[0:01]Should you buy a home first or sell your home first? What if you need to do both and you don't want to get this wrong? You might need the money or want the money from selling to buy. You might not need the money from selling to buy. Which is the right thing to do and what is the risk of getting this wrong? This is a question that gets asked all day, every day in real estate. It sounds like a very simple question, but when people get this wrong, it can and often sadly is catastrophic to their finances. Sometimes their family, and certainly their real estate. You don't want to end up homeless, you don't want to end up with two homes or two mortgages or two payments or you know, two utility bills if you if that wasn't the plan, if that's not what you wanted. And you certainly don't want to end up leaving a bunch of money on the table or having a bunch of your equity and your profit eaten up with unnecessary expenses. So we want to get this right. We certainly want to help clients and home buyers and sellers in the Dallas Fort Worth area get this right. And you can, I repeat you can move smoothly and peacefully, sell and buy without having to move twice, without having to duplicate expenses. And honestly, with a great deal of joy and fun and enjoyment in the selling and the buying and the moving and the achieving your goals when it comes to real estate. Hey folks, I'm Todd Trumani. This is DFW real estate weekly with Todd Trumani, but I don't do this alone. I got a great crew of experts and friends here with me, and we are here to answer your questions about what it looks like in the Dallas Fort Worth area to buy a home, to sell a home, to achieve that goal of being in your dream neighborhood. Your desirable home or lot size. For a lot of our clients, that's a great neighborhood or a great home on small acreage, a great home on land, a big backyard. And we have a blast doing that. We've been doing it for over 20 years here in the DFW area. You can find all about that at todteam.com. Now, today, we are breaking down this process, this experience of selling and buying. What some people call a two-sided move or a double move. You have one home to sell, you would also like to buy one, and you would like that experience not to be absolutely terrible. So here to help, we've got our day-to-day team lead on the To money home selling team, Ian Daniels and Courtney Downey. What's up? We've also got full price, Triple C. The Courtney, the voice of the masses. I was you're going to Voice of the people. You're on. Oh, I can't hear myself in my headphones. I'm so sorry. She's here. You speak for the people. You speak for the people. Yes, thank you. As an expert board operator. I got that sorted out. Yeah, we're good. Okay folks, here's the thing. We often move double move. We often sell and buy. Now, obviously, if you're coming out of an apartment into a home, you don't have one to sell. If you're selling a home and you're moving in with family or to another country or into a rental or whatever, then you don't have one to buy. But in Dallas Fort Worth, it is very common that people are both selling and buying. Now, the stereotypes around this type of move are, if I have tons of money, then I can buy first, or, if I need the money from my sale, I have to sell first. Now that is generally true. Most people do that. I would say for most people, that's wise financial stewardship, it's the most peaceful thing to do. But then we get into this complicated stuff about like contingencies and a contract, I will buy if I sell. I will buy if I sell by this date. I will buy if I sell for at least this amount of money. And then you have people that don't necessarily want to sell to you because your buyside is you're complicated. You're a buyer that comes with issues. So we're going to get into that as we make our way through this issue today and as we really try to answer the questions that you've got out there. But there's more than just questions, Courtney. I think there's emotion sometimes. What do you think? Oh my gosh. I mean, I, I think I didn't realize how much this was a thing, like that this needs to be done like hand in hand. And I talked to a lady yesterday on the phone that was just so stressed about and had started one path and then she went away from her agent and did her own thing with like, uh, the builder incentives and things. And and got herself sort of in a pickle where she needs to sell, she needs to list within seven days. And I was like, oh my gosh, like, we think that we want to like do these things on our own and, and that it's just simple contracts. It's like, there's so much to navigate. I'm so glad you're doing this show today. Yep, yep. And then and you know, so you've got the analytics, you've got, do I need to sell, can I buy first? I'll just mention, there are companies, I'll just say lenders, dressed up as whatever type of business model or company out there that that can help you finance buying first and then selling, but it comes with a lot of what Courtney just said. It comes with this tension, this urgency that can really change how you make decisions and can be good. I'm not saying they're all bad, but can often put people