The 3-Step Process for Buying When You Must Sell First

By John Salkowski

The JRS Realty Group, founded by high-producing Real Estate Broker & Author John Salkowski was built on the notion that the secret to achieving incredible goals and getting true results is to dominate real estate with a team approach.

Touring homes is the fun part, so almost everyone starts there. When your purchase depends on selling your current home first, starting there is what gets you stuck. You fall in love with a house you aren’t qualified to buy yet because your home isn’t ready and you don’t have a pre-approval letter.

I spent an hour on a discovery call this week with a homeowner in exactly that spot. She wants to buy, she has to sell first, and the first thing I asked her to do was stop looking at homes. The search gets easy once the first two steps are done, and it stalls when they aren’t.

First, get your home market-ready. Getting it market-ready starts with a real estate professional walking through the house with you, talking through pricing, and building the marketing plan around it. Just as much of that conversation is about what not to do as what to do. Pre-sale inspections belong in this step too, so nothing turns up at the worst possible moment.

Second, get preapproved with a lender. This one runs alongside the first step rather than after it. A qualified mortgage banker, lender, or your own bank can get you preapproved and tell you what monthly payment you can carry. The price of the home you can afford falls out of that number, and it’s what you’ll be shopping with.

Third, start looking at homes. Your home is live on the market by now, and your pre-approval letter is in hand, and that’s when the home search actually works. When you walk into a house you love at that point, you can act on it instead of just wishing.

Communicate the contingency before the offer. The worry I hear most is about moving too fast. If the home goes live and an offer shows up within days, nobody wants to end up without a place to go. Communication is a skill set, and it earns its keep here. Before any offer ever reaches your hand, the other agent should already know your seller needs to buy a home. Tell them the sale is contingent on finding a suitable home and that you’ll need a flexible closing date. Handled upfront, it’s a non-issue.

Doing it in this order is what separates a move that works from one that stalls out. It’s why I ask every client to start with a discovery call. That call is your road map, your GPS, your flight plan for the whole move. Message me the word Discovery, and I’ll reach out so we can get on the calendar and talk through your goals. You can also call or text me at 610-709-5147, email me at john@jrsrealtygroup.com, or visit thejrsrealtygroup.com. I’d love to help you put these steps in the right order.