Move-Up Timeline (planner)

The sequence. Move-up stress comes from solving two interdependent transactions in the wrong order. Decide buy-first, sell-first, or bridge first, then back-plan every date around it.

A fixed date usually overrides everything: a school start, a lease end, or a job move. Don't optimize price at the cost of missing the date that can't move — sequence around the deadline first.

Pre-approval and equity confirmation, prep and list your current home, search and offer on the next, then coordinate the two closings and possession. Each depends on the one before it, so plan backward from the fixed date.

Because you're a buyer and a seller at once, and the two transactions constrain each other. The market usually isn't the problem — the sequencing is. Get the order right and most of the stress disappears.

Earlier than feels necessary. Search-to-close runs longer than people hope, so pre-approval and current-home prep should start well ahead. If the date is close, begin the lender step now.

Confirm the buy/sell order against your cash and risk tolerance, then build the two-transaction calendar. That sequencing is exactly what a Real Estate Review does.