Hey Guys! This is Gordon Stein with the I Love Philly Homes team at Compass. I am a residential real estate investor and broker, specializing in residential sales and development in Philadelphia and the Greater Philadelphia suburban areas.

This is a 2 part video series. Today we are going to talk about how to buy and sell a house on the same day. A lot of people may not realize the logistics and delicate art to make this happen seamlessly. There are a ton of moving parts that happen behind the scenes that we want to educate you on so you don’t end up homeless with your stuff stuck on a moving truck.

Let's start with finding your new home…….

Alright, you are ready to buy your next home… great! You go out and find the property of your dreams and want to make an offer. Well… Not so quick!

Do you need the funds from the sale of your current home to purchase the new one? If so, do you include a home sale contingency on your offer? A home sale contingency gives you an out of the contract, in case the sale of your current home falls through. Most sellers do not prefer this and it will weaken your offer. The other thing is, your house should be listed first before making an offer with a home sale contingency, in my opinion. Otherwise, a seller will most likely not want to accept the offer, especially in a crazy seller’s market like we are dealing with. Imagine going against another buyer in a multiple offer scenario with no home sale contingency and with similar terms- that other buyer will win out on their offer all day.

Let’s say we go under contract with a home sale contingency!

What settlement date do you choose?

Can you move out and move in on the same day?

How does the money work? Financing will be contingent upon the sale of your current home. Your current home must sell before you can buy the new one.

Settlement on your current home will be in the morning, and settlement on the new home you are buying will be in the afternoon. The title company from your first settlement will then wire the funds needed to the other title company for the new home you are purchasing.

How can the new buyers do their final walk through if you still have items in your home? What happens if one of these dominos fall out of place? Is it better to just put your stuff in storage for a couple days and space out the two settlements?

We will talk about all this next time…

Stay tuned for part two, where we will interview one of my good friends and past clients to talk about her experience and the pros and cons.