Your family is growing, you're making more money, or your current home just isn't cutting it anymore. So, you want to move into a bigger, nicer home in the best neighborhood with the best schools and you won't take anything less than perfect. In the real estate biz, we call this "trading up". It's exciting but you need to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. Here a few things you must know or do to properly execute The Trade Up. 

1. WAIT! 

You're about to buy a house that is worth MORE than your current one. More than likely, you will have to get a home loan for this purchase. Banks, credit unions, and independent mortgage brokers must have a contract on your current house before they can approve you to buy your new house. Simply you must sell before you can buy. So WAIT before you really start shopping and talk to a Realtor (preferably this one) to get your best options on the sale of your current home. In most cases, we'll even go ahead and write you a minimum offer that you can take to your lender so you can go ahead get your next house under contract because we're confident we'll sell yours fast for market value. 

2. Know What You Got

Now that you know you'll have to sell your current home first, you need to know what it is worth. The best and most accurate way is to have an expert visit the home and assess condition/upgrades and compare that to similar properties recently sold. An expert can also give you recommendations on what renovations or upgrades you should make to increase so you can increase your asking price. So the sooner you meet with an expert the more likely it is you'll get more money from a sale. Always hurts to procrastinate. If you work with TSB, we always do home value assessments and upgrade recommendations for any prospective seller absolutely free with no obligation to list with us. 

3. Perfect The Home Search

Okay by now you have an offer on your current home or we wrote you an offer so you can start shopping. You're a modern day consumer so you're going online to look at homes. And why not! There are great resources online like Zillow, Realtor.com, or this website. However, not every home in the MLS gets posted on these sites. Also, with your job and responsibilities you can't possibly search 100% of the time. So this what you do: You get with an agent you trust and have them set up MLS listing notifications for exactly what you want and qualify for. If you're not familiar the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) , it is the service that Realtors are required to use to share their listings. This way when any home hits the market you that you want and can buy you'll be automatically notified and your professional can make sure you get immediate access. Too many people miss out homes because they weren't working with a Realtor and they were too late. If you are thinking about moving and want more info on neighborhoods or the current market, contact us to set up a consultation with one of our buyer specialists. 

Hopefully you found this helpful. If you want any questions answered about real estate or living in the Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Navarre, Milton, or Cantonment areas post on our Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsandyblanton and we'll do our best to answer.