We finally sold our house in florida. This of course happened right after we decided to go ahead and sign a year lease on an apt. I hope someone will share their experince on a timeframe for house shopping. Our lease expires at the end of November and we cannot get out of it. We also need to give 60 days notice. When should I start looking at houses again? I have seen a few listed that I might be interested, but I am afraid to really go looking in case I might find the one before we could do anything. Any suggestions?? thanks for your help. oh yeah, we do want to buy! Do not like living in an apt at all.
I guess I need to change my name to almostredi2buy.
In my experience, a lease can be bought out. House hunting has taken friends of mine several months to a year, but this was before inventory over-load. May not take as long these days. If I found something say in June, I'd have to decide if it is worth it to buy down 5 months of lease. Also you could hedge another month off the seller which would be only 4 months-- from what I hear in today's market it could be well worth it.
thanks buddhaman for your help. I was thinking that we would probably start looking this summer. When we bought our house in florida, we were able to buy out of our apt lease. I asked here in Kansas, and was told we are responsible for the whole year, even if we could find someone to sublet it. I guess I will just keep an eye on whats for sale until we can really start househunting.
Is there the possibility of month to month rent for your apartment for a month or so after the lease expires? This is common is some areas of the country. When we purchased our first house in 1977, our lease was up in December, but our house wasn't available til middle of January. We were able to extend our lease for one month. See if this is an option for you in case you need to do that if you find the perfect house.
I am in Kansas too! Can I ask where you are? You can PM me if you'd like... I'm in Wichita. It's always taken us about 90 days from start to finish- househunting through closing. I am fairly particular about what I want, but we also are easily able to look past stuff we don't like that is fixabe- so 90 days usually works for us. I'm sorry I have no advice on the apartment thing- I have not rented in over 10 years, so I have no words of wisdom. But- welcome to Kansas!
thanks everyone. I was curious on how others planned this out. I think we will start checking out what is available this summer or fall. And the month to month lease might be a good idea. I guess I will just have to be patient and wait.
According to Judge Judy (the Supremest of Courts!) landlords she often deals with (and this could vary from state to state) have a duty to mitigate damages. So if you found your dream house at 6 months to go on your lease, and you had a good replacement tenant, or gave enough notice that with a little effort on the part of the landlord s/he could find one and lose no money, then the landlord is not permitted to charge you the remaining months on the lease. S/he can charge you a penalty, and if the sublet didn't cover the full rent, you would have to pay it. Or if the rental market turns sour and the landlord and you can't find anyone decent to rent it, you'd have to pay. But the point is that, if you believe a TV show, you may not be as locked in as the contract seems to say.
There's usually a clause in the lease about terminating early. Sometimes landlords THINK you owe them the full term, but legally you don't. You might run it by a local attorney. (Although I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be on the hook if the place was rented out to someone else.)
We were month to month, with 60 days notice, when we bought. Looked for a year and a half. One house we made an offer on, the sellers wanted to rent back for several months while they looked for a place, which would have worked out great for all of us, but we couldn't agree on a price. We just ended up paying for both the rental and our house for a month when we did buy.
You never really know what you're going to find until you start looking. Someone may accept 60 days to close, someone may want to rent back for awhile, and you may not find what you want right away anyway. Your perfect house may not come on to the market until closer to the end of your lease or it may be waiting for you now. Only way to find out is to start looking!
Leases can be got out of. It might cost you, but - they can be got out of. Just ask the office the different ways you can "break" your lease or convert to a month-to-month lease.
To answer your question - start looking! You are in the catbird seat because you aren't under a strict time deadline. IME, it seems like it is customary for most closings to occur 30 - 60 days from contract date, so you should be pretty good if you have to give 60 days notice on your lease. You may have some overlap - a week, a few days - where you are paying for both your apt and your house - not necessarily a bad thing. Give you some cushion for your move.
