How Do You Buy Your Next Home When You Need to Sell Your Current One First?

A real-life move from Wilmore to Dilworth

For many homeowners, the hardest part about moving isn't finding the next house. It's figuring out how to get from one house to the other.

Do you sell first and risk having nowhere to go? Buy first and carry two homes? What if you need the equity from your current home for the next purchase?

For our clients Kat and Jake, there was another wrinkle.

They didn't just want to move to Dilworth. They had their hearts set on East Kingston Avenue.

The Search Started Two Years Before the Move

We first met Kat and Jake at an open house. As we got to know them, we learned how specific their next move was.

They loved Dilworth and particularly wanted to live on East Kingston Avenue.

So we stayed in touch. For nearly two years.

There wasn't a house to sell them. There wasn't a transaction to chase. We simply knew that when the right opportunity surfaced, we wanted to make sure they knew about it.

Eventually, it did.

Through a relationship with another mom, we learned about a home at 715 E. Kingston Avenue that wasn't on the market. It was exactly where Kat and Jake had been waiting to live.

We found the house. Now we had to figure out how to buy it.

Getting 715 E. Kingston under contract off-market was only the first part of the puzzle.

Kat and Jake owned a beautiful 1928 bungalow at 1535 Southwood Avenue in Wilmore, and they needed the proceeds from that home to help purchase 715 Kingston Ave.

That meant we suddenly had two transactions that had to work together. Kingston was under contract first. Now we needed to prepare, market and sell Southwood quickly — but we didn't want "quickly" to mean leaving money on the table.

Our job became sequencing the entire move.

Selling Quickly Didn't Mean Pricing for a Quick Sale

1535 Southwood had a lot going for it.

The 3-bedroom, 2-bath bungalow had been thoughtfully renovated while retaining its historic Wilmore character. It also offered something buyers increasingly value: walkability to South End, Dilworth and the light rail.

We listed it at $715,000.

The strategy worked. Buyer interest created competition, and Southwood ultimately sold for $750,000 — $35,000 over asking.

That additional value mattered because the equity from Southwood was helping fund their next purchase.

But there was still one problem. Kat and Jake weren't ready to move into Kingston yet.

So we negotiated time, too.

Price Isn't the Only Thing You Can Negotiate

We structured the sale of Southwood so Kat and Jake could remain in their home after closing without paying rent, giving them time between the two closings.

That accomplished something incredibly important. They could close on Southwood, access the proceeds they needed for their Dilworth purchase, and still have a place to live while we completed the Kingston transaction.

Instead of selling, moving into temporary housing, storing their belongings, closing on another home and moving again, we created breathing room between the transactions.

Sell. Access the equity. Stay in place. Close on the next house. Move once.

The Result

Kat and Jake went from a home they loved in Wilmore to the street they had been waiting years to live on in Dilworth.

Their Wilmore home sold for $35,000 over asking. They purchased 715 E. Kingston Avenue off-market. The proceeds from their sale were available for their purchase. And a free post-closing occupancy period gave them the flexibility to bridge the time between the two homes without an unnecessary temporary move.

Selling and Buying at the Same Time Isn't One Transaction. It's a Sequence.

This is why we don't believe the answer to "Should I sell first or buy first?" is the same for every homeowner.

Sometimes we list first. Sometimes we find the next house first. Sometimes we negotiate a leaseback. Sometimes an off-market opportunity changes the entire plan.

The important part is knowing before you make the first move how all the pieces can work together.

Kat and Jake's move didn't begin when we put a sign in the yard at Southwood. It began almost two years earlier when they told us: "We want to live on East Kingston Avenue."

We remembered. And when the right house finally appeared, we had a plan to get them there.

Thinking About Selling and Buying at the Same Time?

You don't have to know exactly how you'll make the timing work before you start looking. That's our job.

We'll map out the sale, purchase, financing, timing and possible leaseback options so you can understand what needs to happen — and in what order — before you're committed to either transaction.

Schedule a Free Consultation

Read the next case study: How Strategic Pricing Turned a Challenging Dilworth Home Into Multiple Offers