The idea of relocating can be a daunting one. It’s liable to throw your entire life into upheaval and affect you in ways you can’t always predict, and that’s if your relocation is happening with plenty of lead time. If you need to relocate within a matter of days or weeks, you’re going to have to make some very serious and important decisions very quickly. Chief among them is the decision to sell your house. Here are options to sell your house if you need to relocate out of Michigan. You need to make very important decisions whether you decide to sell your house on the open market or sell quickly as-is to a cash home buyer. If you find that you are relocating out of Michigan, here are five options to sell your house quickly.
5 Options To Sell Your House To Relocate Out Of State
Price Your Michigan House Properly
An important decision you’ll need to make when selling your house during a relocation out of Michigan is what the listing price will be. You might have made home improvements that added to the overall value of the home and you might have put a lot of sweat equity into the place, but because of timing and the need to sell fast, you might not be able to get the full value you’d ideally want.
Speed is the enemy of value when it comes to selling your house. You don’t have the luxury of waiting for the right offer and you don’t have the time to negotiate back and forth. You need to price the house so your motivated buyers are interested and you need to be okay with getting less for your house than you might have wanted.
Look around the neighborhood to find out what other homes similar to yours have sold for. Sale prices will give you a realistic sense of what your house is worth right now to buyers. Note that many of those home sales happened under normal timing conditions, so you’ll have to allow for the potential that your sale will come in lower than those.
If You’re Willing, Wait it Out
If your situation will allow it, consider waiting to sell until the housing market is more to your liking. You could rent in Michigan and hold onto the old house until the time is right and then list it on the open market. Or you can move out of Michigan and list your old house at a price level that will likely require more time to sell.
Doing this gives you a bit more time to learn about your new house and find out which neighborhoods make the most sense for you and your family. Meanwhile, you go through the normal process of receiving offers and negotiating for the best one for your old house. So long as you’re fine with paying rent and a mortgage at the same time, this can work.
If you have a family, that can have a big effect on how you handle the situation. You might go forward to your new home outside of Michigan first as the person who needs to relocate while your family remains in the Michigan house until it sells. It might also be easier to let your children stay in their current house until the school year ends. It comes down to the emotional toll everyone is okay with as well as your finances.
Rent Your Michigan House & Become a Landlord
Perhaps you don’t want to rush the sale of the Michigan house but you also can’t afford to pay the mortgage on an empty home. In that case, you might decide to become a landlord. You might even find that you’d prefer to rent the old house out indefinitely in order to generate extra income.
As a landlord, you have a whole new list of issues to worry about. You’ll need to make sure you’ve got the appropriate homeowner’s insurance, you need to consider hiring a property management company, and you need to be aware that it will have an effect on your taxes. It’s possible you will lose the capital gains tax exemption that you previously enjoyed as the one who lived in the house.
There are benefits to being a landlord as well. If you rent your house and then sell it at a loss you can claim the capital loss against your income. You can deduct most expenses related to the maintenance and marketing of the property, including insurance premiums, property management, landscaping, and repairs.
While you’re figuring out how much rent you need to charge to cover costs and create favorable financial conditions for yourself, don’t forget to factor in the potential for vacancies. The industry standard is to assume your property will be rented for 10 or 11 months a year, meaning you should assume there will be at least one or two months every year where you are not generating income. That can have a major impact on your bottom line.
Have a Short Sale
If you absolutely have to sell the house as soon as possible, you can consider holding a short sale. You’ll need to get your lender to agree to sell your house at a reduced price. This is often better for them as they’d rather ensure repayment than have to go into foreclosure. Lenders all have different rules and standards for short sales, so do your research and don’t make any decisions without talking to them first.
Also, note that some lenders will still require that the leftover balance after the sale is satisfied, which means you’re still on the hook to pay that extra money. Short sales can also wreak havoc on your credit score, especially if you’re already in foreclosure or the short sale doesn’t cover the full repayment. This isn’t a route that you should consider unless you’re absolutely up against the wall.
Sell Your Michigan House As-Is
If time is of the essence and you’re dealing with a house full of issues that can make it hard to sell quickly, you can consider selling your house as-is to a real estate investor like 810 Home Buyers. There are plenty of advantages to going this route over a short sale or waiting it out on the open market.
First, you don’t need to worry about making any upgrades or repairs. You can sell the house exactly as it is right now and we’ll deal with any damage or repair needs. Once you tell us about your property, we’ll take a look into the details and make a fair, cash offer that satisfies both parties. From there, it is entirely your decision on whether or not you’d like to sell your house. You are under no obligation. Once you decide to sell, you also decide how soon you’d like to close and the entire transaction can be completed in a matter of days.
Selling your house as-is to them means you get to move forward quickly towards your next residence in or outside of Michigan and it allows you to focus on what’s important for your future.