You want to buy a new home! Great!  You are ready to sell your first home! Great! Now, how do you get those 2 things to work together so you don’t end up moving back home with mom and dad?  It can be a tricky time, but if you have a great Realtor, they can make the process as easy as possible.  

Do You Need To Sell To Buy?

Because buying a home while trying to sell your house at the same time can be difficult, you definitely have to plan ahead of time. This can help you avoid stressful situations and save you thousands of dollars. The truth is that if you don’t properly plan, you can end up with 2 storage units and living in a hotel between closings. Trust me: no one wants to be in that position.

When you are buying and selling a house, there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of those are contingent on one another. One of the most important parts of this process is timing. You need to properly time the purchase and the sale of your home to make sure that you have a smooth transition. 

The first question you need to ask yourself is if you need to sell your current home to obtain financing to buy your next home. If the answer is no, then you have a lot more flexibility in this process. If you do need to sell before you buy, it becomes a lot more challenging, but can still be done.  

Get An Offer On Your Home First

You do not want to be under contract for a new house without having a contract to sell your current house. You have to clear the debt with your current property before the bank will allow you to buy your new house. This ensures that you can purchase the new home under the same budget as your current one.  

Having your current home under contract before shopping is also going to allow you to have more purchasing power with your next property. Your offer will look more credible because you have already gone through the contingencies and removed a lot of the risk for the seller. You’ll then look like a much more qualified purchaser.

Put yourselves in the shoes of the seller. Would you want an offer from someone who has not sold their home yet—which is contingent on selling that home to complete the transaction for your home? That is exactly why it weakens your purchasing power. If you are unable to sell, then the contract falls through, which may create a domino effect where they also cannot move.  

Timing The Transactions

Once your home is listed, start looking at new properties and what’s available for you in the market. You want to familiarize yourself because, once you accept an offer, you need to be just as aggressive going after the purchase of your new home to make sure the timing works.

Knowing what you want and what you can afford will narrow down your search and allow you to only see properties that fit your needs.  If you need to move quickly, you may want to look at vacant houses which tend to have more flexibility since the owners have already moved.  

Avoiding Homelessness

Another thing we want to take into consideration is the amount of time it takes for that transaction to complete. From the time an offer is accepted to when the transaction closes is different everywhere.   It could be 2 weeks to 2 months, or more, depending on the circumstances.  What you may want to do is pad your selling date by a few weeks to give yourself more time to look for your new house if you have specific needs.

One thing we absolutely want to avoid is poor timing. This happens all the time. Someone sells their house, but their new home won’t be ready for a week or more.  They end up in this weird void of hotels and friend’s couches before they can get into their new home.

Timing is important to keep in mind because you will essentially be moving twice.  You will also have to pay for storage and the movers to come twice and so moving has now cost you a lot more than you originally anticipated.  

Let The Professionals Help With Alternative Methods

When you find yourself trying to time the perfect move, it is best if you are consulting with a professional. Certified Owner Advocate agents are trained in helping homeowners trade in their home through investor-backed Trade In programs. These Owner Advocates can help you find your dream home and you can make an offer without hesitation. You buy your home with investor funds under a contract. Homeowners pay back investors once they sell their original home. You can find an Owner Advocates agent near you.