Sold my house! Now what?!

I feel like I'm spinning in circles with zero direction. I am so overwhelmed.

We suddenly sold our house. We have no exit plan which is ridiculous and irresponsible since the house has been on the market forever and I have a kid. I need help!

Where do we start packing? How do we start packing? What's the best way to do it? The closing is scheduled for 6 weeks from now.

We have not found a new house yet. Haven't even looked yet. Not even sure what towns we are interested in. We are debating renting but we are really just lost. Has anyone been in our shoes? What did you do?

Re: Sold my house! Now what?!

Can you stay at a family's members house temporarily?

This recently happened to my friend. House was put on the market and was sold a few days later. They moved into her mothers house (She has 3 kids) so they had some time to look into school districts etc. and they just bought a house a few weeks ago. Yea its cramped and not ideal but its just temporary.

Whatever you do don't rush into buying a new house because your closing in a few weeks, unless you know its the one!

Best of Luck!

Sold my house! Now what?!

Pack what you don't use. Start in one room and finish it before you move on to something else. Pack pans and pots you don't use. Throw out anything you haven't touched in 6 months. Purge!

Sold my house! Now what?!

I would start by looking for the next few weekends if you can. If you are not seeing anythign you like see if you can find a 6 month rental. That way you are not tied into a year. Even if you have to spend a little more than normal on rent jsut to get it 6 months.

As far as packing. Start with all the rooms you do nto use on a daily basis. Kitchen bath and bedrooms will be last (and your tv in the main room). All knick knacks, pictures on the wall etc...pack. extra towels, sheets and blankets pack.

I have moved too many times to count. I can pack a house in under a week.

Re: Sold my house! Now what?!

Most of my clients wind up having to land with family for awhile, or do a short term rental or even a long-stay hotel in order to bridge the gap between selling and buying. Even if you find a house tomorrow, it will take a couple of weeks to get into contract, and then you'd only have a month to close. If you are buying a vacant house and have a very quick mortgage company, it could work out, but why rush and have extra stress?

When you accepted the offer, did the buyers have a hard and fast date that they needed to close by? Could have negotiated an extended close?

Assuming that wasn't negotiated or couldn't be worked out, I would just advise you to assume you won't find a house in time and explore alternatives for the short term. A lot of my clients like to just focus on selling and moving and THEN turn to their house hunt full-time once the sale is done.

I would just pack a little at a time -- non-essentials first -- and things like everyday plates and drinking glasses last. Pack like things together and label the boxes!

It will all get done and congratulations for finding a buyer for the house!

Re: Sold my house! Now what?!

we are in that boat right now. Sold our house and could did not find one yet (we want to keep our DD in the elem. school she is attending. We are staying with friends. So far so good, but a bit cramped. We are looking at one today that is a flip, almost done, so we hope we can iron out the deal today and be in by the end of July.

I started packing stuff we did not use regularly first, purged a lot of crap we had not touched in a long time, gave a lot away, etc. Our stuff is in storage.

Good luck I hope you find something soon.

Sold my house! Now what?!

We are in the same boat, sold our house and can't move into the new one for about a month or so after we close on the sale.. Originally we were renting a house from family for the summer but they sold it.... Now we are going to be staying with my In-Laws for a month..
As for packing start with decorative items/knick knacks, clothes, non essential kitchen stuff, china cabinet, stuffed animals/toys that aren't favorites. I would suggest doing a little every day/night. It's overwhelming so break it down to smaller chunks.

Re: Sold my house! Now what?!

Thanks everyone! I'm very overwhelmed right now but I need to pull it together and figure things out. I need to get boxes too. Ugh I have a headache just writing this. LOL

Re: Sold my house! Now what?!

First, congrats on selling your house.

If it were me, I'd start packing the non-esstentials as well as any out-of-season items. Also, I'd looking into renting a storage unit that doesn't require me to rent it long term. There are a ton around and DH and I did this before my shower so we would have some place to store everything before getting married. I think we only rented it for about... 3-4 months and it wasn't that big of a deal $ wise.

I would also pack away plates and glasses and live on paper items the closer you get to the closing date.

Re: Sold my house! Now what?!

Hey! Congrats!

We went into contract on our old house before we were in contract on our new house...or had even picked it out. We were able to stretch out our closing a little, but not much. We closed three days after xmas (I wanted to stay in our house for xmas for DD's sake). We started packing non-essentials and storage stuff as we could, but the majority of it didn't happen until the month of the closing. We got one of those PODS delivered to our house and put things in it over the course of two weeks or so. I highly recommend it!

We went into contract on our current house maybe a month before we closed on old house. Fortunately, the owner wasn't living here so he let us put the POD in the driveway. We didn't close on that house for three months, so we had to live with my in-laws in the meantime. And stayed a little longer while we did some renovations.

We already knew the area/school district we wanted, so for us, it was just a matter of finding the right house.