I would sell my home if I found the right replacement home to buy.
You are not alone! When homeowners are afraid to put their home up for sale because they are afraid they cannot find a replacement home, the housing market becomes “locked up”. Currently, many housing markets are locked-up and it may be affecting your decision to sell, just like many other homeowners. One of the major factors of the shortage of homes for sale is the fact that many sellers are rightfully concerned that they will not be able to find a replacement home to buy if their home sells. By using an off-market or pocket listing platform like HomeQT.com, sellers can start looking for a replacement home without the pressure of their listing getting stale as it would if publicly marketed. Selling your home off-market is much less stressful because it gives you the control over when to show it, when to accept an offer, and you, the home seller, do not have to worry about your home becoming “stale” in the eyes of buyers.
I want to get my equity out by selling my home and downsizing to a smaller home for retirement planning.
Record high home prices are allowing homeowners to sell their house and use the accumulated equity to buy a less expensive home for cash. The first step is to look at your latest mortgage statement and find out your remaining mortgage balance. Then do some research into what similar homes in your area have been selling for during the last six months. The difference between your mortgage balance and the current value of your home is your equity. Now, make one more adjustment to that number, and calculate 10% of the value of your home, then subtract that amount from your equity number. This helps give you a better idea of the available equity after sales, closing, and even some or all moving costs are factored in, will it be the exact number, probably not, but it gives you some guidance.
Imagine taking that equity and buying a smaller home for cash, if you have funds left over, you could pay off debt or add them to the previous monthly payments you were making and use them to strengthen your retirement investment portfolio.
Of course, before doing this, discuss it with your accountant and financial adviser to confirm it makes sense with regards to your individual tax and estate planning requirements.
I want to sell but do not want to always keep home show ready.
This is an important reason to sell your home off-market. You maintain control of the process. Has it been “one of those days” and your house has dirty dishes in the sink, laundry to do, and the dog had an accident… No worries, don’t show your home, it’s not listed, no one is going to put pressure on you to show it. You allow it to be shown when it’s convenient for you.
Selling your home off-market avoids the looky-loos. There are many people who use real estate for entertainment. That’s great, as long as you are not the home seller stressing out about cleaning up the house and finding something for your children to do while the house is shown to the looky-loos. Don’t be the home seller on the other end rushing to get their home ready to show when the agent shows a home to these “buyers” in this SNL skit.