Is it time to Sell?

Is it time to sell my house?

The short answer is, it depends on what your goals are. Having said that … it’s ALWAYS time to sell your house.
The truth is that there is always a market - it’s just a matter of whether the current market is right for you to buy or to sell. So, how can you tell?
First, it’s important to know what you want to accomplish. Maybe you want to downsize. Maybe you want a bigger house. Maybe you have to move. Whatever it is, you must first determine what your motivation is.
Next, you have to find out how much you are likely to get for your current house (in today’s market), how much you are likely to pay for the house you want to move to (in today’s market) and how much you can afford to borrow and pay per month (in today’s market).
Notice how we keep talking about “today’s market”? That’s because it’s important to remember that the market that exists TODAY is the only one that matters RIGHT NOW. It doesn’t matter what your house was worth last year or what a house you like was selling for last year or what the interest rates were a month ago. Those are gone. Period. They don’t matter … so put them out of your mind.
Get a real estate professional to do a market analysis on your home (or even ask two or three to do it for you). What they come up with will reflect the market as it stands today. Deduct your current mortgage, anticipated real estate fee, any property transfer fees, the cost of unavoidable repairs and changes to the house and you have the funds that will be available to you (from the sale of this house) for any new purchase.
If you know which house you want, get the same type of market analysis done for that one. The result will tell you what you should reasonably pay. Most correctly priced homes will actually sell for 3% to 8% less than the asking price, depending on the location and the state of the market. In a strong sellers’ market, homes will often sell for more than the asking price as hungry buyers bid the price up. Likewise, in a strong buyers market the sale price might be driven down by a larger percent as buyers refuse to pay as much.
You’ll also have closing costs and other expenses of buying and these should be added to the anticipated purchase price.
Taking the proceeds of your sale, along with any other amount you expect to put toward the purchase, from the total purchase price will produce the amount you will need to borrow in order to get into the new home.
Now here’s the bottom line: If all of the numbers above work for you and you are comfortable with them, and if you want to have the other house instead of the one you now have, then it’s time to sell your house. If any of it does NOT work for you, then it’s NOT time to sell your house.