Relocating? Fire-sale safety is easy if you stop, drop and roll
If you’re buying a house because of a corporate relocation or military transfer, you can prevent fire-sale madness easily. Stop your whimsical real estate searches, drop your rush to eccentric housing and roll into a successful home purchase.
Stop and drop. Stop and think: What are your housing needs and what’s available in the real estate market? Will you be transferred within three to five years of buying a house? If you move again, will you have to sell your current house in order to buy a house in a new location?
If you answered yes to the last two questions, then drop any rush to buy eccentric housing. Drop a 
house with 100 steps leading to the front door or an exotic entertainment room. Drop a house that backs up to a busy street.
“I try to hold standards for all of my clients, relocating or not. I have a list of houses I advise them against - a house shouldn’t back up to a power line or a busy street (for example). … I had a client I was working with for three months who was a corporate transferee.
“I told my client the type of properties he should and shouldn’t look at, but he did end up purchasing a property that backed to nothing at the time. The property ended up backing to a busy road - four lanes. I listed the property in January of last year and it is still listed.” -Jean Bryant, real estate agent in Allen Texas.
Roll into properties that will hold a value. There isn’t a crystal ball to show you how much your house might appreciate over time. You can protect yourself by working with a real estate agent who is willing to do the research on the neighborhood, the subdivision and the house.
“Make sure to focus on the areas that have good resale value. Ignore high-inventory areas. High inventory might be a reflection of value.” -Jack Dabney, real estate agent in Nashville Tennessee.
Relocating? Fire-sale safety is easy if you stop, drop and roll.
Posted by Rebecca D. Levinson
This is sound advice whenever you buy a house, whether or not you expect to be relocated. You can’t predict the future, so you should prepare for the unexpected.
There are many reasons people sell their homes unexpectedly: divorce, marriage, children, illness in the family. When one of these situations comes up, you don’t want to be chained to a house you can’t sell, if you have to.
February 3rd, 2009 at 6:48 am