With the rising of home prices, homeowners in America today prefer to stay in the same house long enough to gain significant equity. However, several circumstances may push you to sell your house sooner than you expected. When should you consider selling your house after buying? This article tells you when it makes sense to sell your house.
Five-Year Rule
According to Zillow, you can’t break even on your initial home investment if you don’t stay in it for at least five years. This rule is based on the transaction costs associated with buying a home, the expenses you incur when improving your house, and the length of time it will take for your home’s market value to grow.
But you have to keep in mind the fact that it is not always about selling your house for a profit. Sometimes it makes more sense to sell your house even without making a profit.
When You Should Sell Your House
If you are not a professional home flipper, you should hang on to your house for at least two years after purchasing it, especially if you want to gain enough equity to cover the selling costs. So, if you are wondering when you can sell your house, here are some of the main reasons that people sell unexpectedly.
Job Relocation
If you are in military service and are being redeployed or have a fantastic opportunity in another city with your employer, sometimes the only viable solution is to sell your house and move closer to your new work location.
Even if it’s possible to drive to your new job, it may just not work for you to commute long distances every day. A commute stretching into hours is a financial burden, wreaks havoc on your work/life balance, and can be a mental and physical strain.
Emergency
A serious emergency might force you to sell your house. For instance, if you or another member of your family becomes sick, you might have to free up your home’s equity to cover your medical bills. In another medical-related scenario, you might be compelled to sell your house in order to move near a parent who has suffered a serious medical emergency.
Family Changes
If you divorce or lose a member of your family, you may be compelled to reconsider where you wish to live. This can also happen if your children leave home for college or you have a new baby who needs special care or extra space that is not available in your current house.
Financial Changes
If you lose your main source of income, your property taxes increase, or some other unexpected costs arise, your mortgage may quickly become too expensive. In this case, it may make more financial sense to sell the house.
Seller’s Market
As the property market becomes hotter, you may gain equity in your house faster than you expected and want to make a profit. In this case, the best solution is to sell your house as soon as possible, especially if you do not also want to buy a new house in the same area.
Neighborhood Changes
You may be compelled to sell your house if the neighborhood changes and becomes unfriendly to you and your family. For example, it might have become too commercial, too noisy, or even dangerous.
Deferring Maintenance
If your house requires extensive maintenance. and you do not have the resources to do the repairs, you might choose to sell the house. Since the life expectancy of most residential structures is about 15 years, it makes more financial sense to leave the house before the time comes to spend money on repairs.
Conclusion
In the situations listed above in which you may consider selling your house as fast as possible, there is a way to do that quickly with minimum expense to you. There is absolutely nothing you need to do to the house first. Even landscaping to increase property value, which is usually the quickest way to increase a home’s value, is not necessary.
You can avoid the hassle associated with selling a house by selling it to a reliable real estate investor like Trusted House Buyers. This company buys distressed houses without asking for agent commissions or requiring you to do repairs before selling the house. That way, you can make a profit with very little expense on your part, and it can be done quickly and easily.
