Upsizing, downsizing or on the move?

Buy or Sell first?

Buying first lets you house hunt from the comfort of your own home and gives you time to find the perfect home for you, although this strategy does carry a bit of risk as if you can't sell your house, you will end up with two houses. You could put an offer on the new home subject to the sale of your home but in a buoyant housing market, an offer like that would rarely be accepted.

Selling first puts you in a great position for buying your next home, you know exactly how much you have to spend, and being a cash buyer gives you good negotiating power. The downside to selling first is if your settlement dates don't match up, you may have to find alternative living arrangements while you wait for your new home to settle. A good tip is to try and negotiate a longer settlement with the purchasers of your home which will give you more time to find your dream home and hopefully have you moving straight from A-B.

Bridging finance

Went to an open home for  ‘just for a look’ and ended up falling in love? Not to worry, bridging finance is here to help. If you want to buy a home, before moving out of yours, there are two types of bridging finance to help seal the gap.

• Open-ended bridging is where you buy the home you just went to look at and ‘intend’ to sell yours. As you can imagine, this is a hard sell for the bank unless you can show that you can service two mortgages.

• Closed bridging is where you buy the dream home while waiting for your house to settle. As both houses are unconditional, this type of finance is easier as the bank knows your house is sold and will settle soon.

Your old and new mortgage

When you move house, it is generally before your mortgage period is up, so what happens to your mortgage? Well, you generally pay it all back to the bank once your house is sold and then take out a new loan on your new house which sounds simple enough although there are a few things to consider as if you are paying your mortgage back early, there can be fees associated with this. It is a great time to get in touch with us as we can work out what costs you might be up for and the best plan going forward with your new home.
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Alternatively, if you love your bank, are on a good rate and are borrowing the same, we can just transfer your mortgage across to your new house, talk about making things simpler.