The nature of the real estate industry dictates that homes are usually sold and bought in a chain, which means that you move out of your home at roughly the same time as your new home is moved out of. But circumstances sometimes work differently, requiring you to leave your home while you wait for the previous owners of your bought property to arrange their affairs and move out themselves. In these circumstances, you’ll find that you’re inconveniently between homes – but this guide has been put together to show you how to best deal with that situation.
Table of Contents
Gain Clarity
Usually, you won’t have planned to be between homes. So, if you suddenly find yourself searching for a short-term rental property, or even a hotel suite for a month or two, it will have come as a bit of a surprise. It’s in that circumstance that you should try your hardest to gain clarity on the situation before you make any short-term plans. Ask all involved parties for guarantees on when they will be moving, so that you can make plans based on the evidence around you. If necessary, talk to your attorney to see if there will be any legal precedent for you to sue if things don’t pan out your way.
Get Storage
When you’ve moved out of your home, you’ll have all your worldly possessions in trucks ready to drive to your new property. But if that new property is full of the possessions of the previous owner, you’ll quickly need to find a place to store your things. This useful guide will help you understand storage space size for different household items, including even your vehicles. The sooner you get all your things stored, the sooner you’ll be able to look for a short-term or even medium-term place to live.
Living Space
You’ll hopefully have some clue as to how long you’ll be waiting for your newly bought property to be fully vacated and ready for you to move in. That might be two weeks, a month, or three months – and these different spells of waiting might entail different housing solutions. For short waits, a hotel or motel is usually acceptable for you and your family, but any wait longer than a month could become frustrating if you’re living within a hotel without access to a kitchen. In these cases, find short-term lets, or even vacation rentals such as Airbnb, to get you settled more permanently.
Finally Moving
After all this hassle, you will eventually be able to move into your new home. Whatever the length of the delay, you’ll be able to move out of your rented property or hotel and into a home that has been left empty for you to move your things into. The extra costs brought about by your pause between homes may well be covered by insurance – or you can speak with your lawyer to see if you’re due legal compensation for the delays you’re not responsible for.
There you have it: a four-step process to take yourself through if you’re ever in the position of being between homes in the future.
