Advice on Selling then Buying personal home.

[Louis Mannikko]

Good morning everyone!  Hope you all are having (or will be having) a wonderful day.

I am admittedly a newbie at the real estate game. So I am hoping some of you seasoned pros can help me move in the right direction.  Here is the scenario..

We would like to sell our home in Pompano Beach, FL and buy a distressed home that we could "fix up" to our liking.  We have had a few realtors come by and suggest that our home could sell anywhere from $280k (as is) to $320k (new kitchen and baths(2)).  The home has a new roof (more on this in a minute), new floors and a new A/C (I'm in Florida, so this is like gold).

The roof was financed through a PACE program.  For those who don't know what that is, its basically a private loan, subsidized by the local government and paid back in the form of a tax lien on your non ad valorem taxes.  So the loan is not against the individual (me), its against the property, and stays with the property until it is paid off ( so a new owner would need to take that on, but they also get the new roof).  I know this wasn't ideal, but it was the only way I could pay for a fairly expensive project, that HAD to get done (old roof was 50 years old).   based on the equity I have in my home, I could pay that off if it was a) necessary and b) required by the buyers to make the sale.

In any event, based on the numbers I have about 220k on my mortgage, so I am sitting at a fairly strong position equity wise. Problem is, realtors commissions will eat up 6% ($17k) of that if I have a buying and selling agent. Plus closing costs of around $5K-$8K (think this is close?)  And If I have to pay off the PACE loan, thats about $20k.  So you can see the equity is getting chipped away here at an alarming rate.

On top of that, we are trying to find a steal for another property.  Were looking for a 3+/2+ home in Jupiter, FL that is somewhere around the $200 - $250k range that we could put $100k into and make our "forever home".  Which is proving very difficult as well.

My questions to the forum:

1) Is it worth it to have both a buying and selling agent?

2) Should I pay off the PACE loan, or transfer that cost to the new owner? Do i have to disclose it? or is it something the title agency should bring up?

3) Should I sink some more money into the property and update the kitchen and bath to try to get to the $320 value?  ( I think I could do this for about $10k-$12k)

4) Does anyone have any good websites for foreclosed homes, auction homes?

5) Does anyone know a good Realtor in Jupiter, FL that sepcializes in Foreclosed, REO or auction homes?

Thanks.  Please let me know if you have any more questions.  I'll be happy to share more specifics on here or in a private message.