in a real pinch where they have to make some bad decisions to get into their good decision if that makes sense. I will say a lot of this is uh, logistical, but I'm so glad I'm on the show because emotion plays so much into it. So I had actually talked with Patrick Gleros about um, bridge loans, which we'll get into later, but he described what you just described as being a third-party bridge loan. Yep, and and that's what it is. I'm not going to name the names of any companies because they advertise on TV and radio and postcards and billboards. And I don't think they're bad people, but I think their offerings often get people in bad situations where it's like, hey, we will help you buy before you sell. Or we'll buy your house from you so you can buy the other one. But it's not a traditional purchase and sale where you buy and walk and move in and forget everything or sell and walk away. It's basically a bridge loan where in the interim, we will help you do that, but of course, we need profit in order to do that. So it eats up some of the money that was involved in your purchase and your sale. There's a there's a relatively high cost. I would say sometimes extremely high cost to what they would call convenience. It's like a pack of gum at a convenience store is a lot more than a pack of gum out of a big box store because that convenience that like right here, right now, in my face. Never thought about that. It's a it's a bottle of water at a cowboy's game versus a bottle of water from the gas station. In a 24-pack. Yeah. The the difference there is that same exact opportunity just cost you two or three or four times as much, not the buying of the house, but the financial in between part. I'm not saying it's always bad. I'm just saying it sounds great. What we are here and what we do on our team all day, every day is help people sell and buy with one move without the drama, the added expense and the fear. So how does that happen? So Ian, you help us talk to people all the time that are are going, hey, I I think I want to sell, but only if I can buy. Hey, we're ready to buy, but only if we can sell and we have process for that. There are there are tips, there are strategies, there is advocacy and protection, so people don't get kind of beat down by this process. What would you say are the things people just need to know right out of the gate to get kind of get their heads right in this situation? Yeah, I mean, the simplest answer is that every single one of these cases is completely situational. It really does matter what somebody's situation is, what your situation is. Are you moving from out of state? Are you moving and you have flexible time frames? Do you have cash? Like there isn't a simple answer as to like, what should what you should do because we need to be able to have a conversation with you and to sit down with you and understand which one is the most important side of these things. Do we need to go ahead and maybe get the house ready to list first? Or and then we're going to do things like her contingency or things like that. Or are you in a position where you want to go ahead and get the purchase done and then once you find the house, then you want to go ahead and list it? Okay, okay, okay. That's absolutely the right answer. It's an annoying answer too, right? Because if you're going, no, what should I do? You're saying, well, this is situational. And it just is. As is every other real estate purchase for sale because especially for your home. If it's just kind of a spreadsheet investment purchase, that's something different. This is you, your family, your finances, your your rest, your recovery, your safety, security, all those good things. Okay, so that being said, let's paint a few scenarios where we could give a little bit more direct response, right? Typically, you can buy first, if you want to buy first, if you do not need the proceeds from your sale to comfortably purchase that next home. So if you have cash, if you have the ability to get comfortable, say financing that you feel good about without getting the cash out of your current home or without getting the financing of your current home off the books, right? So, if I have a mortgage on my current home, but I can easily qualify for a favorable mortgage on the next one, maybe I'll go ahead and buy that next one so I don't have any extra stress or urgency on selling this one. We have a lot of people that say, I would like to sell, I mean, I would like to buy, move in and then do some work on my old house to get it ready for the best sale scenario. And if you can financially afford that, that is often a great option. Many people cannot, but if you have the financial resources to buy first, whether it's just out of convenience or to be out of the other home before we do some painting or repairs or remodeling or upgrades or whatever the case is, that's a great time to buy first. When you have no real time urgency on either side, we'll buy when we find the right home and then we'll sell when we're moved in and comfortable. That's a great time. It sounds like something only really wealthy people could do, but the truth is it might allow you to make better decisions