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Updated almost 7 years ago on . Most recent reply
My lease ends in 4 months.Is it too early to start making offers?
Hi, this is my first post on BP. My apartment lease ends September 5th and my plan is to house hack a duplex with an FHA loan. This will be my first ever rental property and in a perfect world, I would hope to not be paying both a mortgage and my apartment rent for an extended period of time although some degree of that is likely unavoidable. However, that would still be far more preferable than being stuck moving into some other apartment on a month to month basis while I wait. I have heard that it can take around 30-45 days to close on an accepted offer with bank financing and I know it will take a considerable amount of time making offers to get a good deal accepted. Considering all that, do you think right now (just over 4 months left on my apartment lease) is a smart time to go ahead and begin making offers? I've done a large amount of research and I am ready to put my gained knowledge into action as long as the timing is right. Any input or advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for any help!
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Now would be a good time to start making offers. It's better to be a month or two early than to have an issue where the closing date hasn't happened and your lease is up.
If your market isn't hot, you'll have an easier time getting an offer accepted. When I bought my primary residence I was in the same situation - I started looking in May of 2012 and my lease was up at the end September (my roommate was staying but I was leaving and his relatives were supposed to move in).
The L.A. market was beginning to get hot and after maybe half a dozen offers I finally got one accepted at the beginning of September. Luckily, my roommate at the time who was staying in the apartment was cool enough to let me stay three or so weeks longer and so I wasn't totally screwed.
And the wild thing is it was a cash purchase and so once the offer was accepted things moved quickly (the process took maybe five weeks - they had to get the renter out of my soon-to-be house as well - the renter wasn't a problem but it took some time - thank goodness my realtor was an all-star).
Point is, it tends to always take longer than expected and so looking now is ideal - especially since the housing market tends to heat up in April.