I'd put the house on the market as soon as possible and if you sell it, build a clause into the agreement to rent it back from the buyers thru September or some date later than you think you need. Yes, you may have to double pay a couple months housing costs. But how likely is it going to be that you new house is REALLY ready by late August? You have lots of faith if you're confident that all will run smoothly and it'll be ready on time. Also, I think the real estate market nationally is still going to get worse than it has been. Austin's held together so far but I can't imagine that there won't be some negative spillover effect from what's going on elsewhere.

Yes, moving twice is a pain. However, I'd give yourselves as much time as possible to get your current home sold.

"But how likely is it going to be that you new house is REALLY ready by late August? You have lots of faith if you're confident that all will run smoothly and it'll be ready on time. Also, I think the real estate market nationally is still going to get worse than it has been. Austin's held together so far but I can't imagine that there won't be some negative spillover effect from what's going on elsewhere."

Agreed.
When you say things like "optimally I'd love to put our home on the market pretty close to when we know we will close on our new home so we can move directly from one to the other. " and "but with 6 months we could be more picky about how accepting lower than asking price offers" it seems as if you think that listing a home for sale equals selling a home. That is dangersouly close to counting chickens IMO.
Many folks have had their home on the market for over a year with few showings and zero offers. It happens.

I'm just saying that you need to take the time to explore all of your options and consider each and every possible scenario. Have a back up plan for when your closing is inexplicably postponed for a month at the last minute. Have a back up plan for your back up plan. Stay flexible. And never ever count the first chicken because most of those eggs are duds!

I don't know what the market is like in Austin. It's probably pretty good. But I would plan for the worst case scenario (e.g., the house may take months to sell or you have to move twice) and hope for the best rather than plan for the best case scenario hoping the worst won't happen.

Good luck!

I just sold in Austin and I didn't actually even get it on the market. It sold just as I was interviewing realtors. People heard about it from neighbors and their realtor contacted me. I also had another showing this way. So I can't really say I saw a slow down. We also had a new home built and we closed on that before even putting the old one on the market. However we were able to carry two houses financially so this worked for us. Austin's market in general tend to peak in November/December and then again in the summer. I got the offer the Friday before thanksgiving and we closed on December 13th.

My house was in a neighborhood of acerage homes off 290 W a couple of miles from Oak Hill. What area are you in? If you are in the same area as my old house I can recommend realtors that I interviewed and also who not to use. I never got to list, but still got a good idea of who to not use from my interviewing.

Thanks for all the input. Ya'll are right - expect for the worst, hope for the best.

It's my first home sale so I'm totally naive but I've been reading this forum for a couple months and am aware of the possibility of no offers, lowball offers and for delayed or cancelled closings. And it's my first new home purchase (built from scratch) too so again no experience and it sounds like new homes are likely not done on time?

We can easily carry a double home mortgage for a while but who wants to do that unless absolutely necessary? I love the idea of the leaseback clause, guess it doesn't hurt to ask. And I guess I better start researching short term lease opportunities in case we do put it on the market in February and it sells quickly. I'm in Northwest Austin and homes in my area are selling fast if priced appropriately, at least for today.

Seems like we picked the worst time to find a dream home and have to sell but we couldn't pass up the opportunity. We're buying in an urban infill development, close to downtown, in a brand new energy efficient home - no more suburbia for me, yippee!

Love this forum and everyone sharing their expertise and experience, good and bad!

K

It could happen for you as it did for us -- although that was 2000. We let it be known that we had bought property and were going to be building a new home. A realtor/neighbor came up with a buyer for our old home who wanted to do a tear down -- and who was happy to wait nine months to close. Both we and the buyer needed time, and the earnest money was enough that we felt secure. We faced no 'showings'.

That all would have worked out just FINE were it not for difficulties with the city where we were building. That delayed us so much that we still ended up in temp housing for three months.

Believe me, it is worth a LOT to avoid temp housing and two moves! In The Best of All Possible Worlds, you would stay in your present home until the new one is ready. Then you'd move to the new house BEFORE the old one hits the market. You would have time to spiff up the old house and you wouldn't have to live through showings.

