You Signed With a Builder and Your Current Home Has Not Sold: Two Clocks Running at Once

The clock on the new home. A builder gives an estimated completion date. Estimated means it is what they expect, not a promise that it will be that day. It can move, and what the contract says is what counts. What is certain is that the builder is not going to hold off until you sell.

The clock on your home. It sells when the right buyer shows up, at the right price and with the loan approved. Nobody can fix that date exactly.

When the two clocks run without being coordinated, one of two things happens. The new home is ready and yours has not sold, or yours sells and the new one is not finished yet.

These questions get asked beforehand, and you ask for the answers on paper:

1. What happens if my home does not sell in time? What the contract requires and what options there are.
2. Which deposits are already at stake? Which ones come back, which ones do not, and under what conditions.
3. Which completion date is estimated and which is firm? Whether there is a deadline in the contract or only an expectation.
4. What happens if construction is delayed? And where do I live in the meantime, if I have already sold?
5. How long can I hold out? This one is for you, not for the builder.

If the contract leaves you with doubts, have an attorney review it before you sign. I am a real estate agent, not an attorney, and I do not tell you what each clause means.

Many people sign first because they liked the new home. Then they list their home and hope.

I would turn it around. Before signing, work out the plan for selling your home:

• What it is worth today and what is left after the costs of selling. You see the costs of selling on paper before you sign.
• What the lender says you can buy with that.
• When your home would go on the market so that the sale date and the estimated date of the new home land as close together as possible.
• What you do if the sale closes before the construction is done, for example negotiating to stay in your home for a while after closing, or having a place lined up.
• What you do if the construction finishes before the sale.

With that on paper, you sign the construction contract knowing which clock you can handle and which one you cannot.

I can help you build the sale plan and make sure your closing date is talked through alongside the estimated date of the new home. I cannot promise that your home will sell by a date, or that the builder will finish when they said.

What I can do is make sure neither clock catches you without a plan B.

A builder home is bought with two dates in your head, theirs and yours, and both get planned before you sign. After you sign, what you can change is much less.

That is why the plan on paper comes first. It holds your number, your closing date, the builder's estimated date and what you do if one of the two moves.

Which of the two clocks worries you more?

Send me the estimated date the builder gave you on WhatsApp, or tell me you have not signed yet, and I will tell you how the sale plan for your home looks alongside it. No commitment, nothing to sign.

I am Veronica Yeary, a REALTOR in Dallas-Fort Worth. I sell your home and find the next one with a single plan, and the whole transaction is with me, start to finish.

469-441-8890 · call, text or WhatsApp · veronica@veronicayeary.com