How to buy in Florida before you sell where you live now

Why this is harder than it looks

Because both sides of the move want certainty, and you can only give it to one of them at a time.

Sell first and you have cash and no home. Buy first and you carry two mortgages until the old one closes. Try to close both on the same day across two states and you are betting on two title companies, two lenders and a wire deadline.

The four options, with what each one costs

Which market you are selling into decides the answer

A sale contingency is viable where homes sit, and useless where they do not.

Median days on market in the Florida areas we track run from about 43 in parts of Orlando and Tampa to over 130 in some South Florida submarkets. Where a home sits for four months, a Florida seller may well accept a contingency. Where it moves in six weeks, they will not — there is someone behind you without one.

The same question applies at the other end. If the market you are leaving is fast — Newark, Boston and Nassau County have all been running near three weeks — selling first and renting back is usually cheaper than any loan.

What the double carry actually costs

Work it out before you decide, because it is usually smaller than the fear and larger than the estimate.

Two payments for three months on a $400,000 Florida purchase is roughly $3,600 a month here — principal, interest, tax and insurance — plus whatever your existing home costs. Against a bridge loan’s origination fee and its rate premium, three months of carry is often the cheaper risk. Six months is not.

The number that decides it is how long your current home takes to sell, and that is knowable: ask your agent there for the median days on market for your specific ZIP code, not the metro.