What comes first the buying or the selling? Before you move out of your old home you had better make sure that you have a new on. It can be a giant pain, not to mention costly to find someplace to live in the meantime. You do not want to have to put family and friends out by staying with them for weeks and renting a place for a few weeks of even a month can be next to impossible. In a perfect world you would have enough money to buy the new house before you sold your old one. That way you will never have to worry about being out on the street, you will always have some place to go. Once you have purchased your new house you can then worry about selling your old one to recoup the money that you have spent. But most people cannot afford to purchase a house without using any pf the equity from their old one. So this option may not be an option. Sometimes those buying a new house have enough money for both of the mortgages but not quite enough money to close the deal on the new house. If this sounds like your situation then you should consider taking out a home equity line of credit on your current house.  This will give you the time and the money that you need in order to get your new house without taking any unnecessary risks. You should not tell your lender that you are going to be repaying the home equity line of credit right away, they do not like that, they like to get more interest payments out of you.  It is a good idea to get your equity loan well before you plan on using it. These options sound great but what about those who cannot afford anything without first selling their current home. What if you have no savings to use and you do not have enough income? This is the worst case scenario and in this case you do not have much choice but to sell before your current home before you buy your new one. If this is the case for you then you need to watch the closing dates carefully. Make sure that they line up well and you will still not have to worry about not having a place to live. You should not have to worry about getting a loan for your new mortgage as long as you have your contract of sale for your old house. When they see this contract they will know that your current mortgage will soon be paid off in full so it will not even be a consideration.