How AI can help you find a new apartment
Finding a new place to live can be a daunting task. These technical tips will help.
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When Matt Gehr and his wife Amber decided to upgrade their condo to a single-family home last year, there were several advantages.
The biggest one is saving enough to put a 10% down payment on a new home without selling your current home. That would wipe out all their savings, but it was an alternative.
But the couple got lucky. They made a conditional offer on a new home that was accepted primarily because they provided a $5,000 non-refundable earnest money deposit. And their condo sold surprisingly quickly, within the 20 days specified in their new home contract.
Still, it was “very stressful,” Gale told USA TODAY, noting that paying off two mortgages at once would have been “very difficult.”
“Two weeks of silence. No screenings, no phone calls. It was really stressful for us, even though we were probably in a better situation than most.”
First-time home buyers get a lot of attention, but as any real estate agent can attest, getting all the moving pieces in place for buyers who are selling at the same time can often be a huge headache.
In 2026, robots will write books for you, and SpaceX plans to send passengers to Mars. But the process of buying and selling a home at the same time seems hopelessly backwards from the last century. Needless to say, it’s one of the scariest difficult consumer experiences out there.
Many companies are now trying to address these pain points with an approach often referred to as “buy before you sell.” Innovative mortgage loans allow customers to purchase and move into a new home before their current home is sold.
Todd Garde, a Bay Area mortgage broker who has specialized in such moves in recent years, says the timing is right and the need is real. Like hundreds of other mortgage professionals across the country, Galde uses financing options from a company called Flyhomes to make these transitions possible.
For his clients, especially seniors who are about to move into their final home, Garde said, “My stories are basically helping them turn the page on this new and exciting chapter in their lives.”
Garde said that while there is a cost to the transaction, customers understand that when making a move this big, it’s part of the package. The new approach is valuable in that it eases the process and allows people to focus on changing their lives rather than the logistics.
Changing the way people move
The intrigue of trying to plan simultaneous transactions can be mind-boggling.
“I always tell my clients to have a plan A, B and C,” said Phoenix agent Jill Comfort. “It could be something as simple as the lender of the home being sold was not able to receive the wire transfer on time, which caused a delay in recording the property,” she says.
What is Plan B? “Make sure you have a place to stay until closing, like a hotel, VRBO, or a friend’s house.” Also, don’t try this on the weekend unless you’re likely to be stranded for the weekend, Comfort warns.
Fly Homes was founded in 2016 specifically to address the challenge of buying before selling, CEO Tushar Garg told USA TODAY.
“Our insight was that we could fundamentally change the way people move,” Garg said. “The traditional financial system is not set up to simplify that.”
Garg believes that the “friction” we all encounter when buying and selling is not only an inconvenience, but actually dampens housing market activity and inhibits mobility.
There is some data that supports that idea. An analysis published by Realtor.com in USA TODAY found that by 2025, about 60% of sellers will also be concurrent buyers. “These co-buyers and sellers play an important role in a housing market still dominated by mortgage rate lock-in effects,” Realtor.com economist Jake Krimmel told USA TODAY. “Essentially, they move the market and make it more liquid again.”
Most homeowners don’t qualify for two mortgages.
However, logistical challenges pose major obstacles to that mobility. In most cases, homeowners who already have a mortgage cannot qualify for a second mortgage, even if they think they can afford the cost. One of Flyhomes’ products, the Guaranteed Backup Contract, is essentially a standing offer from the company to buy your starting home. These offers allow clients to qualify for a mortgage on a new home before putting their existing home on the market.
In other cases, homeowners may not even be able to scrape together the down payment on a new property until the capital is released from their existing property. Flyhomes and other companies in this space can also help with that.
Ashley Shepherd, a loan officer with Atlanta-based Fairway Mortgage, specializes in buy-before-sell options from a company called HomeLight. (Both companies’ products are available only through mortgage professionals and not directly to consumers.)
Shepherd told USA TODAY that most customers think it’s a waste when they’re told there’s one financing option that can handle the entire process. “They’re like, ‘What’s the hook?’
Sheppard describes the benefits of HomeLight Buy Before You Sell: “Clients can move on to their next home without selling the home they’re leaving, and they can also unlock equity that can be used as a down payment if available. Agents can structure offers without a sale contingency, which everyone loves. And as a lender, you can skip the first mortgage payment, so you don’t have to qualify for two mortgage payments at once.”
Traditional options for buying and selling at the same time
Of course, there are other proven options for a simultaneous buying and selling experience, rather than just rolling your eyes like the Gales did.
Homeowners can choose to work on the sale first and stay somewhere temporarily until the departing home is sold and the money is in the bank. However, this often requires moving twice, which can be financially taxing and a huge hassle.
Jen Stanbrough, a Des Moines-area real estate agent, sometimes encourages her clients to consider using the mortgage from the home they’re leaving to finance their new home. But traditional lenders may not be able to handle all the different parts of the transition of using existing equity into a new mortgage. The value proposition of working with a presale purchasing company is that the entire process is seamless.
Another option is a bridge loan to help finance the transition period between the two closings. However, such options can quickly become expensive as the longer the borrower holds the loan, the more interest it accrues. Most real estate agents interviewed for this article said they are hesitant to recommend bridging loans to their clients for that very reason.
However, what HomeLight and Flyhomes offer is, to some extent, most similar to bridge finance. HomeLight charges a flat fee no matter how long the entire transaction takes, while Flyhomes often has lower fees but does charge interest. The convenience factor is what sets new entrants apart.
Marilyn Smolinek and her husband Ed have been happily living in a townhome in Simpsonville, South Carolina for the past seven years. Having immigrated from New Jersey, they appreciated the South’s low taxes and affordable cost of living.
However, the couple, both in their 80s and retired, had their eye on a larger single-family home. They discovered they could transfer their monthly payments. The challenge will be making the transition successful.
The Smolyneks found Mr. Garde, matched them with the Fryhomes loan, appropriated the funds from the departing home, and offered the new lender a guaranteed backup agreement, allowing them to take the existing mortgage out of the underwriting equation.
All told, Garde estimates the couple paid just over $7,000 for the experience, which would have cost them closer to $9,000 with a traditional bridging loan.
Marilyn told USA TODAY that the process was “much easier” than her experience moving from New Jersey to South Carolina. She and Ed appreciated how Garde held their hands throughout the process and helped them navigate bumps smoothly. Being able to defer payments on a new mortgage was a bonus for retirees on fixed incomes.
After all, buying and selling a home at the same time is always likely to be stressful, because both represent life stage transitions, Stanbrough said. The most important step for consumers to do this is to explore all their options with a trusted real estate professional, then take a deep breath. “It’s just a lot of volume. It’s a big deal,” she said.
“Don’t underestimate the emotional strain of buying and selling a home at the same time, so give yourself some time to do so,” she said.
This story has been updated to correct a typo
