Question about buying since I'm oblivious!

My DH and I own a home currently and for the pastfew months have been looking here and there, not really seriously as we knew our house really needed some work before we could think about selling--plus it's not the greatest market. Well....about two weeks agao...we stumbled upon a home we LOVED....its a great price in a location we really love. Both of us have not been able to stop thinknig about it, however, our home needs a bunch of work before we could sell and get a decent price. I"m also concenred about not getting as much as would could due to market conditions...I guess I don't really understand if you own a home must my house sell before I can really buy, someone nmmentioned a bridge loa nto me but I don't really get it....I'm tryingh to figure out how we could make it work in the best way but truly am clueless about it.....

Re: Question about buying since I'm oblivious!

Honestly, unless you have the money in the bank I would NEVER buy a house before I would sell the one I own. You could be stuck with 2 mortages and having to sell your 1st house at a ridiculously low price just because you WILL become desperate.

Re: Question about buying since I'm oblivious!

I would sell my current house before buying or even bidding on a new one.

Re: Question about buying since I'm oblivious!

I agree with the above posters - you definitely don't want to get stuck with two houses.

There are lots of homes out there - start fixing up yours to sell - the best time of the year to sell is coming up. Then you could start looking around at houses for yourself. As for your concern about market conditions - there is really nothing wrong with the market right now, its just stabalizing from where it was a couple of years ago. If you bought the house then, then you might lose money, but if you bought before that big boom, I wouldn't worry about it.

Re: Question about buying since I'm oblivious!

Re: Question about buying since I'm oblivious!

I asked about bridge loans when we were selling/buying and I was told that they no longer really exist. What people do is take out a home equity loan to use for the down payment.

But you must do that before you list your house and must understand that you will have 3 mortgages when you close on the house you buy!! (your original, your HEL and the new one)

I would sell first - or at least be in contract.

Re: Question about buying since I'm oblivious!

We may have a coop and a house very soon, so we did what you are considering, but we did pay the mortgage off on the coop, which means we just need to pay maintenance fees till we sell it. If we had two mortgages going, we couldn't swing it.

We looked at various loan options, but we decided a mortgage plus a home equity makes the most sense for us. And we are putting 20% down, so our mortgage isn't a jumbo.

Like you, we fell in love with a house, plus we had a potential buyer who was supposedly going to sign the contract at the time we made our offer on the house. The buyer fell through, but we decided to move forward with the house.

I think this is a decision only DH and you can make though depending upon the kind of money involved and what you can afford to pay. Good lucK!