Selling A Home In Florida

No matter how much you love your Florida property, there will almost inevitably come a time when you want to sell it.

Circumstances might dictate a return to the UK, you may want to trade up to a bigger property or one in another area – or you might simply decide to “cash out” and realize the profit from your investment. Sadly sometimes Brits need to sell because they have been misled by agents/developers when they bought the house.

Whatever the reason for selling, there are (as you will have guessed by now) significant differences between the UK and Florida real estate systems as they apply to house sales.

At least now you have seen these from the buyer’s point of view and you will be familiar with many aspects of the process. Indeed, so many of the important things about the buy/sell transaction have already been covered in the “buying” section that we suggest you read that first if you haven’t already done so – because here we will look at the process specifically from the seller’s perspective.
 

WHY ARE YOU SELLING?

Just as we asked you to do when we first looked at buying a property in Florida, we suggest that you first have a long hard think about what you want or need to achieve in selling it. This may have a significant bearing on a number of factors – especially in relation to time and money.

Your priorities and concerns if you are selling this property to move up or down the Florida market are likely to be quite different from those in place if you are selling to release the funds to return to the UK.

Everyone has a different balance of pressures upon them when selling, and it is very much a balancing act to decide the best plan. There are however three main situations:

1. Do you want/need to get the maximum price?
   If so, are you willing to have your house on the market for a long time?
   
   
2. Do you want/need to sell quickly?
   If so, are you willing to sacrifice some of your potential profits to achieve this?
   
   
3. Would you like to achieve a balance
   … between selling your house quickly and getting the best price?

Timing

Firstly, if you have the flexibility to choose; spring and autumn are the peak times for houses to sell, and autumn can be especially good for the sale of rental properties as there tend to be a few more people who have visited Florida over the summer and turn their thoughts to owning rather than renting again.

In an ideal world, you would sell one house and buy another on the same day, but that probably isn’t going to happen. It pays to be prepared for how the timing is likely to work out in the real world, and seek where possible to influence it as you negotiate the two halves of the buying/selling equation.
In general, it’s easier to manage a gap between homes than it is to finance two mortgages. Get a short-term lease, find temporary housing or stay with friends – anything is better than paying two mortgages at the same time!

If you are shopping for a new property before you have sold your own, remember that the people who buy your property will probably have to borrow to finance the purchase – and their lender will lend an amount based on the lower of the sales price or appraised value. If you get your own appraisal done, this will give you a more confident feel for how much money you have to spend on your next property – and prevent you from getting too attached to a property outside your buying power.

It’s a good idea to get pre-approved for a mortgage on your next home as early as possible. Then, if you make a quick sale on your current property you won’t be left waiting for approval before you can get serious about buying a new home.

If you have a buyer for your current property but haven’t found a new home yet, you might be able to negotiate a long escrow period or a “sale and lease back” arrangement whereby you pay to stay in the house for a period after the sale. This probably isn’t worth jeopardizing a deal over though, so be prepared to look for temporary housing if the new owners want to take possession soon after closing.

If the opposite happens and you find yourself seriously interested in a new property before you have sold your current home, you could try the same arrangement in reverse. If the owner isn’t in a hurry to move – and especially if the market is slow – they may well entertain it.

Managing carefully timed closing dates between a simultaneous sale and purchase might be possible if you are staying in the same area, but it gets a lot more difficult if you are moving away from Florida. Some documents can be faxed, and some can even be signed in the UK in front of an approved notary, but many will have to be couriered around the country or even across the Atlantic to finalize deals. Fortunately, your agent(s) can take a lot of the strain out of this process by helping co-ordinate the paperwork.

The best insurance against timing problems when buying and selling is … cash. Having a cash reserve that will fund your commitments for two or three months minimum is highly recommended, and will probably avoid the need for a bridging loan – an expensive alternative. Short term bridging loans, temporary accommodation and storage costs can quickly eat into the profit you make from the increase in your property’s value, so it is always worth the effort to try and get your buying and selling closing dates as close as possible.