The “trade-up” of a home works, and from a recent experience, proves it works well. One of our customers owned a home in Miami Shores that they bought in 2001 – a 3/2 with a pool. This starter home, updated in 2000, had become cramped, with their growing family and respective in-laws. Our job was to sell it quickly and find them a 5/3 with a pool in the same area.

Needless to say we are in one of the worst housing and financial crises since the great depression. In this market, we weren’t sure it could be done. I went over the challenges we would face, including the possibility of them having to rent temporarily.

Our staff began marketing their property in September 2008, a month before the banking meltdown. We lowered the price of the home in December. By April, we werecontemplating taking it off the market until things improve but springtime showed promise with a few showings in May. By June 2009, we had two offers and a subsequent contract.

We were occasionally going out with our Sellers to look at potential homes to purchase. As time passed there were more homes showing up in their price range. My customer fell in love with a house that was over their budget; however, while we waited for the contingencies on the sale of their property to be completed, their dream home had abig price reduction. The stars were aligning!

The biggest uncertainty we faced was the value of the taxes on the new home, because as of that date the County Tax Appraiser had the market value at just above one million. This tax bill would make the budget for the new house impossible. So, we started to research how much the bill would be after portability and it was still too high, but after conversations with the County and speculation that Taxable Property Values were going to be lower in 2009, and again in 2010, my customer felt comfortable enough to go for it.

I am happy to report that the market value for the homethey purchased went down considerably, lower than any of us projected. Now, they will be locked-in to this new market value making this the perfect ending to their story.