Closing Timeline

You purchase and close on your new home before listing your current one. No rush to find a place, but you're likely carrying two mortgages (or need bridge financing) until your old home sells. This timeline lists your current home once you've closed and moved into the new one, then starts the sale process.

You list and close on your current home first, then shop for your next one. No overlap risk, but you may need temporary housing or a negotiated rent-back between closings. This timeline starts your new-home search once you have an accepted offer on your current home, typically when sellers feel confident enough to commit to a purchase.

You list your current home and shop for a new one at the same time, coordinating both closings to land on the same day. Avoids carrying two mortgages or needing temporary housing, but requires tight coordination: if one side moves faster than the other, the slower side sets the pace for both closings, which the timeline below calls out explicitly when it applies.

The period between an accepted offer and closing, during which a neutral third party holds funds and documents while inspections, appraisal, and loan underwriting are completed. This tool applies one adjustable escrow assumption to both your sale and your purchase, rather than two separate ones, to keep the inputs simple.

A rent-back lets a seller stay in their home for an agreed period after closing, paying the new owner rent, common under Sell First when the replacement home isn't ready yet. Bridge financing is a short-term loan against your current home's equity that lets you buy before selling, common under Buy First. Neither is modeled as its own step here; both would shift the practical dates around a closing this timeline already shows.

A condition in a purchase contract that must be satisfied before closing, commonly financing, appraisal, and inspection contingencies. If one falls through, the timeline for that transaction effectively restarts. This tool assumes a clean path with no contingency failures.

Financing, appraisal, and inspection contingencies can add weeks, or restart a transaction entirely, if they fail. This tool assumes every step happens on schedule; treat the output as a best-case sequence, not a guarantee.

Condo/co-op board approval, HOA transfer paperwork, and mover availability can all add time beyond what's shown here, especially around popular moving dates like month-end or summer.

This tool is purely about sequencing and dates. It has no concept of price, equity, or monthly payment. Use the Home Swap Calculator to see whether a swap pencils out financially before using this one to plan how it would actually unfold.