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Sometimes, making the decision to sell your house and buy a new home is relatively easy. Sometimes it is not.
 What will you gain by moving? What will you lose?
Get out a piece of paper. Draw a line almost halfway down to the middle, then put a circle about the size of a quarter at the bottom of that line. After that, continue the line down to the bottom of the page.
On the left side, write down everything you expect to gain by moving. Do the kids fight over bathroom time? Do you run out of hot water? Do you need a better backyard atmosphere for barbecues? Better schools? Better neighborhood? More rooms? More living space? Bigger garage? Better kitchen?
| Get your family to help.
Can you fix it by improving your present house? Do you want to?
Write four things down at the top of the right column. Current mortgage. Sale of home. Moving. New home. If you have a second mortgage or home equity line on your present home, write that down, too.
Before you do anything else, you have to know what it would take to pay off your existing mortgage. This will include your balance, any pay-off fees, approximately 30 days of interest, and (heaven forbid!) any prepayment penalties.. Most people forget to include the interest.
You get this from your present mortgage company's loan service department. Often, you just have to punch buttons on your phone and they will fax it or mail it to you directly.
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 "I'm looking at a house that has two roofs already, so needs a new roof instead of just a repair. Who should be responsible for replacing the roof?"
Answer: That is something you negotiate as part of the purchase. For example, you would offer less if you were going to take delivery of a house (
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