How to Buy and Sell a Home at the Same Time 

Just about everyone knows that selling your home is a stressful task. Even for those who have never sold a home before, the idea of selling your home is no walk in the park. But how are you supposed to juggle buying a new home at the same time?

More often than not people sell their homes because they need more space, less space, or because they need to move somewhere new for their family or their career. So typically if someone is selling their home they are also looking to buy a home.

However, doing both at the same time is the perfect storm for stress. There are legal processes that need to be handled, appointments, inspections, remodeling, cleaning, upkeep, open houses, walk throughs and that is just for selling your house.

While trying to manage all of that you are going to be looking at new homes which means open houses, offers, negotiations, inspections, appointments, mortgage lenders, appraisals, and more. It can be difficult to juggle both especially on your own.

Always Sell First!

Looking at new homes early on can be a recipe for disaster. If this is the first time that you will be selling your home while also looking for a new home you must remember that financially you should always sell your home first!

It’s easy to find yourself perusing the internet looking at home listings especially once you’ve decided that you want to sell your home but this can be dangerous. It is all too easy for you to find “the perfect home”. Finding that home for sale that has just the right amount of space, that looks great, and is in the perfect area for you and your family.

This is when you start to feel the fear that you’re going to miss out on your dream home if you don’t jump on the opportunity right now. Then you start to talk about it with your significant other and try to figure out how you can make this work while trying to sell your current home.

Trust that you are not alone. It is totally normal to go through this, however, the last thing you want to do is buy a home before you sell your current one and here’s why.

Your Mortgage

If you try to purchase a new home before selling your current home your new mortgage will be more difficult to be approved for. The mortgage lender will look at the fact that you are still paying on your current mortgage and see that as a red flag.

You also have to ask when will your house actually sell? Even if other homes in the area have been selling like hot cakes that doesn’t mean that yours will too. There are many different things that need to be factored in.

While trying to sell your old home you might find some things that are seriously wrong that need to be fixed before you can sell it. But if you somehow got approved for your new home’s mortgage, how are you going to be able to afford both mortgages as well as the necessary renovations on your old home?

The point is that you never know what is going to happen. Instead of putting yourself and your family in a situation that could end very badly, error on the side of caution. This home might seem like the perfect new home right now is only because it is there right now. New houses are listed on the market every day. This might seem like the perfect home today but there will always be more possibly even more perfect.

Get Your Home Ready to Sell

You need to make sure that your home is ready to be put up on the market before you actually put it on the market. It might seem tempting to just put it up on the market while you work on getting it ready, however, this can be a bad move. Potential buyers who would have normally been very interested will take one look at how the home looks right now and decide they don’t like it.

Once you have finished getting the place all ready and looking its best those same buyers continue to see your listing but pass right over because they have already deemed your home not right for them.

Get an agent and put your home on the market! Hiring an agent is always a good idea. They are someone who knows the tricks of the trade and what hoops you are going to need to jump through. They know what is necessary and what isn’t. They also understand the process of needing to purchase a new home while selling your current home.

An agent can help you understand how to better juggle both the selling of your old home while you are looking to purchase your next home.

Sell Sell Sell & Look for Your New Home

Letting your real estate agent take control of the home selling process means that you get to use this time to look at new homes for yourself. While your agent is setting up open houses you can go to some open houses of your own. Spend this time focusing on your next move but don’t forget that your home needs to sell first.

One thing that you can do when find a home that you want to put an offer on is make an offer with a sale contingency. This simply means that your offer will go through as long as you are able to sell your current home. The only downside to this is that if there are other offers being put in on the home you like making a contingency such as this can potentially cause the sellers to reject your offer and go with someone else’s.

Find a Temporary Rental

Hopefully with the help of your agent you will be able to find a balance in which you are able to sell your home and purchase your new one without a gap. However, life doesn’t always work so seamlessly.

If you find yourself needing to, you can temporarily put your belongings in storage, use a short time rental or even stay in a hotel depending on how long the gap ends up being. Usually if you time it out just right at the most the gap should be about a month long but more often than not it will only be a few weeks or even only a few days that you need to wait before you can close on your new home and finally receive the keys!