06 Dec Alternative Ways to Buy or Sell a House
If you’ve visited the website before or heard any of my podcast episodes, then you probably know that BKW Property Solutions exists because of the problems I had when selling our family home. My personal experience of taking a HUGE loss on our home made me realize that there just had to be alternative ways to buy or sell a house.
The story is that several years ago, my wife and I were having difficulties selling our house, but we had already committed to buying another property. So what did we do? We followed the traditional route of lowering the price until someone was finally interested.
The upshot of that strategy was that our equity quickly evaporated. We were expecting to make $40,000, and we walked away with $4,000. We got the scraps. The equity went to the realtors, title companies, attorneys, and what seemed like everyone else but us.
At the time, I didn’t know how to improve the home buying and selling process, but after a great deal of time, energy and research, I came across several alternative approaches that made so much more sense to me. Having experienced success, I now educate people on the full range of alternative ways to buy and sell a house when starting their real estate journey.
Buying a home is usually one of the most significant financial decisions you’ll make in your lifetime, and more importantly, it’s an emotional decision. When you combine money matters with the people you love, you can be desperate to get it right, and that can be extremely stressful. This is no less true when you’re not getting what you want out of the real estate process.
For these very reasons, I am increasingly motivated to share all of the alternative solutions to selling your property, or buying a new one if you’re not quite ready for the traditional bank loan. I realize how this may sound to someone who’s hearing about some of these creative solutions for the first time. It might even sound like it’s too good to be true. But my experience has proven that it is definitely true. Let’s look at one of these alternative ways to buy and sell a house.
Lease-Purchase
What is a lease-purchase? Essentially a lease-purchase agreement is formed when a seller and a buyer agree that the buyer will rent the home before buying it. A contract is drawn up between all parties that identifies roles, sets the purchase price, and determines how long the rental arrangement will last.
For example, as a property owner, let’s say that your house is worth $300,000, and you have a loan balance of $200,000. If there were no realtor fees or closing costs, then you’d get 100,000 in equity when you sell. Unfortunately, with a traditional sale, the fees cannot be eliminated. However, with a lease-purchase these fees are not charged, allowing us to help you protect as much of your equity as possible.
You, as the owner, allow us to find the buyer, and take over the responsibilities associated with the home, including the mortgage, any maintenance or repairs, taxes, and insurance. Then it’s just a matter of maybe three, four, or five years down the line that the sale is completed and the house gets cashed out.
With the global crisis our country has faced, so many people have experienced financial setbacks including getting behind on their loans or mortgages. Creative ways to sell your home are potential solutions to getting out from under the burden of debt.
If you’re a seller who is actively trying to sell your house, either with a realtor, for sale by owner, or maybe for rent by owner, and it’s just not moving, then there are other options.
The reason why your property is not selling isn’t important. Regardless of whether it’s priced too high, or it’s dated, or you have negative equity, the important thing is that there are other avenues you can try. And I want to help by making sure what we do meets your needs. If you believe a long-term solution is better than a HUGE loss like I experienced, then we can help you set up a lease-purchase plan that makes it possible to hit your personal goals.
Learn More About Alternative Ways to Buy and Sell a House
When buying or selling property it is important to know that you do have options available to you. If you’d like more details from my story and have more questions about alternative ways to buy a house, listen to my guest appearance on the REI Mastermind Network Podcast. There I go more in-depth into my own processes of learning about real estate and how difficulties selling my home got my journey into real estate started.