A Buyer's Options in a Home Sale Contingency

You want to buy a home you have a home to sell. You have three options. They're all somewhat difficult and you better get a grip on them right away so you can make things easy for yourself. And here they are. Option number one: Am I willing to own two homes at once? You put your house on the market, find another house, buy that house, haven't sold the home you're trying to sell, own two homes at once. If that's an avenue you want to go, you have to be prepared and plan for that. Can I get a mortgage for it? Can I afford it? What are the pros and cons for it? All that kind of stuff. Next option: Do I want to be homeless? The simplest way to avoid owning two homes at once is to do this: put your home on the market, get it in contract, look for another house, but if I can't find it, timing doesn't work, I sold my house. I am homeless. Where am I going to go. Temporary housing. Move in with the family, the in-law. All that kind of stuff. What's the financial cost, temporary housing, storage, and emotional cost of doing so. I had a client last year building a new house and they decided not to do that because of their situation, and priced their house low enough so there was some cost involved and a month before they were ready to move. Put their house on the market sold it to the first person that looked at it. Yeah they left a little money on the table, but they didn't have to move twice, pay for storage, or any other expenses. Your next option is to be very frustrated. You have a home to sell and you go put an offer on a house and make a home sale contingency, contingent on the sale of your existing home, and assuming you can even get the seller to accept it and in a seller's market they are highly unlikely to accept that kind of offer, and all the sudden you keep losing out on houses you don't like. If you're looking for a house that's hard to find, I can virtually tell you that's going to be a frustrating experience. If your house is easy to sell and you're looking for a house that has a lot of choices that may be a viable offer. Work with you agent up front and develop a plan. Realize there are three choices and three pains. Which one is best for your situation? Be pragmatic about it. Outline the costs, the pros, the cons of each. Stick to that plan and you will greatly be in control and minimize your headaches.