[Linda]

We are retired (70s) and will move to another state (high cost of living) in 6 months.

Our home has no mortgage and it is a low-cost state.

Ideally, we would like to select a new home, get a mortgage on that, then move our belongings to the new place, and then sell the original home.

We are not wealthy but we do OK in retirement and could easily afford a mortgage of $2,500, which would include property taxes and homeowners insurance (roughly a home that is priced anywhere from $450,000 to $600,000).

Our current home should sell for $350,000 or higher, so we could use that as a down payment.

Our house is in a very good school district and should sell fast. We don’t want to be in a position of then having to “settle” for a new house that happens to be on the market in the HCOL area just because we must hurry to pick something in order to vacate our current house by the closing date.

I realize that some people use a bridge loan to accomplish all this and that this loan is typically for 6 months to a year and at a higher interest rate.

Then after the original home is sold, you convert to a conventional mortgage.

Is there some other type of financing that I might be able to use that I haven’t thought about?

[Brian]

I would do a leaseback clause where you close in 30 or 45 days, then you lease the house back for 30 or 60 days.

This should give you sufficient time to find and close on a new home and not have to spend a ton of money to do so.

Any other option you choose will come with a cost.

[Jacquelyn]

Realtor here- instead of going through all that, you could just do a “subject to find suitable housing” clause, especially if you’re confident your house would sell quickly.

This basically says the buyer of your house is waiting to wait up to a certain period of time (I’ve had buyers wait five months) for the seller to find a home they like, close on it, and move out.

[Walter]

Do you have a taxable brokerage account you could pull from for the initial down payment?

That would also work.

I’m not sure if you can get a loan against an IRA but you could check with the company it’s with

[Dustin]

You could look at a margin loan if you have accounts where they offer one (or perhaps consider moving them).

Or look at a heloc for the down payment

[Kelly]

You could sell your house and rent in the new location until you find the house that you want.

Also, are you sure you can find something between $450 and $600k in a HCOL area?

That seems low.

[Christine]

Just of of interest are ‘chains’ not common in the US market? They are in the UK where each link is dependent on the one above and below going through and usually all the transaction happen on the same day.

Sometimes there may only be – or. 2 links – bit other times there can be 5+ which can be scary as often when something happens in the chain all purchases and sales can fall through…

[Author]

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