buying and selling and make up for whatever feels like additional dollars you may need. Well, another option is another time that that may happen is when home sell really fast in your area as well. Yep. So let's just say for to use Ian's example that homes in your neighborhood, maybe maybe this isn't true for the whole market, maybe it is, but homes in your area like yours marketed well and priced well are going to sell within a couple of weeks. And you're going, I do not want to sell, have like a 20, 30, 40 day window that I have to be out and not know where I'm going to go next. So when homes are selling really quickly, if I can pull it off, I may actually want to go buy first with a high level of certainty that I will then sell really quickly and still only need to move one time. Especially if you're wanting something which is a little bit more unique, a home on a land or something like that. Yep, and a very specific neighborhood where there's not a lot of homes available, anything like that. Now, the bridge loan that we referenced earlier that is often not the best financial decision, can be a good financial decision in one of these scenarios where you want to buy first because timing could be a real crunch. Now, you need to talk to a pro and know that that market data is accurate, not just like you heard from a neighbor or one person sold really fast, or someone you know once did that and it worked out well for them. That's not how we create safety and security in our homes. Okay, when should I sell first? This is most people's situation, right? Is, hey, I I'm not, whether I can or want to, I'm not going to go get another loan without getting the money out of this house. I'm not going to spend the money on my next house without getting it out of my last house. Well, this is where we start getting really strategic like Courtney said, you have experts helping you with the logistics of this. Okay, what date should we agree to on the sale so that the date we agreed to on the purchase can work together? Can we sell and lease back? Can we buy, but not close until? Can a little bit of money get me a lot of flexibility? Can something non-financial get me some flexibility? How could I buy some more time later if I need some more time later? How could I build in a little more flexibility on move out if I need more flexibility on move out? So is that temporary housing? Is it access to your equity? Is it keeping your options open on buying? Is it keeping your options open on selling? Is it slowing down the sale of a home to protect your family? Is it speeding up the purchase or the opposite? Now, there are lots of other factors, like you might be a veteran and you want to take advantage of your VA benefits, your VA loan benefits. That might demand a little more time. That might actually expedite the paperwork of a process. Same thing for 15 year versus 30 year mortgage, bigger down payment versus smaller down payment, appraisal waivers or needing an appraisal, inspection waivers or needing an inspection. All these things are factors to whether we speed up, slow down, complicate or simplify, buy first or sell first. Most people are going to fall into that sell first category, and again, we help dozens and dozens and dozens of people do this every year without having to move twice because of what Courtney said. Because of what Ian and I say all the time, slowing down before you speed up to get those logistics laid out. What do you want? What do you need? What can we not be flexible on? What can we be flexible on? What are our options? So, most people are going to sell first, and we think about things way ahead of time. If the if the deal was so good that I did need to move twice, where would we live? What do we have lined up? If the deal was so bad that I had to back out, what am I going to do in that situation? Having all of that decided before we go get emotionally tied to a new home before we get emotionally or or financially committed to a buyer or a seller or a an inspector or an appraiser or a lender, these kinds of things. Now, how how do you protect yourself, your family, your finances as you're making your way through a process like this? We've referenced already a contingency, and you want to give a little bit more of a real estate contractual explanation of what that even means. Yeah, so basically if we, if you were to go, if I was to go under contracts on purchasing a home, but I have not yet sold my home, the contract, the sale is contingent upon me being able to sell my home. So let's paint a quick picture. Ian is buying a home from Courtney and he's hoping to sell his home to someone else. Yes. So he makes an offer to Courtney. He's it's it's more formal than this in contracts, but he's saying, hey Courtney, I will buy your house and I'll pay this amount. And she's like, okay, that we agreed to that amount. Yep. But I will only pay you that amount and close and fund on this date and and transfer these documents. So all these terms of the contract are contingent upon, they are dependent. They can only happen if I'm only required to move forward if I sell my house for an agreed to amount by this date with terms I'm I'm looking for.
