Should You Buy Before Selling Your Home

It's the question we hear more than almost any other from clients who are ready to move but not sure where to start: should you buy your next home before you sell your current one? There's no universal answer, so we sat down with Mike Maier of Advantage Mortgage, a lender we trust with our own clients, to talk it through. Here's how that conversation went.

Buying before you sell can work, but it depends on your equity, your comfort with carrying two properties, and how the market is moving

Should You Buy Before You Sell?

Us: Let's start with the question everyone asks. Is it smarter to find your next home first, or list your current one first?

Mike: It really comes down to your financial picture, but there are more options today than most people realize. Buying first means you're not scrambling to find a home on a deadline, and you get to move once instead of into temporary housing. The tradeoff is qualifying for two mortgages at the same time, unless you use a bridge loan or a HELOC against your current home's equity to cover the down payment on the new one.

Us: And what about going the other way, selling first?

Mike: Selling first is more straightforward from a lending standpoint. You know exactly what you have to work with, and there's no risk of carrying two payments. The tradeoff there is timing. If your sale closes before you've found the next home, you may need to rent in between, which adds cost and a second move.

Us: Say someone is leaning toward buying before they sell. What should they do first?

Mike: Talk to a lender before anything else. My team and I look at your equity, your income, and your credit to figure out what you can actually qualify for while still owning your current home, and that conversation shapes the whole strategy.

Us: Once that lending picture is clear, how do you and our team work together on the plan?

Mike: From there, Suzanne's team builds a plan around the numbers, whether that means writing a contingent offer, lining up a bridge loan, or timing things so the sale and purchase close close together. It's a conversation between the lending side and the real estate side, and it works best when both happen early.

If you're weighing this decision yourself, that's exactly the conversation we'd want to have with you too.