How To Buy And Sell A House At The Same Time

By Kurt Real Estate Nov 23, 2019

For anyone that isn’t a first time homeowner, buying a new house generally involves the equally challenging, time-consuming, and somewhat stressful process of selling your current house. While home shopping is exciting, this thought alone can cause buyers to hold off on entering the market. The anticipation of prepping, staging, open houses, showings, and the whirlwind of accepting offers and escrow can be overwhelming. Nevertheless, for many motivated buyers, whether it’s a relocation or a desperate need for more room to accommodate a growing family, waiting isn’t an option.

Before diving in head first, we recommend you follow these few tips to guide yourself through the process and keep yourself sane while you embark on the journeys of both a buyer and a seller.

Understand the market. Make sure you have solid understanding of the housing markets both where your property is currently located and where you’re looking to move. Don’t make the mistake of calling it a day the minute you find the “right” house that meets your needs. Prepare yourself with several options and understand the markets of each. This will help you to strategize on multiple levels, including your budgeting.

Plan your schedule. In a perfect world, the day you accept an offer on your house, your offer is being accepted on your new home. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. You’ll need to decide which needs to be done first – buying or selling. For most, selling first is going to be key, because the funds from the sale of the home are going towards the purchase of the new house. Therefore, by selling first, it will be easier to get a mortgage. Though this could mean needing a place to live for a couple months, you can always negotiate a lease-back option into the offer. Once you’re in escrow, you will also be viewed as a much stronger buyer when submitting offers.

Know your financial options. As previously mentioned, you can always write into the purchase agreement a lease-back option allowing you some extra time to find a new home and move. Additionally, the offer can be contingent on the successful sale of your home.

A bridge loan can also be helpful in this situation when you can’t afford a second down payment or need the proceeds from the sale in order to make a purchase. A bridge loan essentially allows you to own two homes simultaneously.