[15:06]Now, Ian's going to tell Courtney or agents and contracts are going to say, these are the terms by which I will satisfy this contingency. And if I can't, these are your options. Now Courtney might say, okay, well, if, if I get another offer, I have, I this contract gives me the right to walk away from this contingency, or it doesn't give me that right. So we're not going to get into all the what ifs. But that's kind of what that looks like. It's like It's often times like, hey, if I get another offer, I'm going to give you the right to match it. And if not, for for however many days we agreed to, you have 2, 3, 5, 10, 50, 100 whatever, days, or you pay this much to get out, or you pay this much to stay in. All that stuff's negotiable. But that's what a contingency is and that's one of the ways we protect people from not selling and not being able to buy or buying and not being able to sell or getting stuck with zero homes or two homes and that kind of thing. One of the things that we do really well here, which is important for people to understand and ask if it's being done for them, is to be able to say, hey, I want to know about who it is that's selling your home. Yep. What's the marketing plan? What's the system? What's their pricing strategy? Because if you have somebody where it's like, I don't really know. We're just going to do whatever, then it's like, I don't know if I really want to accept that contingency. And let me, let me break down or explain a little bit more what Ian's saying. Again, let's go back to our hypothetical, Courtney's selling, she has her agents and all that, and, and Ian is the buyer. And he's contingent on selling this other one. Let's say I'm Ian's agent now and I'm going, hey Courtney, I know this one's contingent, but here's what I need you to know. We've already done all the pricing analysis. We've already done the marketing analysis. This is our proprietary marketing system to sell homes over the average price and under the average time. It's a 13-point buyer program to guarantee that buyers get access to properties other people don't have access to, with speed other people don't have, and the guarantee to save thousands of dollars every time you purchase a home. And to get both of those things at the same time, when you can sleep at night, not having to carry that burden all by yourself. So, it's a pretty magical situation. But the, the answer, the question we're trying to answer here is, how do you protect yourself when selling and buying from not getting stuck with two homes or no home or two mortgages or added expense or a tremendous amount of stress and fear and anxiety? And the answer is a to plan ahead, to think through the finances, to think through what's the best thing to do first or second, what's the appropriate timeline, time of year, area, property type. And of course, who are the professionals that are going to lead and guide and advocate for you? People people watch this show from all over the globe, so it may not be our team in Dallas Fort Worth that's going to help you with this. But it may be that you go looking for a dedicated expert, you go looking at bridge loans. You go looking at, buy sell, buy first or sell first. You're looking for systems for marketing and sales. You're looking for how could you present a contingency in a more attractive way. I'm not going to go through everything we've discussed here, but those are just a handful of the things that can make selling and buying at quote the same time. And the reason I put air quotes on that is, you're not actually selling and buying at the same time. You could close those deals on the same day, but you're deciding which decision do we make first. What, what do we spend our energy looking at houses and finding a place we want to live? Or do we spend all of our energy cleaning up and painting the house we're going to sell? Or is it possible to do those things at the same time? We're saying it's possible to do them generally at the same time so that you don't have to move twice, own two homes, own no homes, have two mortgages, you know, be homeless, be fearful, be anxious, all those things. It's possible and not only is it possible, Ian, as you know, it happens all the time. We're doing this for people in Dallas Fort Worth all the time here on the Todd Trumani Home Selling team. So, Courtney, we referenced emotion earlier. I think it's critical just to come back to that before we wrap up and go, look, we've talked a lot about system, structure, and analytics, specialization. But when, let's just say a mom, is thinking about selling and moving, what comes to mind? Like, what do you, what are all the things somebody's thinking about when they're thinking about uprooting their family? It may just be across the street, but it might be new school, new job, new area, all that, like, what, what are the feelings? What are all the things that that are non-tactical, like we just came through that you think are on people's minds? Well, just whatever changes are about to happen. Um, and then packing up their rooms and what do we need in in the middle of those changes. I you just are they navigating things with friends? Like, you know, just what are, what are the um emotions that, uh, and socially, what are my kids going to be navigating outside of just logistically getting their room from one place to the other?
