Another house conundrum

[lizzie]

Remember me? The one who was looking at downsizing to a condo about a month ago? Ok? Well, I'm back, with another question about another property.

After deciding to NOT pursue the condo, we sat down and listed out things that we wanted in our next home. Aaaaaaand, we pretty much found what we're looking for (granite countertops, beautiful master suite, etc), exactly where we want it, and of course, the kicker is the price. Info on the house is: 3 bedroom + bonus, 2 baths, one level, two car garage, and it's pretty There's an HOA that covers lawn work and maintenance, plus trash and street lights. Downside is zero backyard (which isn't a dealbreaker for us) and price.

The problem is cash. We have no debt, but really, not much in cash either. All our money is in our current home. Of course we're planning on selling our house, and we'd like to buy THAT house, but we're struggling with the logistics of should we put a contingency on selling our house, or should we put an offer on the house without the contingency? We can easily afford this home once we sell our house, it's the in between stage of figuring out how it'll all play out.

Does this make sense? Can I get some reassurance that it'll be fine and worth it in the end? Or are we setting ourselves up for MM doom?

Update: we were pre-approved! Yay! And we submitted an offer and heard back yesterday. We offered a certain price (about 12000 off) plus closing costs, and she countered with 1000 off and no closing costs. We're planning on waiting until Wednesday to resubmit an offer. Trying to decide if we should meet more on their end or still stay on toward ours (if that makes sense). I think our main issue is the closing costs. We need for them to accept that term, and then we/I need assurance that 5000 or so isn't that big of a deal in the long term

[sunshineluv]

Can you get financing based on the amount of cash you do have?

Are you in a hot enough market that you know your house will sell?

[scout8]

If the seller won't take a home sale contingency, will you be able to get a mortgage until you sell the first house? I would talk to a lender to find out. Assuming that all looks good, I would go for it.

[lizzie]

We're going tomorrow to talk to a lender about pre-approval. That will help a lot, knowing that we can move forward or not. We do live in a hot market, so it's not a matter of if our house will sell, but when. Our plan is to put our offer on the table including the contingency, knowing that we can always take that out during negotiations, if need be.

Best case scenario would be lower house cost + contingency + closing costs. Is that asking too much? Is the seller going to laugh us out of the process?

[aurora]

I voted move this time (since it sounds like a lot more of what you want than the condo did), but of course the devil is in the details. What the seller will expect depends heavily on your market. A couple of months ago in my area you couldn't have gotten the lower price even without the contingency + closing costs, but 3 years ago you might have.

[msmerymac]

Oct 8, 2015 14:44:51 GMT -5 lizzie said:

We're going tomorrow to talk to a lender about pre-approval. That will help a lot, knowing that we can move forward or not. We do live in a hot market, so it's not a matter of if our house will sell, but when. Our plan is to put our offer on the table including the contingency, knowing that we can always take that out during negotiations, if need be.

Best case scenario would be lower house cost + contingency + closing costs. Is that asking too much? Is the seller going to laugh us out of the process?

It completely and totally depends on your market. Talk to your agent to see if this will knock you out of contention. If there are no other offers on the property and the sellers are reasonable, they will probably negotiate with you. Good luck!

[lizzie]

Bump