How many pets / kids do you have?

There are people that don't like to buy houses that had pets for what ever reason. If you have carpet, one never knows if there is damage to the wood floors from pets. I bought a house back in the 90's where my kids couldn't stay in the house for the 1st week due to a flea infestation.

Showing a house with kids / pets could be hard. If you have dogs, you might have to take them with you when it's shown. I've walked a house with a small dog that jumped on us so much & was under our feet that we had to leave.. I was afraid I was going to step on him. Another house had a large dog with the owner home but the dog pretty much followed us, I was afraid he was going to jump or knock into me.. I walk with a cane.

Moving twice stinks but so does knowing that you've bought a house and will need to sell. We thought we were buying a house but it fell through at the last minute; we were going to close the end of March, beginning of April. Had I known then what I know now, I would have pushed for this house to be ready sooner (we redid the master) so that we could list it and move on. We eventually found another house in August, it should be done in March. Now it's too late to rent but too soon to actually be serious about selling. I refuse to rent for 30 days, and according to what I've read, probably can't find someone to rent to us on a month to month basis.

The last thing is closing. After hanging out here reading, we wouldn't want anything more then a 30 day close. Buyers are tough.. some find they can't come up with money or will nickel & dime you. The sooner the close, the sooner I can move on. If you've been hanging out here you know that some have had multiple offers that fell through.

If you are moving to a large community, chances are the house will be ready when they say. They've always told us anywhere from the end of February to March, and it looks like we're on schedule. If you are using a smaller contractor, then I can understand it taking longer. With the bigger builder, from what I understand, they like houses to close within certain quarters and try to do so.

No dogs, just two old indoor/outdoor cats so a temp move would be difficult for them. And two kids, one older, one toddler. So no issue with pet damage in the house.

And we are moving to a large development so hopefully the new home will be complete on time.

Thanks for all the input. Don't know what we'll do but guess we'll make a decision in the new month.

K

I'd knock on the doors of people already in the development and ask if their places were ready on time (I've heard some horror stories of them taking up to 18 mos. more than orig. promised!).

Best thing to do is put your house on the market as soon as possible and expect that you will have to move twice. I have (I am doing it) more then once. It's a TERRIBLE pain, but you don't have a crystal ball that will tell you when your house will sell or the new house will be completed. I do know - that if I was looking at your house to buy, and I wanted it NOW - I'd pass it buy if you had a clause in there to rent it.

Once thing in the Austin market would be to not be a home that has been for sale too long with the pricing. If you list at a really high price in February and then when summer rolls around you drop it buyers will still see the days on the market (DOM) from February and start wondering what is wrong with your house and why it hasn't sold since DOM is generally less than that in many areas. Every realtor I interviewed (except one - who I wouldn't recommend to any seller) said current DOM in Austin was 60-90 days, but that was for the whole area. It varies some in localized areas and they told me around 30 days in my area if you are priced right.

I know it sucks to move twice but I as a buyer would not want to rent back for an extended time like that to the sellers. A few days sure, but any longer than that and I'd rather go find another house where I wouldn't have to to that, unless your house is unique I can't see many wanting to do that. Also most people with kids would want to be moved in when school starts. You might start looking at what your options are if you need to move twice and plan ahead. Since April to May is when it starts picking for the summer I would start looking at what the DOM are in your area and allow some leeway for that and then list around that time if you want to try to not move twice. You are likelier to be able to have a longer closing than renting back for months. However be careful with that as others mentioned buyers could pull out or their financial circumstances change.

Now would be a good time though to start sprucing up and de-clutter the house so it is ready whenever you want to list.

We put our house on the market 1/19/07. It is still for sale. We built and did not move until 5/11/07. We wanted to avoid 2 moves. This is the first house we ever had to sell and were naive.

If I were to do it again, I'd price lower (to sell) and plan on a temp move if that is what I have to do. Yes, a hassle but it is very stressful now having two houses for over 6 months plus looking at this market in the future, it is not promising.

