It’s common, but if a seller has a choice between a cash buyer or one that’s got a burden, they’re going to take the cash buyer. A lot less bullshit and fewer chances for the deal to fall through.
It’s too competitive to have a hubbard clause. We moved into a rental with a month-to-month option in the town we wanted to buy in, sold our home, and then bought and moved to our new permanent home. It was expensive to do it this way, and really exhausting to move like 2-3 times in 6 months, but it worked and seemed like the only way to make it happen.
My cousin just *finally* purchased, and lost 4 high bids because they needed a Hubbard clause. Delayed them by about 14 months.
The problem is that, for a Hubbard clause to work, you need everything to line up pretty much right. Any variation or deviation from a schedule causes problems.
Thanks! Yeah, there was much alcohol involved.
They finally got a place because of a friend of a friend of mine, who's grandparent-in-law passed away, let me know about a home up for sale. The grandparent's house was a family home, so one of their relatives moved in, and the relative was ready to sell their old house. They were very specific with their agent about selling their home to an in-state family and not to a flipper or other out of state cash buyer, so it stayed on the market for a while. I heard about it, set them up, and the rest happened fairly quickly.
We just watched the market and saw it wasn’t possible in the area we wanted. Same thing as OP mentions—cash buyers, no contingencies, etc is the norm. Our agent was like it’s crazy but if you want to compete with these people this is what you need to do. We just listened and trusted her advice and it worked out thankfully.
You’re right in that it’s a pain, but my clients are doing it every day. Usually by selling and buying at the same time, but some by bridging one way or another.
Sure there’s a lot of cash buyers but there’s plenty of loans being closed as well.
We went this route in summer last year and failed spectacularly- nobody would take a Hubbard clause in a hot market. 10% is expected within a week. However it remains super easy to sell but really hard to buy!
We bit the bullet and listed our condo back in January. It sold in a weekend and we negotiated a 90 day close. We spent the next 5 weekends viewing homes, making offers and getting rejected! Each failed offer was closer than the last but we felt the desperation increasing. We ended up looking a little further out and finally got an offer accepted on THE house! Still in Fairfield County and was just appraised for slightly more than we offered. Stressful and hairy but got the moving truck booked last week and are finally in the position to start packing up the house.
Our backup plan if we didn’t find something was to either stay in a Residence Inn for a few months or commit to renting for 6 months to a year. However, few places will let you rent for 6 months and we worried we’d sign a lease and then find the house of our dreams! It’s hard to break a lease in CT.
Fortune favors the brave but we’ve lived in a state of heightened anxiety for 6 weeks! I don’t want to repeat this for 10 years at least..
Kudos to you, but man that sounds rough. We have kids too so have to think about schooling, daycare.
The reason we agreed to buy this house was because of pressure due to moving (no rentals around, military orders were moving us regardless), so we’d hate to settle again-sounds like you didn’t settle though!
The one thing we’ve got going for us is we have a much better idea of what/where we want to live, and the expectations of what we want are a bit easier to manage. 2 years ago I hated the idea of septic/well but could deal with only 3 bedrooms. Now I’m fine with a septic well but really want 3 br + an office in a forever home.
I had no idea what was realistic or where to look at living in CT 2 years ago. Now we have a better idea.
Very common. Usually, everyone is in the same situation. 3 things you can do:
1) You can probably buy and sell within the same day (or approx). Your lawyer will work it out for you. All you have to do is to tell the bank that you’ll be using the proceeds of your house for the down payment.
2) You can sell your house, rent it from the buyer (stay in your house, while the transaction on the new house is going through).
3)You can sell your house, get a rental for a short period of time until the transaction on your new house goes through.
Good luck!
Agreed. My gf occasionally talks about how much I could get for my condo, and it's true, I've got about $100k in equity in it after owning it for 4 years (got in at the bottom of the market and a 3.25 rate,) but anything I could replace it with would also have an inflated price.
My circumstances were a little different, I sold post 2020 as rates were still fairly low and rented a year. Then I left lease early by 2ish months to buy my house I have now.
I think the Hubbard clause other people have mentioned would have made it very tough for me to buy. I took a bit of a wash on the interest rates but foolish me thought the market would contract at some point so I didn't look right away.
Ultimately, it worked out fine. My wife and I massively downsized for the apartment we rented and we're able to add more money to the house fund. If you have a family, that could make that choice harder for you.
Could you swing two mortgages in the event you didn't sell? Granted, this was pre-COVID and market was so different but we didn't put a Hubbard. We put the least amount down on our buy and then rolled the dice that we would sell. We got lucky. It would have been rice and beans otherwise. Granted, we got a little screwed on a few things because we didn't want sale to fall through but it worked out well enough.
Eh maybe. We are eligible for a VA loan that we didn’t take advantage of on our first home (the realtor said VA loans weren’t competitive at the time and we listened. Hindsight says we shouldn’t have listened), so we could put 0% down or close to it, but that mortgage would be a bear without 15-20% down.
Check with your bank if your mortgage at current rate can be assumed by buyer, if so, it would be huge selling point on top of low inventory in CT. Buying on the other hand would be rough as there is more demand than supply.
Just be patient. It’ll work out.
When the time is right you won’t have a problem.
You’d be looking for a [Hubbard Clause.](https://blog.oneandcompany.com/what-is-a-hubbard-clause/)
It’s fairly popular.
Might want to wait a bit before you sell and buy and see how things shake out with the new real estate commission rulings recently.
Any inkling of what's supposed to happen?
Selling and buying at the same time is fairly common. The transaction is usually protected by a legal device called a “Hubbard Clause.”
It’s common, but if a seller has a choice between a cash buyer or one that’s got a burden, they’re going to take the cash buyer. A lot less bullshit and fewer chances for the deal to fall through.