[20:49]Yeah. Bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage and pricing and closing costs and all that stuff is real. But then you've got like, well, soccer season's going to last another month after we've already moved. And so, how do we handle rides? Okay, well, the school year ends here, but actually we're not going to get final GPAs until that, like these are the things that real estate agents aren't talking about when you're like, we're we're making two huge decisions at the same time. A lot of times if you're leaving your apartment, you're not really thinking about like, the quote sell side where you live before that's like a do we get our deposit back? Move on. If you're selling and moving in with family, you're moving in with friends or traveling for a year or whatever the case is, you're not as hyper obsessed about that second piece. You're focused on one piece. But the purpose of this show today is when we're doing both, and when we're doing both, this is a big deal. There's financial. There's safety, security, there's convenience. And then of course, there's just the overwhelm, the excitement and the joy. So, last thing I want to say on the emotion piece and then we'll wrap up and go, look, we've talked a lot about systems, structure and analytics, specialization. But when, let's just say a mom, is thinking about selling and moving, what comes to mind? Like, what do you, what are all the things somebody's thinking about when they're thinking about uprooting their family? It may just be across the street, but it might be new school, new job, new area, all that, like what, what are the feelings? What are all the things that that are non-tactical, like we just came through that you think are on people's minds? Well, just whatever changes are about to happen. Um, and then packing up their rooms and what do we need in in the middle of those changes. I you just are they navigating things with friends? Like, you know, just what are, what are the um emotions that, uh, and socially, what are my kids going to be navigating outside of just logistically getting their room from one place to the other?
[23:41]Yeah. Bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage and pricing and closing costs and all that stuff is real. But then you've got like, well, soccer season's going to last another month after we've already moved. And so, how do we handle rides? Okay, well, the school year ends here, but actually we're not going to get final GPAs until that, like these are the things that real estate agents aren't talking about when you're like, we're we're making two huge decisions at the same time. A lot of times if you're leaving your apartment, you're not really thinking about like, the quote sell side where you live before that's like a do we get our deposit back? Move on. If you're selling and moving in with family, you're moving in with friends or traveling for a year or whatever the case is, you're not as hyper obsessed about that second piece. You're focused on one piece. But the purpose of this show today is when we're doing both, and when we're doing both, this is a big deal. There's financial. There's safety, security, there's convenience. And then of course, there's just the overwhelm, the excitement and the joy. So, last thing I want to say on the emotion piece and then we'll wrap up and go, look, we've talked a lot about systems, structure and analytics, specialization. But when, let's just say a mom, is thinking about selling and moving, what comes to mind? Like, what do you, what are all the things somebody's thinking about when they're thinking about uprooting their family? It may just be across the street, but it might be new school, new job, new area, all that, like what, what are the feelings? What are all the things that that are non-tactical, like we just came through that you think are on people's minds? Well, just whatever changes are about to happen. Um, and then packing up their rooms and what do we need in in the middle of those changes. I you just are they navigating things with friends? Like, you know, just what are, what are the um emotions that, uh, and socially, what are my kids going to be navigating outside of just logistically getting their room from one place to the other?
[26:34]Yeah. Bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage and pricing and closing costs and all that stuff is real. But then you've got like, well, soccer season's going to last another month after we've already moved. And so, how do we handle rides? Okay, well, the school year ends here, but actually we're not going to get final GPAs until that, like these are the things that real estate agents aren't talking about when you're like, we're we're making two huge decisions at the same time.
[27:16]A lot of times if you're leaving your apartment, you're not really thinking about like, the quote sell side where you live before that's like a do we get our deposit back? Move on. If you're selling and moving in with family, you're moving in with friends or traveling for a year or whatever the case is, you're not as hyper obsessed about that second piece. You're focused on one piece. But the purpose of this show today is when we're doing both, and when we're doing both, this is a big deal. There's financial. There's safety, security, there's convenience. And then of course, there's just the overwhelm, the excitement and the joy. So, last thing I want to say on the emotion piece and then we'll wrap up and go, look, we've talked a lot about systems, structure and analytics, specialization. But when, let's just say a mom, is thinking about selling and moving, what comes to mind? Like, what do you, what are all the things somebody's thinking about when they're thinking about uprooting their family? It may just be across the street, but it might be new school, new job, new area, all that, like what, what are the feelings? What are all the things that that are non-tactical, like we just came through that you think are on people's minds? Well, just whatever changes are about to happen. Um, and then packing up their rooms and what do we need in in the middle of those changes. I you just are they navigating things with friends? Like, you know, just what are, what are the um emotions that, uh, and socially, what are my kids going to be navigating outside of just logistically getting their room from one place to the other?
