Move strategy
Should you buy before selling?
By Doug Richman · about 5 min
Every move-up seller faces the same sequencing problem: buy first and risk carrying two homes, or sell first and risk having nowhere to land. There is no universally right answer, but there is usually a right answer for a specific household, budget, and market moment.
Buying first
Buying first means you move once, on your schedule, and never write an offer contingent on your own sale. The cost is carrying both properties until the old one closes, and qualifying for the new mortgage while the old one still exists. Lenders have products for exactly this (bridge loans, HELOCs opened before you list, and programs that count expected sale proceeds), but every one of them prices in the risk, and all of them get harder to arrange after your home is already under contract, so the financing conversation has to happen first.
Selling first
Selling first maximizes your negotiating position as a buyer and puts your equity in hand. The risk is the gap. Three tools shrink it: a rent-back agreement where you close and then lease your old home back from the buyer for a defined period, a longer closing negotiated up front, and short-term housing as the honest fallback. Rent-backs are common enough in South Florida that buyers rarely balk at reasonable terms, especially in slower seasons.
Contingent offers, honestly
An offer contingent on selling your current home is the cheapest option and the weakest, and how weak depends entirely on the market segment. In a slow segment a seller may happily take a contingent offer from a well-priced listing that is already live. In a competitive one it loses to the first clean offer. The preparation that makes any of these paths work is the same: have your current home genuinely ready to list, financing pre-arranged, and both sides of the move priced with real numbers before you commit to either sequence.