Proof - You Can Buy and Sell a Home at the Same Time!
This is proof you can sell your first home and buy your dream home at the same time, even in a tough market like Marin County in the Bay Area. Here's a 2024 case study:
- Family of 4 (two young children)
- Living in a 2100 sq ft townhome, hoping to sell for around $950,000
- Desire a single family home in a kid-friendly neighborhood, max budget of $1,300,000
- Using the proceeds from the sale for the down payment on their new home
This is their story from their POV...
 Our First Home - Prepped and Staged!  Our New Forever Home! |
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Last year, our family of four decided to take the leap and move from our first home to our forever home. We lived in a townhome in southern Novato and honestly, we did love it! The complex was located in a gorgeous natural setting amidst mature trees and hiking trails. The unit itself was actually large with three bedrooms and two living rooms, but we have two young kids and we were feeling the need to enjoy some more yard space and simply get into our forever home.
It just felt like it was time for us. Unfortunately, October was not necessarily the ideal time to start thinking about putting our home on the market. And with the low inventory in Marin, we weren’t sure we would be able to find our dream single family home in a timely manner. Most of all, how would all of these logistics work?? Selling and buying at the same time seemed overwhelming to say the least. Where would we put our stuff? Where would we go in between? What would we need to do to make the house shine? All of this with two kids in school and holidays fast approaching. It felt like too many decisions to make!
Then we reached out to Naomi and Katherine. They made us feel comfortable enough to ask all of our questions, even the ones that made us feel (ahem) less than smart. They were able to help us put together a coherent plan, prioritizing the things that really mattered first. We just needed to take it one step at a time. First we figured out where we would go. Naomi and Katherine made it clear that if we wanted to sell our townhome for the highest price in the fastest possible time frame, the home would need to be vacant. Luckily, we have family in Novato and we knew we could stay at their house for as long as we needed. But we did also consider the possibility of a short-term rental. Financially, it was just better to stay with family and save that expense.
Then we found a moving company with some recommendations given by Naomi and Katherine and chatted with a few mortgage brokers to get pre-approved for a loan for our new purchase. We moved all our stuff into storage and Thorne Home Team promptly started the repairs and market preparations. Side note, these repairs, things like repainting the kitchen cabinets, interior rooms, new carpet upstairs, new door knobs and hinges, could all be paid for at close of escrow rather than spending all that cash up front. A big perk!
Another thing Naomi and Katherine made clear was that staging sells a home. We weren’t totally sold on this idea at first. It just felt like a big investment into a home we were just trying to sell afterall. But they were super clear on this. The staging is the whole vibe of the home and buyers often aren’t able to visualize themselves. Also, townhomes don’t sell as quickly as single family homes. We could see this from the other units that had been sitting for months on the market in our complex. We did NOT want to be in that situation. So we agreed to the staging and we certainly didn’t regret it.
WOW, our house that was once full of our kids’ toys looked like a magazine. So the home was ready for market right after Thanksgiving, which felt fast from the time we decided to sell in October. The photos were beautiful, the property description was right on, and the home felt fresh and ready to go. And the wait began. This was probably the hardest part - having no control whatsoever. Some buyers showed up, but it really wasn’t a hot time in the market. It was rainy and people were spending time with family and preparing for the holiday break. Naomi and Katherine made a good point - you only need one buyer and that’s the one who’s right for your home.
So we tried to focus our energy elsewhere, casually and sometimes frantically searching for our NEW home online. We were clear that we wouldn’t be able to make an offer yet, as we didn’t have bridge financing or a way to purchase a new home without the funds from our sale. Always good to know what’s happening in the market, but we didn't want to get our hopes up on a home that might sell before we weren't ready to make an offer. Katherine and Naomi knew how to manage our expectations, whether we wanted to hear that or not.
So of course a home popped up before we got an offer on our townhome, ugh! We fell in love…beautiful curb appeal in one of our target neighborhoods. Maybe since the market was a bit slower, it would still be waiting for us when we were ready. Yeah right…we anxiously waited while a couple weeks passed. Naomi and Katherine assured us we didn’t need to price-reduce, it hadn’t been that long! The other units in the complex had been sitting for months with no offers. But we were priced right and thanks to the market prep, our unit showed way better than the others. So our team was confident the right buyer would pop up soon enough.
And we were right! We got an offer three days before Christmas at 99% of the asking price. Best present ever. So then it was a question of the buyers’ contingencies and getting into contract on our dream home, which was thankfully still on the market! The buyers needed 7 days to remove their loan and appraisal contingencies, and at that point they would be all set to close escrow in the total 24 days they said. So Naomi and Katherine devised our plan to offer on our forever home. This was all very complicated to us and difficult to wrap our minds around how this would all flow.
But Naomi and Katherine figured out how to make our offer, keeping in close contact with the listing agent. We would wait until the contingencies were all removed on our townhome and make both closings coincide so the funds could be moved directly from one account to the other.
Just as we were deciding on offer price, the listing agent informed us another offer was set to come in! We had to be quick so we got all the documents signed and submitted. Thankfully on our agents’ advice, we offered just a bit over the asking price and our offer was accepted over the other one!
From there on out, both escrows flowed seamlessly and we closed on our dream home on January 22nd. We were so excited to get the keys and move in, and I’m sure our family was happy to get their house back, even though I knew they would miss seeing the kids every single day. I wouldn’t say the process was without its stressful moments, but I think that’s just the nature of selling and buying a new house, especially at the same time. But we are proof it's possible!
- Novato, CA Buyers/Sellers, January 2024
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