Don’t Get Stuck With Contingencies in the Pittsburgh Market

05/26/16 • -1 min

Pittsburgh Real Estate Podcast with Gina Giampietro

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Sale and settlement contingencies can be a painful situation for someone who needs to buy a home and sell at the same time in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, we see it on a daily basis.

The best thing for you to do when you have a sale and settlement contingency is first go to the lender and see if you can actually obtain two mortgages. That way, you can proceed with your new home before your old home sells. That way you’ll have a lot of options.

The painful second part is that you need to sell to buy. You want to go see houses and make an offer, but nobody will accept your offer because your home hasn't sold yet . The best thing I can tell you is that you’ve got to make your house perfect. You’ve got to get that offer first, and once that offer is obtained, it’s way easier to find your perfect home.

Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report

Want to buy a home? Search all homes for sale

Sale and settlement contingencies can be a painful situation for someone who needs to buy a home and sell at the same time in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, we see it on a daily basis.

Previous Episode

The Market Today in Pittsburgh

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The market varies, depending on which Pittsburgh neighborhood you’re in. However, overall, the local housing market is stable.

Oftentimes, clients ask if we’re in a buyer's or seller’s market. Again, it varies depending upon the neighborhood. If you’re in Pittsburgh, the market favors sellers, but in the suburbs, it’s hands-down a buyer’s market.

What does this mean to local real estate consumers? If you’re a buyer, take advantage of historically low interest rates as quickly as you can. Plus, there’s a lot of inventory to choose from. If you’re a seller, it’s crucial to stand out and have a move-in ready home.

If you’re thinking about buying or selling, or have a question about real estate, let’s have a conversation. Call or email me; I’d love to talk!

Next Episode

Save Money with a Pre-Inspection on Your Pittsburgh Home

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Want to buy a home? Search all homes for sale

If you’re listing your home, it might be a good idea to get a pre-inspection. Most buyers have their own inspection done, so why is this important? Well, most buyers won’t take your home inspection, and they will do another inspection. However, they will take your pest inspection, and 9 times out of 10, they will take your radon inspection.

Those aren’t the ones I want you to concentrate on, though. I want you to concentrate on the home inspections. In real estate, you list a home, get an offer, you negotiate, the buyer does their inspection, and you negotiate again. Wouldn’t it be better just to negotiate once?

When you have a pre-inspection on your home, you know exactly what’s wrong with it and exactly what needs to be fixed. You can either price your house according to the repairs and disclose them, or fix the repairs that will come up in the buyer’s home inspection. If you take that latter route, you can negotiate to your number, because you know all the repairs have been fixed and there’s nothing wrong with your home.

When you negotiate twice, you leave money on the table