In the best of all possible worlds, you find a home you love and you buy it. You move in. Then you put your current home on the market and it quickly sells. Such a scenario avoids all the hassles of trying to time closings and move-out dates, which can drive homeowners batty. But not everyone has the assets to afford two mortgages at once, which this situation requires. Most homeowners need to buy and sell simultaneously and sometimes find themselves squeezed between two homes.

Fortunately, this chapter covers the options that allow you to straddle your two homes without moving twice, which no one wants to do. From staying in your current home longer to negotiating pre-possession, most homeowners find a way to make it work without moving into temporary housing.

To avoid moving out of your current home and putting everything into storage, try to schedule the closing for your purchase and sale on the same date—one after the other. Closing on the same day ensures you can move your belongings right into your new home, rather than storing them indefinitely. If that won’t work, storing your stuff is one option, as is trying to get permission to stay in your old home until your new home is available.

A number of possible timing scenarios exist. These include:

If you know it will be several weeks, generally no more than 60 days, before you can move into your new home (and you want to avoid moving twice), you can try to negotiate with the buyer to get some additional time. For instance, if you’re building a new home and its completion has been delayed, you may be able to lease or rent your home from the new owner after closing, called a sale-leaseback, or rent-back. In some cases, sale-leasebacks call for the seller to pay the buyer for the additional time in the house, while other deals are simply part of the purchase agreement.

Because of horror stories about sellers refusing to get out of the house after closing, some buyers may be reluctant to allow you to stay in the home after closing, fearful that you’ll never leave or that they’ll end up without a place to live. But it’s worth asking if you know you’ll need the extra time after closing.

Similarly, as the buyer of your new home, you should inquire about early possession. Just as sellers may be granted permission to stay in their residence after the official closing date, buyers may be granted permission to move in early. In one family’s case, they received permission to move some of their belongings into their new home’s garage the week before closing, which helped them get everything out of their old house on time.

Another way to close on your new home before moving out of the old one is to arrange bridge, or swing, financing, which would allow you to buy the new home before you’ve sold the old one, giving you a window of a few days or weeks to get settled.

Because of the higher cost of bridge loans, you may want to check into less expensive, traditional financing options, such as a home equity loan, second mortgage, or cash-out refinance on your current home. The only downside is that having such debts on your credit record may make it more difficult to qualify for the mortgage on your new home.

Or if you have the finances to afford it, you can save the cost of the bridge loan by qualifying for a mortgage on your new place while you still own the old one. Holding two mortgages, even just for a week or two until the first home sells, will generally end up saving you money because bridge loans are made at higher interest rates.

If you discover you need extra time in your current home or want to try to move into your new home early, you may have difficulty convincing the buyer or seller to agree. However, there are a couple of legal documents that can help you in your quest.

If you find that staying in your home after the closing date would be advantageous, because you can’t move into your new space yet, ask the buyer as soon as possible. No one likes to be surprised at the eleventh hour, so the earlier the subject is broached, the better. Generally, those unwilling to allow you to stay take that position because they have nowhere else to go or because they are nervous about damage occurring to their property after they’ve bought it.

To calm those fears, offer to sign an indemnification agreement. Such a document promises you will leave the residence in the same condition it was in before closing, when they did their final walkthrough, and if any damage does occur, you will have it repaired at your expense.

Be aware that this does create a risk for you, the seller. If that refrigerator you sold with the house suddenly dies, or starts leaking, the indemnification agreement requires you repair or replace it. Or if your toddler one night spills paint all over the off-white carpeting, you are now responsible for cleaning or replacing it. Any misstep can be costly, now that you’re effectively renting your old home.

Before you start worrying about sale-leasebacks and indemnification agreements, keep in mind that most buyers want to move into their new home as soon as possible, so this will likely not be an issue for you. For many buyers, any potential delay in a move-in date will discourage them from making an offer in the first place.

Keep in mind, you’ll be in a much better negotiating position if a sale-leaseback isn’t a requirement of the sale.

If you find the buyer would be willing to let you stay in your home if they didn’t need a place to go, you may want to offer to pay for their temporary housing until your home is ready for move-in.

When you realize that you’re going to need temporary housing, either in a hotel or furnished apartment, offering to pay for the buyer’s expenses may earn you permission to stay where you are until you can get into your new place. It comes down to a question of who’s going to the hotel, and if they’ve already moved out of their place, they may be more willing to wait it out in a hotel a couple of days, especially if you make it worth their while. Either way, you’ll have to pay housing costs, but at least this way you don’t have to move twice. That’s certainly worth something!

Of course, in some situations, it may be advantageous to sell your current home before you’ve even found a new one, such as if the housing market is booming and you want to cash out at the top.

In that case, you can consider moving in with friends or relatives, signing a month-to-month lease on another home, moving into your vacation home at the beach, if you have one, or simply putting your stuff into storage and traveling.

And when you’re ready to buy a new place, you’ll have the added advantage of not having to make an offer to purchase contingent on the sale of your home—it’s already sold—which in some markets can make you a more attractive buyer. In some cases, contingencies can make or break an offer.

As soon as you have a signed contract to buy or sell a home, whichever comes first, you’ll want to start planning your move. Whether you’re headed down the street or across the country, relocating your household takes time and effort.

Many websites are out there that can help you map out your moving timetable, calculate moving costs, create an action checklist, and gather important information about your new home base. Some you may find useful include:

Obtain as much information as you can when you compare price quotes, look into storage and moving, explore schools and neighborhoods, and get set for the exciting journey.

Of course, after deciding to sell your home, one of the first decisions you have to make is whether to move yourself to your new place, or whether you should turn over the process to a professional moving company.

Even then there are different levels of involvement—from pack, load, unload, and unpack, to just load and unload. Generally, the amount of time, energy, and money you have will determine how much help you should get—the more time and energy you have, the less you may want to pay someone else for assistance.

The biggest advantage of handling a move yourself is the savings. Except for the cost of a truck or van to haul your belongings to your destination, which is optional if you already own or have access to a truck, you may have no other expenses.

However, to make your move smoother and less painful, you may want to consider:

Although an investment in a professional mover may increase your expenses, your important possessions will also be insured against damage—something you give up when you ask your buddies to help you out. You also reduce your liability in case one of your helpers becomes injured while carrying your grandmother’s antique bureau down several flights of stairs.

A compromise between moving yourself and a professional mover is a self-service move, where you are responsible for loading and unloading your possessions on the truck, but the mover handles transportation to your new home. If you have a lot of stuff to move, or are moving several hours away, this may be a better alternative than trying to handle the move yourself in several trips back and forth.

If you decide to explore having a professional moving company handle your move, here are some recommendations for finding a good one:

After you’ve put together a list of possible movers, you’ll want to:

The most expensive type of move includes packing up your home in boxes, loading it on the moving truck, driving it to your new place, unloading the boxes and furniture, and unpacking it for you. Clearly, this involves the least amount of effort on your part, which is the way some families choose to go.

However, you can also choose to take care of the packing and unpacking yourself, thereby reducing your moving bill while still preserving your body from unnecessary punishment. Whether your company is pitching in to pay for a relocation may also factor into whether or not you spring for the packing service.

Moving is time-consuming, hard work, not to mention stressful. But everyone gets through it, and you will too.

For more information about topics covered in this chapter, check out the following websites:

The Least You Need to Know