In most cases you will need to coordinate the sale of your old home with the purchase of a new home. The timing of the sale of your old to the purchase of your new home can be tricky. Which should you do first? Sell first then buy or buy first and then sell? Buy and sell at the same time?

• Buy First
  If you buying first you will always have a home to go to. On the other hand, this can be risky as you may end up having two mortgage payments until you sell your old home. To avoid this pitfall you can always make the purchase of the new home contingent on the sale of your old home. Sellers generally do not like this contingency, as they do not know what your old home looks like. The sellers may limit your contingency and they may continue to keep their home on the market. If they get another offer, you have the right to remove your contingency and buy the home or withdraw your offer.
  
  
• Sell First
  This can be a good strategy. It puts the seller in a good position for buying a new home, though the risk here is that you end up with no where to live.
  
  
• Buy and Sell Together
  The buy and sell together method is probably the one most people strive for. A person could close on their old home one day and close on the new home the next day, which would work out perfectly.