Sounds to me that the rental coming onto the market is perfect timing for you. It is best to have somewhere to move once your home is sold than the alternative, even if you have to pay two bills for a short time. Just budget for the worse case scenario.

Your listing agent should be able to give you a fairly good idea as to how long your home should take to sell.

Thank you for the reply. It is nerve wracking but we feel this would be perfect for us in every way. I'd hate to scramble and live somewhere I hated if we had a,quick sale.

Not knowing anything about your financial situation and if you can afford to, but if your market is competitive, why don't you just wait to list your house until your new house is finished and ready to move into?

We moved out before we put our house on the market and it all worked out. How long can you realistically afford to pay for both places?

Do you live in an area where there are cold winters? I have heard that it's more difficult to sell if it's 20 degrees and snowy outside. Do you HAVE to sell now?

Thanks for all the replues.

MK we want to sell now while things are stable. I wanted it on the market last year! It's going to be a good year or more before our build is done because we are still looking at plans and have to see an architect and we'd rather have the house sold before we build. I wish I could have stayed in the house till then.

3Katz we can afford it, we just don't want to pay double for more than 6 months. It's funny, everyone who knows our house says they think it will sell quickly and I don't think they are saying it to be nice.Im glad to hear it worked out well for you.

Littlebug we can keep it on the market from say, next week all the way up to Christmas. That's two months of market time. If for some reason it didn't sell we'd pull it off and start again in February.

If you can swing both payments, I would take the rental. You could just move the extra stuff now. That would make your home seem even larger. You didn't say if you have pets, but that would give you a place to go with them. Then when it sold, move everything else.

PS and yes we moved out before we had a buyer. Left some strategically placed furniture we could live without. And some I didn't want anyway. Just reconfigured it a bit when leaving. And left stuff in garage.

We had an offer within..two weeks of us moving out I think? We listed before the elections(end of October? I wanted it to be earlier but so it happened..mostly due to stupid staging).. moved to our place mid December.. got second(and a good one) offer right after Christmas.

(then we had to frantically take stuff out of the garage..)) My DH has too much stuff if you ask me. I never leave broom swept or how it's called..no, cleaning crew and all. Even when I was young and so much more able. Most cleaning ladies, they're just plainly stronger than I ever was. They do better job. I cleaned houses myself when a student..I appreciate what goes into a good cleaning.

If you can afford it, I think moving into the rental would be best. Once you are moved out of your old house and have it staged to sell you can concentrate on building the new home free of the stress of maintaining your old home "showing ready " at all times. Once it's sold you can enjoy the freedom off being renters and not owners while you prepare the new build.

Another item of concern to consider... do not sell your home until you have completely satisfied yourself that you have the green light to move forward by having submitted your new home plans to several builders for quotes and then taken these to a lender to get pre qualified.

NC, thank you for the heads up. Hoping once we sell we won't need a mortgage or if we do a very small one.

April where do you live? Is it cold in December? Here it can 50's or snow lol. Last,few years we've been lucky and had warmer temps...then mid January we get bombarded with snow.

Ditto NCrealestate above - that's what I was thinking when I read your update; I'd wait until you actually break ground on the new house, a lot can go wrong before now and that point in terms of municipality, lender, and builder setbacks.

It's not cold where we live, it's Southern CA:) (even though one gets incredibly spoiled lol)

it was very rainy after several years of severe drought. interfered with open houses a bit I must say.

also people have other things on their mind I guess during the season. also the elections somehow influenced people into feeling they should wait a bit..see what happens.

our house was purchased by people who saw it a week after we listed and really liked it..then said they feel it's not the best time to purchase..then waited, thought it over, came back with an offer.

most people here do try to list in spring regardless the mild weather. less activity in winter, overall. I know that only three houses in our price range were sold in our area (our then-city plus several around it) during the time we listed.

(our price range was in the middle. starter condos tend to go really fast regardless the season-or at least less depending on it- since these are few and competition is fierce. I watch these a lot, thinking of purchasing some normal small condo for MIL maybe)

No one can predict how fast your house will sell, so assess first how mentally and financially prepared you are if you need to cover double payments for a while. We were once in a situation where we put our very nice family house on the market in October. We had bought another house, but had three months to close, so we figured we had enough time to find a buyer for our old house. However, at that time of year, many families were not interested in shopping for homes because the school year had just started. We moved in to our new house in January, but ended up not selling the old house until May. Although I don’t regret our decision about buying that house without having sold the first one, it was stressful to be putting out money for 5 months that we would never get back.

I’m not trying to discourage you, and the move you are talking about sounds like a good idea. Just be prepared for whatever happens with the sale of your house.

Place a price on your sanity, then compare it to the worst case scenario price of renting your daughter-in-law's aunt's rental.

Kudzu9 thank you for your reply and letting me know of your experience as others have.

As Mark Bishak and others have mentioned, if we can afford it (though no one wants to throw money away as Kudzu says) why drive ourselves crazy and possibly put ourselves in a bad position to frantically look for a decent place to rent once we have a buyer?

