Selling and Buying at the Same Time
Trying to purchase a home while you are in the process of selling your current home can be a complicated situation, unless you have the cash in the bank and do not need to pay off your mortgage and use the profit from your sale to purchase the new home.
Limited Inventory
When looking for a new home while your current home is on the market, you will have a limited amount of inventory to choose from. This is because in both REO and Short Sales you are dealing with a bank who is not concerned with your situation – their objective is to clear out their inventory as fast as possible, so they do not accept contingencies such as the sale of the Buyer’s property. On the other hand, Sellers in a traditional sale may be more flexible and understanding because they may be in a similar situation as you; if they are not under a time constraint and do not mind waiting for the sale of the Buyer’s property, the Seller may choose to accept an offer with the contingency of the sale of the Buyer’s property. Most traditional sales will still require that you have a contract on your current home before accepting the offer with the contingency of you selling your home.
Getting into a New Home
If you are looking to purchase new construction while trying to sell your home the acceptance of that contingency depends on the builder. Some builders will accept the listing agreement as enough evidence that you will be selling your home and other builders will require that you have a contract on your home.
If you are attempting to purchase a new home while you are in the process of selling your current one, your strongest offer will be after you have an executed contract and the Buyers for your current home have gone through their inspection period, received their appraisal and been approved for their loan (all contingencies have been met). An even stronger offer would be to have a closing date set for the sale of your current home.