Buying or Selling a Home/lease

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Expert: - 1/7/2006


Question
I live in an apartment and if I buy a home can I break my lease before it is ended?  

Answer
Dear Liz;
The first thing you should do is to read the terms of your lease carefully. Most leases are 'soft' on this subject as long as they can lease the apartment quickly after you move out.  Breaking a lease is only a problem if there are many units that are emptyand the owners lose revenue.  Is your building full?  If so, the landlord may be much easier to work with.  Also, you might consider a sub-lease situation. (Again...check yur lease agreement for conditions and restrictions.)  If you cannot break your lease then the other option is to buy a home and do a late closing or have an early closing with the Sellers renting back from you to live there a few more months while you wait to move in.  The final option--which is the worst; is to pay up  your lease for the full amount to move out early.  I would not suggest that unless you have a great deal on a home that you can't pass up.  Perhaps this could be a good negotiating tool when you make an offer on the home.  Let the sellers know that it will cost you an extra $3,000(for example) to close early.  See if they would be willing to take that off of the price of the home or split the costs with you.

Regardless of what route you take, the most important thing is to let your landlord know early on what you would like to do and discuss options with him/her.  

Good luck and best wishes,
Jessica Bryan
Managing Broker
House to Hme Realty Services

Buying or Selling a Home

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Jessica Bryan

Expertise

buying and selling process such as:
General questions from first time buyers
How to market a home
Why choose a REALTOR
How do I find a REALTOR
Should I consider buying or selling without a REALTOR--how much can I save
Should I remodel or move
How much can I expect to gain by fixing up my home before selling
Helpful tips when selling
Helpful tips when buying
finding a good mortgage loan
what is the difference between banks, mortgage bankers, and mortgage brokers
Questions from the general public, people thinking about getting their real estate license, newly licensed.
Fellow professionals who have interests in networking and how to get started
What is a market evaluation and how does it differ from an appraisal what are the different loan programs
services a REALTOR can perform
when to use a lawyer
when to use escrow
what are the regional differences in the buying and selling process
what is the MLS and how does it work
how can the layman access information on the web--listings and other information
These are just a few of the questions. I can suggest that if I am unable to answer a question I will refer the inquiry to a source that can.

Experience

Anyone who is in this business and who dedicates oneself to professionalism has continued to take classes and along with it,additional credentials, awards and honors. I can list a host of them, but my greatest accomplishments happen to be those of getting first time buyers (who didn't think they could afford to buy a home)into a home of their dreams. The look on their faces when I hand over the keys is worth all of the hard work.

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