Life changes, families change, and housing requirements change -- and so, folks move on. But what if you have a house to sell while trying to purchase your next home? Consider the following options, as you think through a plan.

You may decide to put your house on the market before you’ve found your next house or while you are searching for it. If you receive an offer on your home before you find a house to buy, you can agree to a contract, but you’ll need a backup living situation if the buyer takes possession prior to your ability to get into your next home. Do Mom & Dad have room for you and the kids? Perhaps you can arrange to rent back from the new owner. Another option would be to agree to a contract with your buyer subject to locating a home of your choice and securing an acceptable purchase agreement on a specific property within a specified time frame. Most buyers, however, are probably not likely to want to risk losing your house to this condition.

If your house is on the market and you find a home you wish to purchase before you have a purchase agreement on your home, you may write an offer on the home you wish to purchase and use existing or borrowed funds to complete the purchase. These options are subject to your lender’s terms and approval. Funds could come from savings, a bridge loan, a home equity line of credit, other borrowed funds, and/or gift money.

You may write an offer on the home you wish to purchase with a concurrency addendum. This means you are offering to purchase the new home when yours sells, but you are not asking the seller of the home you want to buy to take theirs off the market until yours sells. If the concurrency is accepted, and your home sells before the home you want to purchase sells to another party, your offer becomes a contract. If the concurrency is accepted, and the home you wish to purchase receives an offer from another buyer that is accepted by the seller, your offer becomes null and void.

You may write an offer on the home you wish to purchase with a house-sale contingency -- a condition that you sell your house before having to contract to purchase the home you want to buy. Most sellers will not take their house off the market while they wait for your house to sell. Some sellers might consider a house-sale contingency if you put a time-frame on the contingency after which you will proceed with the purchase of the house whether yours is sold or not.

A real estate agent can help you work through these choices to help you decide which is the best one for you. Your mortgage lender needs to be involved as well. Weigh the pros and cons and decide how to make your next move. It’s tricky -- but with the help of professionals it can go quite smoothly!