I put my house on the market to purchase another house I fell in love with. My house is not selling, despite it being staged, painted, repaired, reduced in price etc... The realtor is baffled why no bonafied offers to purchase the house. There were two low-ball offers, I could not afford to accept. If I cannot get the house of my dreams, as time is ticking away on the contract, can I decide not to sell at all? I do not wish to spend the summer showing my house. I listed on 3/5 and contract expires 9/5.

do you have a conditional purchase offer accepted by the sellers of 'your dream property'?

If you took your property off the market, how would you obtain your 'dream home'?

The sellers agreed to my offer, contingent on the sale of my house, but I have to secure financing by June 15 to close on June 30. I cannot secure financing without a contract on my house. I cant even get the "dream house" appraised without a contract on my house. My buyer's agent stated I can request an extension, but I am worried that would be a waste of time for all involved. The sellers accepted my offer with my house-sale contingency because I offered the full listing price.
The longer my house is on the market with no results, the less the other house looks like a "dream" to me. I am willing to stay where I am. In two months I have had approximately 75 potential buyers look at my house, with no results. And if I reduce my asking price any more I will not be able to come up with the 20% down my pre-qual was based on.
I am also worried because my son attends a private school. I need to decide now whether he will be attending again in September, because deposit monies are due soon.

I'm not sure what your market is like and I don't have all of the details, but wanted to give you some options. It's time to think more creatively on this:

1. Have you done another market analysis to see what the homes are selling for now? If you do that, you may be able to sell faster by pricing 10% below the closest home to yours.

2. You can do a lease option on the new or old house. A lease option is where the buyer/renter pays a down payment for the option to buy the home within a certain period of time. If the option is exercised, the payments are credited to the purchase price. If you have a nice home and can find a good property manager, you can lease your home out for a year or so until you sell it. I'm not sure how motivated the other seller is, but perhaps they can let you put a 6 month option on the house for the price of a 1-5% down payment.

3. Your agent can contact local investment clubs to see if an investor would be interested in purchasing your property. I'm not sure how much equity you have or need.

4. The investment clubs often have investors who loan people money. You can get interim financing on the new home through private investors or banks. It's called a bridge loan. It's not cheap, but can help you get your dream home. Search for "hard money loan" or "bridge loan" (sometimes called "swing loan") in Google.

http://www.creonline.com/
http://www.reiclub.com/

Thanks those are great ideas. I am going to research the bridge loan now. I am also going to speak with my realtor about a new market analysis.
I live on the Jersey Shore in Ocean County. The area is suppossed to be "hot" for real estate, but it hasn't been for me.

Try posting on Craisglist too. I know someone who just bought a house from a seller who posted there. It was a different state from mine, so I didn't mind as much. :-)

Anyway, Craigslist listings are free in my area and you can even post pictures for free. Just don't let unqualified strangers in your house. Be careful and carefully screen each interested party. Hopefully, the buyer will have an agent. http://newjersey.craigslist.org/

Duplicate.

Thanks, i'll look on craigslist. I did learn that I cannot get a bridge loan without a contract on my house. But I will look into getting an equity line loan for the down payment.

Sorry, but that is NOT what Lease Option normally is.

In most states these are two separate documents. In most states, real estate agents can not write up and Option... that is considered the Practice of Law. The Lease should NEVER refer to the Option or your Lease could be considered to be an Equitable Interest and revert to a CFD in some states.

The Option Price is not a Down Payment... it is the Fee for being granted the Option. It May or MAY NOT be applied to the agreed Purchase Price. It depends on how the Option is worded. It will vary by area as will the amount which varies between 1% and 7%. If the Option is not exceurised... the fee non-refundable in most cases.

The Rent/ Lease Payments again May or MAY NOT be applied to the purchase price. Almost NEVER is the entire amount applied.... generally only the amount that would represent the amount paid to principle be applied... as you know that is generally a very small portion of early mortgage payments and often not worth the effort to calculate. Adjustment in the agreed Sale Price are far more common. Full application of monthly rental payments would not be logical unless the agreed list price were greatly inflated. Options also have a life time and terminate if not exercised within that period.

But, most importantly, do I have the right not to show my house throughout the summer? Can the listing agent force me to show the house because I have a contract with the agency?

Just because it isn't done 100% of the time in your area doesn't mean it's not a lease option. I guess it could be because of the buyer's market, but we most often credit payments and the option fee towards the purchase price. Your area may be different and, of course, each contract and home is different. If you live in a highly-desirable area, you may have better options.

There are many ways to structure the deal, but I wanted to quickly give some options for the seller to research. This site explains the option the way I did, but goes in depth.

Here are two other good resources.
http://homebuying.about.com/od/leaseoption/
http://www.ehow.com/how_5453_lease-option-home.html

P.S.
Lease option laws may be changing soon and our investment circles have been heavily discussing them here.