I am in Iowa so not the worst market like Florida, Michigan or Ohio but...not the best either. I think our home prices have dropped 6% this year (some sort of average for the state I believe).

Maybe a compromise for you is to put it on the market once the new house has been dry-walled or some other stage where the 'big stuff' is done, price competitively and cross your fingers that you can rent it back.

Another idea is to try and do FSBO for a few months before listing. If your area is so hot you may get a more flexible buyer and a higher price with possibly a bit less hassle factor with showings (kids/pets issue).

Lots of Luck to You!

I agree with lyfia. A new listing is when the most interest is excited and first impressions are crucial. It is a bad idea to waste that advantage by putting the house at a price point actually meant to discourage serious buyers because your mindset is you are not really ready to sell.

Maybe a compromise for you is to put it on the market once the new house has been dry-walled or some other stage where the 'big stuff' is done, price competitively and cross your fingers that you can rent it back.

I'll have to ask hubby when he's awake but now that you mention drywall, I think they said 30 days after that for us.

The OP can talk to the builder and ask about the stages.
Things go pretty quick. Below is the link to a few pics of our build, started on 10/6, as of 12/16 the exterior was almost done, it was waiting on the brick. I don't doubt the exterior is done.

Inside as of 12/16 we had electric, cable & plumbing in the house.. was waiting on drywall.

Karen,
Where in Austin are you?
There is a big difference between Central Austin DOM and the outskirts, suburbs or nearby small towns that are not actually Austin.
If you are in a central neighborhood like Oakmont, Brentwood, Travis Heights, Shoalmont, Rosedale, Crestview, Hyde Park, you have a quicker sale than many other neighborhoods.

I can tell you that overpricing your house will lead to a long, miserable time to sell it. Been there, done that.

We've also moved twice, into a rental for about a year while I searched for houses, and it's really not bad. And we moved with two kids, two dogs, a cat, two gerbils, and 100 fish. The good part about it is that you look at stuff and say, "do I really want to move this twice?" and it helps you to really unload the junk so you have to move less stuff. The kids stayed in the same school district so other than being grumpy about giving up the pool in the rental house, they were fine.

Having your house on the market for a long time sucks worse than having to move twice, in my experience. Having two mortgages would suck the worst, though...

I can tell you that overpricing your house will lead to a long, miserable time to sell it. Been there, done that.

Not only that, it usually leads to a lower final sale price, because of buyer's perceptions that something is wrong with the house.

Karen said she was in NW Austin, but there's a big difference in neighborhoods up here, too.

In July of 2007, we decided to move and although I was against it, DH wanted to make sure we had no problems encountered when we purchased a new house and decided we would move twice. We put our house on the market ASAP and at the same time, we put an offer on a new house. when our house sold, we moved into temp housing. We did a month to month for four months, and recently moved into our new house just a few weeks ago in mid December 07. We have two dogs (one puppy just 2 months old) and I'm close to giving birth. I also run a business and have to work a lot during holiday season. No doubt that moving twice was a huge pain and stressful for me. But, I'm glad I did not have the stress of a house to sell and have to worry about paying two mortgages.

First we were lucky that we sold the house in a timely fashion. THe timing was just right, before the mortgage bust, but that can be an issue for you now.

The longer your house is on the market, buyers will try to knock down the price more. It is easy to say now that you can be picky with offers, but as time goes on, you might start to wonder, and be tempted to take lower offers out of uncertainty, especially if you already are in contract on another property.

My advice is to plan for, and deal with moving twice, and eliminate some uncertainty. You never know what can happen in today's housing climate.

Thanks for all the input.

We definitely won't overprice the home - we'll put it on the market at the price our REA comes to based on comp sales in the area no matter if we do it sooner or later. And luckily the market in our area hasn't gone bust yet.

But I do think that ya'll are right in not waiting because who knows what the market will do or how long it will take to sell the house. Right now in my neighborhood average DOM is about 30 days I think but that could easily change.

So I'm slowly reconciling myself to having to move twice, if we are lucky enough to sell quickly. Yikes, now we have to get the current home ready to sell and line up some temp housing...not mentally prepared for it but I'll get there.

K