Sell your house fast with ThompsonSells.

Yikes! I bought a house and now I can’t sell mine – what do I do?

This scenario may sound familiar given the recent changes in the housing market. After searching forever you finally found your dream home. You snapped it up in a bidding war and felt like you had won the lottery when you were notified that you were the lucky winners. Your deal was firm, with no conditions. Of course, this now means you need to sell your house fast.

You put your own home on the market, only to find that the buyers seem to have disappeared. You’ve only had a handful of showings and no inkling of an offer. Chances are you feel sick thinking about your options. However, it’s important to look at the situation practically, and not to lose hope.

In this post, we’re going to offer five tips to help you make the best of a tough situation. Some will help you sell your house fast, while others will explain what options you have in case you simply can’t find the right buyers in time. Let’s get started with the most obvious but often overlooked suggestion.

1. Price Your Property Wisely

There are so many factors that go into pricing a home correctly, especially if you’re looking to sell your house fast. These factors can change weekly or even daily as the market waivers. However, it’s important to bear in mind that every house will sell at some price point. If the market has changed you many have to lower your price to get your house sold. If the lower price still allows you to purchase your new home, this may be your best option.

When pricing your home, it’s important to work with a local real estate expert. Only someone who’s highly familiar with the housing market in your specific neighbourhood will know all of its nuances and intricacies. They’ll be up-to-date with market shifts and be able to help you price your home for the best chance of selling in the current market.

2. Market Your Home Properly

Perhaps the recent seller’s market has been so good that people didn’t have to put a lot of effort into marketing their homes. However, with the latest changes, including more homes up for sale and fewer buyers, presenting your home well is more crucial than ever.

In order to make your home stand out from the crowd, you should make sure that it wows buyers. This means that marketing materials, including listing media and brochures should be professional and eye-catching. Then, once you have buyers through the door, it’s even more important to get them hooked. Staging your home is an absolute must for this reason. A knowledgeable and experienced realtor can help you achieve all of this and more.

3. Ask for an Extension

If you’ve done all you can to price and market your home properly, but you’re still not getting any bites, there are still other options. The one with the lowest impact for you financially would be to ask for an extension on the closing date of your dream home.

While this might sound like a bit of a tough ask, it may not be in the current market. If you’re having trouble selling, then the sellers of your new home probably don’t want to have to put it back on the market, and find themselves in a similar situation. It makes more sense for them to offer you some flexibility and stick with the deal they have.

4. Think About the Possibility of Renting

If an extension isn’t an option, it might still be possible to go ahead with the purchase before you’ve sold your home. You could rent your existing home and move into your new one.  Of course, this will only work if you have the resources to close on your new home, without having funds from the sale of your existing one.

However, there is the option of bridge financing, offered by many institutions, in case you can’t cover the cost alone. This is also an option to consider if you do sell your home but the closing date is later than that of your purchase.

5. Consider Staying Put for Now

One final option, which will typically be considered a last resort, is to choose to not close on your dream home and stay put. It’s not something anyone wants to have to do, but it does happen. One obvious downside is that you will forfeit your deposit which is most likely pretty sizable, especially considering recent house prices.

Another financial impact that many people don’t consider is that the sellers of your would-be new home could very likely sue you for the difference between what they eventually sell for and what you committed to pay. Clearly this is a situation everyone wants to avoid, so it’s important to explore all other options first.

Wrapping Up

Buying a home and then being faced with trying to sell your house fast in a completely different market can be a scary time. While not all of the scenarios we’ve discussed are ideal, it’s important to evaluate your options as soon as possible and think about which paths of action might be right for you. It’s also imperative to enlist the help of knowledgeable professionals, including neighbourhood real estate experts, qualified mortgage brokers, and lawyers.

In this post, we’ve offered five practical tips to help you sell you house fast and arrange a backup plan just in case. Let’s recap them quickly:

  1. Price your property wisely.
  2. Market your home properly.
  3. Ask for an extension.
  4. Think about the possibility of renting.
  5. Consider staying put for now.

If you’re in a sticky situation and need to sell your house fast, we’d love to offer guidance. Feel free to contact us today to find out how the Thompson Sells team can help!

Looking for more info?

Get in touch and find out how we can help.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

WE’VE HELPED MANY PEOPLE, JUST LIKE YOU

Here’s what our clients have said about working with us:

Peter Matukas

Peter was successful finding his new dream home in Bloor West Village. This meant he needed to sell his current…


READ THE FULL STORY

John & Alicia

John and Alicia have rented, bought and sold with me over the last 5 years – I am always pleased…


READ THE FULL STORY

Lauren & Andrew Poechman

My dad recommended Jody to help us find out first home. My wife and I were just married and needed…


READ THE FULL STORY

READ MORE OF OUR CLIENT RESULTS