They say that it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all, but is that the case when it comes to real estate?
I recently had some clients that feel in love with a home but due to circumstances they weren't able to write an offer. Knowing that, they basically crossed their fingers and hoped that the home would still be for sale when they were able to make an offer. In this case it wasn't, in fact it sold very quickly and it devastated them. It can be very difficult to go through that. I always talk about your home being you biggest investment but it's also a huge part of your life. It's where you sleep, eat and spend time with loved ones so it's got to be a place you love to be.
So how do you avoid real estate heart break? Well you have to consider two important factors; where you are coming from and where you want to go. If you are renting you don't have to sell the property you just have to give the appropriate amount of notice to your landlord. However, you also need to make sure your financing is in place. That doesn't just mean being pre-approved for a mortgage, it also means having your down payment and deposit money sorted out. If you don't have your finances straightened out before you go look at house you could be looking at homes that are priced higher than what you can or want to spend and then you are in a situation of wanting what you can't have.
If you have to sell your current house then you need to consider how sellable it is. If you have an acreage property or a million dollar house in Cooper's Crossing it could take a while to sell it because the pool of buyers is smaller. So you don't want to jump into looking at homes too soon because that's when you can fall into loving it and loosing it. You also don't want to dive in too quickly if you are depending on external factors like getting a job or being transferred. What if things don't work out as planned, not only are you disappointed about the situation, you are also disappointed about the house.
You also have to look at where you are going. If you are looking for a specific type of property then it might be a good idea to start looking a little further in advance because there are likely less of those home out there and even less for sale.
The market is also a huge factor in this. When we were booming in 2006 you had to find a house first and then when you sold your current house it would likely sell in a matter of days (if not hours) so there wasn't much risk of owning two homes. In a slower market owning two homes becomes a much bigger concern and you may have to sell your house before you even start looking at houses.
At the end of the day I like to sit down with each of my clients one on one and review all the factors in their situation, that way I can offer them the best advice based on the market and my experience. I hate seeing my clients disappointed about losing a property but one thing I do know for sure is that timing is everything in real estate and when it's meant to be it will be. I've never met a client on possession day that wasn't happy about unlocking the door.
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