currently in, as well as the home you're going to buy. 

Sellers seem to believe that they can buy first and sell afterwards and just "bridge finance" between the closing of the new home and a later closing of the home they're selling.  The financial institutions, these days, are much tighter than they used to be about approving "bridge loans". A bridge loan is the amount of money the Bank will lend you to cover the cost of purchasing a new home before you get the proceeds from the sale of your current one. My role is to make sure you are financially protected and covered and aren't caught carrying both at the same time.  The financial institutions often want to see a firm sale and know the closing date of the house you're selling in order to approve a bridge loan. It's often a shock, when I explain how stringent the banks can be. So we have to figure out what you can really afford to buy if you're going to first go this route.  My recommendation? Always sell before you purchase, except in very specific circumstances. If we decide you can definitely buy before you sell, we'll begin a concentrated search for your new home and your closing date may not matter. However, if we have to sell your current one first, I suggest a substantial closing date on your sale so that you have the purchase time and synchronize the move.

Now for Question #1: Where do you want to move to?  If you haven't given this too much thought, now's the time for us to figure it out.  What are your preferred north/south/east/west boundaries? What neighbourhood do you want to live in? What size home are you looking to buy? Are schools important and do we need the new address before the school year begins? Do you only want a detached home or what about a semi or a townhouse? Or is it a condo you'd prefer?  What about proximity to transportation, shops & restaurants? And even.... how tall is the tallest person, in your family, who will live in your home?  I always consider basement ceiling height! Oh, and what if we couldn't find the perfect home right away, would you consider renting to give yourself more time to find what you really want?

As you can see, all of this just covers the first two major questions we'll discuss together.....because, in addition to protecting your most important asset and selling your home for the absolute most the market can give you, another one of my  goals is to "see through your eyes": "20/20" vision (and now it's also in 2020) ... together, as a team!