Jonathan:
All right, Brett. So, in the past we’ve talked about should I buy, is this the right time to buy a home? And now let’s flip that question and say, okay, should I sell?

Brett:
That’s right.

Jonathan:
Well, that to me is an even more complicated answer.

Brett:
I think that’s way more complicated than the buy question at this particular point.

Jonathan:
Absolutely. The first thing I’m going to ask you, if you ask me that question is maybe what is your plan for after you sell it? You moving out of state? You’re going to try to buy up, upsize your home? You’re going to try to downsize your home? Are you going to go and rent somewhere? What is your plan, right? We got to unpack that first. The next question I’m going to ask you is if you plan to buy something, how exactly do you plan to do that? In other words, are you going to sell your house before you buy and rent something short term, right? Are you going to buy your house before you sell your house and carry two notes-

Brett:
Yeah, through that bridge loan scenario, or use a HELOC to finance one or the other.

Jonathan:
Right, exactly. Or just flat out carry two notes.

Brett:
Flat out carry it.

Jonathan:
And so there’s a lot of questions that follow the answer to that question. The other thing I’m going to ask you is, especially right now, have you been in your home at least two years? Because the last two years, prices have gone up so much that if you don’t find yourself exempt from that property-

Brett:
Capital gains tax.

Jonathan:
… capital gains tax.

Brett:
Could be staggering.

Jonathan:
Huge. It could be massive. So let’s make sure that you’re not shooting yourself in the foot and paying a substantial chunk of that gained equity to the federal government.

Brett:
To the government, that’s right. Nobody wants to give their money to the IRS.

Jonathan:
No, absolutely not. So we’ll go through several of those questions with you when we’re evaluating this. But I think the biggest thing, kind of circling back, is what are you going to do after you sell? Like, what’s your whole plan? We want to sit down with folks and talk through beginning to end, right?

Brett:
Sure.

Jonathan:
Like where do you want to end up at the end of this journey?

Brett:
That’s right. And there’s a lot of variables that fit into that equation, and time is always of the essence when it comes to real estate.

Jonathan:
Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think that you’re making a mistake if you wait to sell, except that as we talked about in a previous video, the affordability of the next home is going to continue to-

Brett:
That changes.

Jonathan:
… drop.

Brett:
Yeah, that’ll decline. Right.

Jonathan:
Yep, absolutely. So if you have questions about that, give us a shout. We’ll sit down with you and lay it all out there, draw you a roadmap, get you in touch with the right people to help out and figure it out.

Brett:
Give you that equity health check.

Jonathan:
Absolutely. Yep. Just get the annual real estate physical. How about that?

Brett:
Yeah, that’s right.

Jonathan:
Only, no coughing.