Home buyers tip: How long do you want to live in your house? You are just thinking about buying a house. Do you really need to start thinking about selling the home you haven’t even bought yet? Well, probably. In order to buy the right home for you, you need to answer the question “how long do I want to live here?”.
As home buyers, it is important to be realistic about your current lifestyle, and your future. Certainly, no one can foresee the future, but you can make realistic estimates.
According to the Current Population Survey, moving into a better home in a better neighborhood is the reason that more than one third of moves occurred. One quarter of motivated by family changes, the second most common reason. In 2009, less than 1/5 of moves were due to changes in work, like a new job or losing a job.
How will these factors be changing in your life? How will they impact your ideal home? Talk about your future with your exclusive buyers agent so that you can find the right home.
Exclusive Buyers Agents recommend that home buyers think about the future when buying a home.
• Are you looking for a 3-5 year home? Are you looking for a 10 year home? A 30 year? More? Less than a year?
• Do you expect changes in the size of your family in this time period? Having children or more kids? Kids moving out? Family members moving in? Getting married? Getting divorced?
• Are your needs going to outgrow your house? Will a higher family income entice you to move up? Or, will a lower family income require you to move down?
• Is there a possibility that you will be relocated by your company?
These lifestyle changes will impact the location of your home, the size of your home, the floor plan, and of course, the price, suggests our exclusive buyers agents. For example, if you are planning to work from home you may need room for a home office.
Certainly, some of these things can’t always be foreseen. But, the more honest you can be with your exclusive buyers agent about how long you want to live in a home and what your needs will be during that time period, the more likely you are to avoid selling during a bad time.
Avoid Selling During a Bad Time
If only it were so simple! We have all heard the phrases “buyer’s market” and “seller’s market,” and their financial impacts on homeowners. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a sure way to predict when the market will change so that you could sell during a “seller’s market?” Experts differ on predictions of when the market will change. But, they all agree that it will change.
Agents who have seen many booms and busts recommend that historically, once the market goes down, it has gone up higher than the one before. Living in your home for a few extra years before a move can allow you to sell at the right time, and make some money.
On the other hand, if you quickly outgrow your home due to poor planning, you may be a seller in a buyer’s market.