Q–My husband and I (ages 65 and 61) are retired. We foolishly built a retirement house on 11 acres and moved from our huge house on 2 1/2 acres, but we’ve been unable to sell our old house.
We accepted a purchase offer, subject to the sale of the buyer’s old house, but that isn’t selling either. Since my husband’s income would stop if he dies, I would then be unable to make payments on our new home.
We had planned to pay off our new mortgage with proceeds from our old home’s sale. Why hasn’t our old home sold? What should we do?
A–Now you know why I advise selling your old home before buying a replacement home. Also, I advise against accepting purchase offers contingent on the sale of the buyer’s old home.
After you accepted that contingent offer, your listing on the old home says “contingent sale.” That means every Realtor in town stays away from showing your old home to prospective buyers, even if the offer you accepted contains a 24-hour contingency release clause (as it should).
My suggestion is to get out of that contingent sale without incurring any legal liability. Does it have a time limit, such as 60 days? I hope so.
Until you get out of that contract, your old house is tied up but the buyer isn’t obligated to proceed with the purchase. No other buyers will make purchase offers until that first offer is out of the picture. That’s why your old home hasn’t sold.
Q–In my neighborhood, most homes sell with FHA or VA mortgage financing. My Realtor tells me I must pay all the buyer’s VA loan fees. Is this true?
A–Legally, no. Practically, perhaps. If other nearby home sellers agree to pay their buyer’s mortgage loan fees, as sales inducements, your home won’t sell if you don’t agree to pay those costs as well, or substantially reduce your asking price. Everything is negotiable, but home sales are very competitive.
