Signs It's Time to Sell Your House
Is now the right time to sell your house? If you've been fiddling with the idea for a while and gazing at those properties, imagining yourself in an entirely new space, or perhaps you want to relocate, maybe now is the time to sell.
How to know when to sell your house is never an easy decision, especially if you've lived somewhere for a while. Nobody wants to go through the process of purchasing a new process, a new property, only to see it go down in value. But if you're planning to move and you want to ensure that you can get the house that you want, then you have to look at the signs that it's time to sell where you are first. Let’s take a look at the signs that the time is right.
You are so ready for a clear out. You might not think that decluttering is akin to selling, but you can’t sell without a declutter and you can’t look at home staging and renovation storage without feeling like you’re ready to put up the for sale sign! A clear out is going to give you the lay of the land of your house and make you see whether or not you are living somewhere that’s just too small for you - or too big, as the case may be.
You've built up great positive equity. If you've been in your house for more than five years, you may have built up a tidy sum of equity. Having equity built up is one of the best factors in deciding whether you're ready to sell. The equity that you have is determined by how much you've gained when the balance on your mortgage has attracted from the market value. If you bought at the right time and you've got a decent chunk of equity in your house, you'll be able to either reinvest it and sell your property for more or take it out and make sure that you have a profit at the end.
Financially, you are good to go. Maybe the property that you live in right now is your starter. Maybe you bought yourself a studio apartment when you were single, but now you have a family and you're looking to upgrade. This is a great sign that it's time to sell because you know that you need something bigger. You should think of the costs of moving as well as the repairs that may need to be done to your property, and then determine whether or not to list your house on the market. If your new home page is going to be bigger, you might want to determine whether it can be affordable for you.
Emotionally, it's time. You're ready to cut ties. You're ready to move. You don't feel attached to your house like you did at the beginning when you first bought it. Selling a house is an emotional time, and emotions can often cloud judgment. However, you might need to prepare for a sale of the house, and if you can do that without feeling guilty or upset about it, then it's a good sign that you're ready.
Your family has grown bigger than your house. This is a great reason to sell up. Sure, you can move things into storage, but eventually you're going to have to look at adding more bedrooms, more living space. If you've got more children than you had when you first moved in, then buying something bigger is just a smart idea. It's nice to have extra space and not have to sit on top of one another. It's also something that you have to think about, where you've accumulated more items and furniture than you've ever had before. You can't often fit that into one space, so you may want to look at upgrading.
The kids have flown the nest. On the flip side, maybe you're ready for a downsize and selling your home and buying something smaller is going to yield to a much smaller mortgage. Downsizing can give you a lovely nest egg, as long as you're careful about how much your profit you spend on the new, cozier home. Look at what you can sell your house for and figure out whether you could buy outright and get rid of the mortgage entirely.
The location is no longer what you need. If you're home but no longer suits your lifestyle and you want to move closer to the beach or closer to the city, then you need to think about moving and selling up. Location really does matter, and it might be the right time to sell your house if the location is no longer as desirable as it used to be. Things change over time, and depending on how long you've lived in your house, you may want to move locations to have somewhere nicer to live.
It's the right time in the market. If the local market is soaring right now, then you shouldn't hang around. If you're not sure how the market is performing, speak to real estate agents or look at online guides and speak to your bank. Understanding what it would mean for you financially if you do decide to sell your house, it's going to make a difference as to whether or not you go ahead. Agents will often tell you it doesn't matter when you sell and move on to the next chapter, and yes, for some they have a point. But if you're looking to time the market right, you should make sure that you're selling at the right time and not going to be negative at the end.
If you are ready to go and your finances are in order, then make sure you start decluttering early. Once you can have a look at your house without much in it, you'll feel much better about selling up and getting that house on the market. This could be the best chapter you ever write for your own life, so why not make it the best it can be?
