How to Buy or Sell a Home
Hi, I’m Brian Freeman. I have a special guest, Dave Edwards, Treasure Valley Dave, in Boise, Idaho. He is a big player on YouTube, with over 500 and something videos that he’s put out in the real estate space. Today, we will discuss the options if you want to buy or sell a home.
Who’s Treasure Valley Dave?
Dave’s a top real estate agent in the Boise Metro area. He came from Nebraska but stopped off for 20 years in California. Dave eventually left 10 years ago after retiring from the police department there. On that same day, he moved up to the Treasure Valley. So, we will be talking about the different ways to go from one house to the next:
- Sell then buy
- Buy and sell
- Buy then sell
We’re also going to go through the pros and cons of each of those. This way, you can understand what might be the best thing for you.
If you’re at our YouTube channel to learn about building a house, this will give you options for what you can do. Evaluate your circumstances and decide on how you’ll get there. It’s harder to do in today’s market, depending on the situation. After all, the interest rates are high, and the property’s value is still high.
Dave created three handouts, especially for people who need help deciding whether to buy or sell a house. Let’s get into it.
Do You Need to Move?
The first step of the process is deciding if you need to move. Maybe you don’t, and that’s fine too. It certainly doesn’t hurt to think about it.
And if you need to move, where will you go? Is it just a different neighborhood where you are? Or is it some entirely different state?
For instance, having a house built in San Diego might be an answer for you. You could want a house built up in the Treasure Valley, Idaho. All these processes work fantastic for any scenario.
Sell Then Buy
It means you’ll sell your home, get into a rental, or move back in with Mom or whatever the case is. Then, you buy a house several months later.
That’s what we did when we moved up from California. It’s an excellent option for people who need to learn the new area well and want to take some time to feel it out.
Buy and Sell
Another process is you can sell and buy. There are a lot of pros to this, but there are also some cons.
One of the biggest cons is that a lot is happening at once. We have a lot of deadlines to keep our eye on to ensure we get everything in the air. That’s why an excellent real estate agent can help you organize your plan and stay on track in these scenarios.
When you sell and buy a house, it’s one process. When you get your house on the market or have a buyer under contract, we immediately get you into a home you’re buying.
This way, you never end up homeless because you know you’re going from this house to this house. You don’t have to move twice like you would if you move to a rental and then from the rental to your new home. But there could be a lot of scary moments with that. So, have a great real estate agent.
We Build CUSTOM HOMES, ADUS, & Do HOME REMODELING
Top Notch Quality Homes, on time, on budget, and without hassles.
Handling Contingencies
Contingency means selling your current house before closing on your new home. The seller of your new house is looking at that contingency and going, “There’s a big risk there for me.” So, the further you are along in selling your old house, the less of a risk it is to the person you’re buying the house from.
One of the biggest things to improve your process here on the selling side is to be flexible with negotiations. When you’re going through the inspection period, the buyer can return with a list of health and safety things. And this is the biggest one: making sure to price your house right.
Buy Then Sell
So, the next option, and I’ve seen many retirees do this, is to buy a home and then sell the home you’re living in. It’s like, “Wow, well, how can you do that?”
The negative about this is that you could have two mortgages simultaneously. So, you have to qualify for two mortgages. Or if your current house is already paid off, that will make it easier. But all the pluses are there, especially if you’re looking for a less run-of-the-mill home. You can take your time and find that perfect house, and then buy it.
So, when the seller looks at your offer, they say, “Wow, this is sweet as a nut. Let’s go with it.” It works out great. Then, you can get the house you live in fixed up. If it’s worth more, you know what your real estate agent suggests.
Do you have the time to let it sit on the market because there’s no time pressure to sell that house? I wouldn’t suggest that. Go with the market value without messing around. Every month, it sits there empty; you’re making tax payments. Just sell it and then move at your own pace.
Mortgage Options
Kinecta Bank just had a good product, but they’re phasing it out. It’s slightly different now, but they allow you to take a HELOC on your primary home.
Let’s say this is a construction product where you want to build a home. You can take this, and they do it in all 50 states. It’s not like it’s just in California or Idaho. You can take a HELOC out on your primary residence if you have a lot of equity or bought it before everything went up. Take that thing, put it down on the new property to buy some vacant land.
Say you want to buy land, build a house, or remodel a property completely. The bank won’t count that against your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio. Anything on your primary home, even the first mortgage payment plus the HELOC, is not calculated against your DTI. So, you can qualify for this other loan as if you didn’t own your primary.
You can take your HELOC with your cash if you have enough income. Put it down on this property, buy the land, and then get the money to qualify for the construction loan.
Once the bank shows your existing home as a pending sale primary, they don’t force you to sell it at the end of the bill. You could rent that out if you want. They’ll allow you to show future rental income against that to offset the debt payment on the primary if it covers it. So, there are some options there.
Kinecta Bank had a 30-year product that would float down, but that’s since changed. Now, they’re doing a three-year fixed, and then it’ll do just every six months on the arm. But they at least allow you to make that transition without buying essentially first and then selling after.
It’s an exciting product that’s helped quite a few of our clients get into homes when moving from their existing houses. If you don’t want to move twice, you don’t have to move, so it’s cool.
Housing Market Trends
The other thing to discuss is building and how people relocate to areas with much higher price points. What’s happening to them? How are they doing this? Are they doing the sell and buy or sell and build?
So, the housing market in Idaho is different. It depends on what price point you’re looking at. If you’re at the average price point of around $400,000, it’s a tight market. But if you get up a little bit higher, there’s much more room.
One of our new clients got a house recently. It was over a million, but they got it for $175,000 less than the asking price. Much of that was due to our communication with the sellers or the seller’s agent. We ensure they know what we’re looking for and what our buyers could and couldn’t do. We walked away from the deal and ended up coming together after the seller returned to reality.
But yeah, that’s one of the processes right here where they sell, rent a place, and then buy. It’s the same for someone who cannot afford it and rents in California. They can only afford to buy a house in Idaho later, so they just come here and rent. Then, it’s the same process whether you’re going over a million or if you’re in the $300,000 range.
Prices everywhere across the country that are on hold have all gone up. Interestingly, the Treasure Valley is made up of just two counties: Ada County — Boise, Meridian, etc. — and Canyon County — Nampa, Caldwell, and Middleton.
Over in Ada County, their average home sale is $125,000 higher than the national average. But over in Canyon County, month after month, we are just about within a thousand dollars or two of our average homes being right there with the national average. So, it’s not a screaming deal like it was eight or 10 years ago. But if you’re making it where you are, you’ll be fine making it over here in Canyon County.
Want to Live in Idaho?
Treasure Valley Dave has helped people from Ramona, El Cajon, and other areas move to Idaho, and they’ve all been successful. They’re still in Idaho, so his specialty is making it happen. He’s used to working with people where we’re at, and he’s good at what he does.
If you have questions about these things, I recommend going to his website and checking everything out. You’d be amazed at how much information you will find there. You can fill out the form on their Contact Us page or call or text them at (208) 860-2004.
Meanwhile, if you need help building a custom home, ADU, or whole-house remodeling, request a project consultation with us. We have offices in Ramona, California, serving the San Diego County area, and Middleton, Idaho, serving the Boise Metro area. You can also explore our comprehensive collection of similar videos on our YouTube channel, The Real Property Show.
