Sell Existing Home First

If you already own a home, you should consider selling it before contracting to buy your next New Jersey real estate property. There are two reasons for taking this approach.

First, if you enter into a contract to buy your next home before selling your existing home, you will be under pressure to sell your existing home in a hurry. This means you probably will not get as much for it as you would if you could be patient about selling it.

Second, most people cannot afford two homes in New Jersey or elsewhere. So if you try to buy your next home first, you will have to make your offer of purchase contingent on selling your existing home. This is a very weak offer, and you will probably not be able to get the seller to negotiate the price, terms and so on to your liking. In fact, the seller may not even consider such an offer.

Even if such an offer is considered, the seller will insist on having the right to sell to someone else that might come along later, unless you then agree to remove the contingency regarding selling your existing home. This arrangement is called a "break clause", perhaps because of the number of nervous breakdowns it has caused.