What To Know When Selling A House And Relocating Off Long Island
Relocation can throw your entire life into upheaval and there are few areas that are affected more than your living situation. Relocation can often require you to be somewhere in a matter of weeks or even days so you need to make important decisions about selling your house and what your finances will allow you to do. If you find that you are relocating off Long Island, here are five options to sell your house quickly.
1. Price Your House Properly
A big decision you’ll need to make when selling your house during a relocation is what the listing price will be. You might have made home improvements that added to the overall value of the home and you might have put a lot of sweat equity into the place, but because of timing and the need to sell fast, you might not be able to get the full value you’d ideally want.
Speed is the enemy of value when it comes to selling your house. You don’t have the luxury of waiting for the right offer and you don’t have the time to negotiate back and forth. You need to price the house so you motivated buyers are interested and you need to be okay with getting less for your house than you might have wanted.
Look around the neighborhood to find out what other homes similar to yours have sold for. Sale prices will give you a realistic sense of what your house is worth right now to buyers. Note that many of those home sales happened under normal timing conditions, so you’ll have to allow for the potential that your sale will come in lower than those.
2. If You’re Willing, Wait it Out To Sell Your House
If your financial situation will allow it, consider waiting to sell until the market is more to your liking. You could rent in Long Island and hold onto their old house until the time is right and then list it on the open market. Or you can move off Long Island and list your old house at a price level that will likely require more time to sell.
Doing this gives you a bit more time to learn about Long Island and find out which neighborhoods make the most sense for you and your family. Meanwhile, you go through the normal process of receiving offers and negotiating for the best one for your old house. So long as you’re okay with paying rent and a mortgage at the same time, this can work.
If you have a family, that can have a big effect on how you handle the situation. You might go forward to Long Island first as the person who needs to relocate while your family remains in the old house until it sells. It might also be easier to let your children stay in their current house until the school year ends. It comes down to the emotional toll everyone is okay with as well as your finances.
3. Become a Landlord
Let’s say you don’t want to rush the house sale but you also can’t afford to pay the mortgage on an empty home. In that case, you might decide to become a landlord. You might even find that you’d prefer to rent the old house out indefinitely in order to generate extra income.
As a landlord, you have a whole new list of issues to worry about. You’ll need to make sure you’ve got the appropriate homeowner’s insurance, you need to consider hiring a property management company, and you need to be aware that it will have an effect on your taxes. It’s possible you will lose the capital gains tax exemption that you previously enjoyed as the one who lived in the house.
There are benefits too. If you rent your house and then sell it at a loss you can claim the capital loss against your income. You can deduct most expenses related to the maintenance and marketing of the property, including insurance premiums, property management, landscaping, and repairs.
While you’re figuring out how much rent you need to charge to cover costs and create favorable financial conditions for yourself, don’t forget to factor in the potential for vacancies. The industry standard is to assume your property will be rented for 10.5 months a year, meaning you should assume there will be at least one or two months every year where you are not generating income. That can have a big impact on your bottom line.
4. Have a Short Sale
If you absolutely have to sell the house ASAP you can consider a short sale. You’ll need to get your lender to agree to sell your house at a reduced price. This is often better for them as they’d rather ensure repayment than have to go into foreclosure unnecessarily. Lenders all have different rules and standards for short sales, so do your research.
Also, note that some lenders will still require that the leftover balance after the sale is satisfied, which means you’re still on the hook to pay that extra money. Short sales can also wreak havoc on your credit score, especially if you’re already in foreclosure or the short sale doesn’t cover the full repayment.
5. Sell Your House As Is
Another option for the very quick sale is to sell your house as-is to a real estate investor like Leave the Key Homebuyers. There are a lot of advantages to going this route over a short sale.
First, you don’t need to worry about making upgrades or repairs. You can literally sell the house exactly as it is right now and they’ll deal with any damage or repair needs. Second, they will make you a fair cash offer based on the value of the house which has no effect on your credit score. They are well-funded and don’t need to involve other lenders. Finally, they can close on the deal in a matter of days.
Selling your house as-is to them means you get to move forward quickly towards your next residence off Long Island and it allows you to focus on what’s important for your future.
Relocate Off Long Island Final Thoughts
If you’ve thought about relocating off Long Island, these five options can help you take care of your house and move on with your life. Contact Leave The Key Homebuyers to get a fair cash offer on your home and relocate on your terms. Leave The Key Homebuyers can buy your house in any condition and have the flexibility to close quickly or months down the road.
No matter your home’s condition, they can make you a fair cash offer on your home.