All fingers crossed for you! It is so difficult to get out of one house and into another without a mess of problems. We decided we'd buy the other one first, move in and then sell our house unoccupied. It was a good idea, but it went very badly wrong and we're back to Square One.

awww tomatofreak I'm sorry you're having troubles. You know, those best laid plans.... sigh. I hope things turn around for you. I'm not counting my chickens yet - you never know. Our move will take us out of state and we'll need to rent and figure out exactly where we want to be so we couldn't do the move first. Well, I guess we could but we didn't want to be 600 miles away and hoping our house was ok.

For the OP, if your husband not being available to attend a closing is a stumbling block, it likely can be removed.

I am a retired US Navy Submariner. My wife and I traveled all over the country buying and selling homes. I was almost NEVER physically present at a closing ... my wife handled them all with the Lawyer or Escrow Agent sending documents to be signed in advance.

As an aside, my wife loves to tell the story about a closing on a home in Charleston, SC. (I was in DC.) She had a question and received the reply from "Sonny" the good old boy attorney to the effect, "Now missy don't you worry your little head one bit, your husband will explain it to you." She replied to the effect that I was illiterate and she had to do all the reading for the family. lol

This post was edited by saltidawg on Mon, Sep 22, 14 at 16:52

Will keep my fingers crossed for you, Dim :) You've been so helpful to me in the past, it's the least I can do ;)

Closings with one party absent are easy ... you just need a limited power of attorney granting the person who can be there the right to sign paperwork to buy ____ address, to fulfill the attached agreement of sale.

lazygardens,

It actually varies state-to-state. I've done it in numerous states during my military career.

What's an "exempt listing?" I've never heard of it.

Exempt from being included in MLS....

The suggestions about closing with one party absent confused me until I re-read my post - thank you for the ideas but I wasn't clear and we don't need to close with one party. DH and I are both staying here till closing as we don't have a place to go in the new state. We'll go to a Residence Inn type place till we find a house to rent, hopefully no more than a couple of weeks. No plans to buy until we explore more and figure out exactly where we want to be. This isn't retirement, but a let's shake things up and go some place pretty that we love and enjoy a new lifestyle. It's a total leap of faith, no family or friends there and DH will have to reinvent himself business wise a bit.

Weedy exempt is sometimes called a pocket listing in other places - or at least that's what I've read here. We're not on the MLS and there's no sign although we could have one if we wanted but then there's no point in doing the exempt. It was a calculated choice/risk knowing we would see less traffic but trusting that our house would still draw interest from realtor word of mouth and that's exactly what happened. We had 2 realtors from different agencies bring in co-workers to view the house and give input as to pricing. Then they pull comps, make a package and presentation. Actually, the second realtor, the one we didn't hire, never got to present her analysis and suggestions because she wanted to make an appointment to do that sometime this week! The other realtor had her analysis and package pulled together and did her presentation within 24 hours of her company viewing. That method of determining pricing is standard around here but I'm learning from friends elsewhere that's not true everywhere. It's different than a realtors open which happens after you're listed. Anyway, we made the right choice although the other realtor doesn't see it that way, and unfortunately she's someone I've known a long time and is very hurt. It was a business decision, not personal but she's never going to see that :-(

We signed contract papers last night, lawyers get them today. They agreed to our 11/15 closing and countered the price to 1.2% under our listing. It doesn't get much better. Still have the inspection hoops and lawyers so a reserved yippee is in order! Thank you all for being in my cheering section!

This post was edited by dlm2000 on Wed, Sep 24, 14 at 14:21

So what's the rationale for doing an exempt listing? Don't you want the widest exposure possible?

Couple of reasons, Weedy. My DH is in the home remodeling/repair business. He schedules work out at least 6 months and generally has a waiting list beyond that. If our house were mls listed with a sign in front, it would be really tough for him business-wise with customers panicking about their jobs. And if our house didn't sell quickly but people knew we wanted to move, they wouldn't book with him for fear of planning for work that might not happen - and I'm really addicted to that regular paycheck!!. As it is, he will have to scramble to finish a couple of projects before our closing and the little stuff that would go through the end of the year (no one starts big stuff after mid Nov) will have to be done by someone else. The next big project wouldn't start till after the new year and fortunately it's a kitchen for a friend of ours - she will cry but she'll understand! The other jobs are far enough out that they are still conceptual at this point. I knew it would mean less traffic through but that also means less disruption to our lives and I was willing to gamble that our house is appealing enough to spark real interest. Seems to have worked because we have a back up offer coming in apparently. It's not the method for everyone or every location, though.