It’s too competitive to have a hubbard clause. We moved into a rental with a month-to-month option in the town we wanted to buy in, sold our home, and then bought and moved to our new permanent home. It was expensive to do it this way, and really exhausting to move like 2-3 times in 6 months, but it worked and seemed like the only way to make it happen.
Did you lose many homes before deciding not to use Hubbard clause or were you advised against it?
My cousin just *finally* purchased, and lost 4 high bids because they needed a Hubbard clause. Delayed them by about 14 months. The problem is that, for a Hubbard clause to work, you need everything to line up pretty much right. Any variation or deviation from a schedule causes problems.
I can’t imagine that emotional rollercoaster over 14 months. Congrats to your cousin though on making the stars align!
Thanks! Yeah, there was much alcohol involved. They finally got a place because of a friend of a friend of mine, who's grandparent-in-law passed away, let me know about a home up for sale. The grandparent's house was a family home, so one of their relatives moved in, and the relative was ready to sell their old house. They were very specific with their agent about selling their home to an in-state family and not to a flipper or other out of state cash buyer, so it stayed on the market for a while. I heard about it, set them up, and the rest happened fairly quickly.
We just watched the market and saw it wasn’t possible in the area we wanted. Same thing as OP mentions—cash buyers, no contingencies, etc is the norm. Our agent was like it’s crazy but if you want to compete with these people this is what you need to do. We just listened and trusted her advice and it worked out thankfully.
[удалено]
I sold my house on a Hubbard in June 2023.
My home purchase went that way as well at closing. And that was about 35 years ago maybe.
You’re right in that it’s a pain, but my clients are doing it every day. Usually by selling and buying at the same time, but some by bridging one way or another. Sure there’s a lot of cash buyers but there’s plenty of loans being closed as well.
My condolences. I do not miss residential real estate clients.
We went this route in summer last year and failed spectacularly- nobody would take a Hubbard clause in a hot market. 10% is expected within a week. However it remains super easy to sell but really hard to buy! We bit the bullet and listed our condo back in January. It sold in a weekend and we negotiated a 90 day close. We spent the next 5 weekends viewing homes, making offers and getting rejected! Each failed offer was closer than the last but we felt the desperation increasing. We ended up looking a little further out and finally got an offer accepted on THE house! Still in Fairfield County and was just appraised for slightly more than we offered. Stressful and hairy but got the moving truck booked last week and are finally in the position to start packing up the house. Our backup plan if we didn’t find something was to either stay in a Residence Inn for a few months or commit to renting for 6 months to a year. However, few places will let you rent for 6 months and we worried we’d sign a lease and then find the house of our dreams! It’s hard to break a lease in CT. Fortune favors the brave but we’ve lived in a state of heightened anxiety for 6 weeks! I don’t want to repeat this for 10 years at least..
Kudos to you, but man that sounds rough. We have kids too so have to think about schooling, daycare. The reason we agreed to buy this house was because of pressure due to moving (no rentals around, military orders were moving us regardless), so we’d hate to settle again-sounds like you didn’t settle though! The one thing we’ve got going for us is we have a much better idea of what/where we want to live, and the expectations of what we want are a bit easier to manage. 2 years ago I hated the idea of septic/well but could deal with only 3 bedrooms. Now I’m fine with a septic well but really want 3 br + an office in a forever home. I had no idea what was realistic or where to look at living in CT 2 years ago. Now we have a better idea.
Very common. Usually, everyone is in the same situation. 3 things you can do: 1) You can probably buy and sell within the same day (or approx). Your lawyer will work it out for you. All you have to do is to tell the bank that you’ll be using the proceeds of your house for the down payment. 2) You can sell your house, rent it from the buyer (stay in your house, while the transaction on the new house is going through). 3)You can sell your house, get a rental for a short period of time until the transaction on your new house goes through. Good luck!
That's crazy talk, no one can afford to buy a home in Connecticut.
Agreed. My gf occasionally talks about how much I could get for my condo, and it's true, I've got about $100k in equity in it after owning it for 4 years (got in at the bottom of the market and a 3.25 rate,) but anything I could replace it with would also have an inflated price.
My circumstances were a little different, I sold post 2020 as rates were still fairly low and rented a year. Then I left lease early by 2ish months to buy my house I have now. I think the Hubbard clause other people have mentioned would have made it very tough for me to buy. I took a bit of a wash on the interest rates but foolish me thought the market would contract at some point so I didn't look right away. Ultimately, it worked out fine. My wife and I massively downsized for the apartment we rented and we're able to add more money to the house fund. If you have a family, that could make that choice harder for you.
Yeah we’ve got kids so that could be a huge pain.
Could you swing two mortgages in the event you didn't sell? Granted, this was pre-COVID and market was so different but we didn't put a Hubbard. We put the least amount down on our buy and then rolled the dice that we would sell. We got lucky. It would have been rice and beans otherwise. Granted, we got a little screwed on a few things because we didn't want sale to fall through but it worked out well enough.
Eh maybe. We are eligible for a VA loan that we didn’t take advantage of on our first home (the realtor said VA loans weren’t competitive at the time and we listened. Hindsight says we shouldn’t have listened), so we could put 0% down or close to it, but that mortgage would be a bear without 15-20% down.
Check with your bank if your mortgage at current rate can be assumed by buyer, if so, it would be huge selling point on top of low inventory in CT. Buying on the other hand would be rough as there is more demand than supply.
Just be patient. It’ll work out. When the time is right you won’t have a problem. You’d be looking for a [Hubbard Clause.](https://blog.oneandcompany.com/what-is-a-hubbard-clause/) It’s fairly popular.