Can I buy another home before I sell this one?

The details: your options for buying before you sell

This is one of the most common questions I get from growing families in Southwest Orlando, Lake Nona, and Winter Garden: they have found the home they want, but they still own their current house and owe a mortgage on it. The good news is you do not have to choose between selling first and missing the home you want. Several proven paths make the timing work, and the right one usually comes down to three numbers: your equity, your monthly carrying costs, and how competitive the market is for the home you are buying.

The most protective option is a contingent offer, where your purchase is conditioned on your current home selling. In Florida it is formalized with the “Sale of Buyer's Property Rider” (CR-6) attached to the standard FAR/BAR contract. It keeps you from carrying two mortgages, but it is also the weakest card at the negotiating table: if the seller receives another offer, a kick-out clause can force you to waive the contingency within 24 to 72 hours or lose the home.

If you have meaningful equity, a home equity line of credit (HELOC) is often the cheapest way to buy first, with rates around 7 to 10 percent and low opening costs in early 2026. The catch is timing: it must be opened before your current home is listed, and it takes a few weeks to fund. A bridge loan moves faster, sometimes in a matter of days, but it is short-term money, typically 9 to 12 percent with fees of 1.5 to 3 points, repaid when your home sells, so it suits a short overlap. Another clean option is to sell first and lease your old home back for a few weeks while you close on the new one, though lender rules usually cap a financed buyer's leaseback around 60 days.

One detail worth knowing before you panic about double payments: once your current home is under contract and the buyer's financing contingency is cleared, Fannie Mae rules let your lender remove that mortgage payment from your debt-to-income ratio. That single change to the math is often what makes buying first possible without a sale contingency at all.