After discussing it tonight, we decided to rent the apartment. It has so much charm and character. The building is three floors, an apartment on each floor with lots of wood (floors, doors, moldings). It is nothing fancy but we love the fact that it is right in town, close to both our work places and has lots of room to fit our furniture.

We go on vacation for two weeks the 29th of this month. Maybe we will be extra lucky and have a buyer by the time we return. We have several things going for us, one being almost the entire house has been updated and painted nice neutral colors (like Revere Pewter-2 bedrooms and hallway and Stonington Grey). Not one thing needs to be done.

Will keep everyone updated and show the listing once it goes on the market.

Thanks again for all the replies, they made me feel better about our decision and not make me feel like I am nuts to do it.

I think you made a good decision. Best of luck. And please provide an update downstream as things sort out.

Let's hope! I will update for sure. Thanks for the help.

Littlebug we can keep it on the market from say, next week all the way up to Christmas. That's two months of market time. If for some reason it didn't sell we'd pull it off and start again in February.

That's a smart way to do it. I definitely would pull it off the market right after Thanksgiving. People really aren't looking during the holiday season.

People do look during the holidays but only serious buyers and those that need to close right away. Yes, the volume of buyers is reduced, but the quality of buyers increases tremendously IME.

yes, that we found to be true. especially the fact that our buyers really thought it over and came back, meaning they were serious about the house. we worked with them on the offer, met in the comfortable to us point, and I must say it was a very smooth sale. I hope they found us as serious, easy going and reasonable, and pleasant to deal with, as we found them. Was worth a little bit waiting. They asked our realtor to tell us that they're really grateful for how we left the house for them, and all.

I wanted to write them a card wishing all the best in the new place, but our realtor, she was very business like, she said " no personal cards". it surprised me a bit, but whatever..

Thanks for the suggestions and thoughts. We will most likely keep it on the market till close to Christmas then take it off till February. People closing on homes or who are just getting offers need to find homes to move into. Our realtor told us there will be people moving out of smaller homes looking for a bigger house. Praying once it goes on we get a buyer quickly. We'll see. They are finishing up putting in the new septic today or tomorrow. Almost there..... Yes I am tired. Thank God we are going to Florida for 2 weeks the 29th!

If you're not living there and it's all ready to show why would you take it off the market during the holidays? We bought a house between Thanksgiving and Christmas and our neighbors got a buyer in that timeframe as well. It is serious buyers who are looking at that time of year and why miss an opportunity?

Hmmm maybe we won't. Hoping we don't have to go that long but I have no idea how it will go.

I agree... if you are trying to sell, do not take it off the market. Statistics, at least around here, show an increase in the month of December, compared to Sept and Oct.

Even in New England?

I would have to think that moving out and not having to live in a 'show ready' house, be disrupted at a moments notice, etc would be worth something. And, the immediate possession of your home will likely appeal to certain buyers.

Jann I agree completely! I hope you are right.

I am so glad to be going away for two weeks starting the 29th. I hate the thought of having to rush around and keep everything spotless. I guess we'll see how it goes. Another friend told me today he thinks someone will snap my house up quickly. We'll see.

When we listed our last house the first week of Nov, we got the usual flurry right at the beginning, then zero showings from Thanksgiving till New Years. This was 2012, so the market was slow, but keeping it on the market didn't win us anything on that one.

Thanks for your input weedy. When did you end up selling? I'm going to do whatever my agent suggests. I figure he knows best.

We moved before our house was sold. I felt it was best for our family, as we had three children in school and were relocating. My thought was it would be easier to be together (spouse was already living in other area, renting a room at an extended stay place) and having the children start the school year at the new location, rather than in the middle of the school year once the house sold.

We did have to budget to carry a mortgage and rent on the new place. We rented a cheap apartment that was way too small for us, but it worked. The nice thing was once our house sold (on January 4!) we were in a good place to make an offer on a house, and we did so rather quickly, breaking a lease to do so, but our apartment rented out quickly and we got our full deposit back and were relieved those last month rents.

With the holidays coming, it might be more comfortable for your family to rent while you sell the house. I don't know how far away you are from the house. There is a PIA factor in selling a house remotely. Things go wrong, even a light left on by a realtor, and you aren't there to remedy it. Mice come in vacant properties. But yes, it is nice not having to clean like a maniac before a showing.

Thank you handmethathammer. WE are only 5 or so minutes away which is nice. We will be coming by frequently and checking the house out. How long did it take for your home to sell? I cant imagine you trying to keep track on your house remotely. Did you have family, neighbors or friends you could trust to help with that? I would have done the same thing in your shoes. Our children are all grown hence our reason to downsize.

One thing you need to do is check with your homeowners insurance company. Each company has different policies on vacant homes. With my company, as I recall, theft coverage didn't continue after 60 days, and fire coverage only continued after 60 days if I documented that I was checking on the property weekly. This may or may not be an issue for you, but it's best to check in advance.

I will check into it, thank you. House going on the market hopefully by Monday.

That is a real good point kudzu9. The insurance company needs to be informed, as they will have a vacant house policy.