It’s never been easy to buy when you have to sell. Two-thirds of sellers need the equity in their house to purchase a new home, which makes timing critical. In addition, there’s the added complexity of having to live through repairs and showings.
Buying when you have a house to sell has become even more stressful given today’s competitive market and concerns about social distancing. Pre-approval letters can’t compete with all cash offers, which puts a vast majority of homebuyers who are also home sellers at a significant disadvantage. In addition, while living through repairs and showing may have been a hassle pre-Covid, today sellers don’t want strangers in their homes and buyers are just as hesitant to tour a home that’s still occupied.
This was the case for Vanessa Sutton and her husband Sebastian of Little Elm, Texas. After moving to a smaller home several years ago, the Suttons decided it wasn’t quite right for them. They wanted to find a new home, but quickly realized they wouldn’t be able to win making a contingent offer in the competitive Dallas real estate market.
In July, their agent, Gigi Olivo of JP & Associates Realtors, suggested the Knock Home SwapTM, a new solution designed specially for homeowners like the Suttons.
Offered exclusively through agents who have been trained as Knock Certified Agents, the Knock Home Swap provides a fully integrated and competitively priced mortgage, an interest-free bridge loan to cover the down payment on the new home as well as mortgage payments and up to $25,000 for home prep and repairs on the old house so it sells for the highest possible price.
For the Suttons, it meant they could make a non-contingent offer on the home they wanted before even listing their home for sale. They were able to close on their new home and sell their old one in a couple of weeks. Because they could move at their convenience, they had the luxury of being able to complete a few remodeling projects before moving in and closing on their old house.
According to Vanessa Sutton, the Home Swap made the process of buying and selling much less stressful than the traditional route she and her husband had gone through in the past.
Olivo credits her brokerage firm, JP & Associates, for making the Home Swap available to her and her colleagues.
“As Realtors, our job is to offer solutions. We have to be creative and innovative in this market, and the Home Swap is one of those solutions,” she said. “We were able to find the perfect home for Vanessa and her husband, and the Home Swap provided the convenience of buying before selling and the certainty of writing and submitting a non-contingent offer.”
In addition to allowing agents to better serve their clients, the Home Swap provides an opportunity for an agent to earn commissions on both the purchase of the new home and the sale of the old house. Although agents are required to complete a brief online training program to become certified, there is no cost for agents or brokers to participate in the Home Swap program.
For Knock Co-founder and CEO Sean Black, the Home Swap brings him one step closer to realizing the company’s mission of alleviating the many pain points that come with buying and selling a home.
“We are using technology to partner with the industry to revolutionize how people buy and sell homes,” Black said. “The Knock Home Swap not only brings more certainty and convenience to the homebuying process, it facilitates a much smoother and faster transaction. It’s a win for both the agent and the consumer.”
Learn more about the Knock Home Swap and how to become a certified agent.