Moving is a different problem from buying your first home. The money is usually there, tied up in the house you are living in, and the hard part is timing. Sell first and you might be renting. Buy first and you are carrying two properties. Most of the stress comes from that one decision, and it is worth making it deliberately rather than letting the market make it for you.
The most useful conversation happens before your current home goes on the market. Worth knowing early:
There is no universally right answer here. Each option trades one kind of risk for another, and which one suits you depends on your finances and your nerves.
You know exactly what you have to spend and you are not carrying two mortgages. The trade is that you may need somewhere to live in between, and you are buying in whatever market exists when you are ready rather than the one you planned for.
You secure the home you want and move once. The risk is obvious: if your current home takes longer to sell than expected, you are servicing both. Lenders will want to see you could manage that, at least for a period.
Plenty of people manage to line the two settlements up. It is the cleanest outcome when it comes off, and it needs your solicitor, both agents and the lender moving together, so it pays to have the finance agreed early.
Short term lending that covers the gap between buying and selling. It can be the difference between getting the house and missing it, but it costs more than an ordinary loan and it assumes your current home will sell, so it needs to be entered into with clear eyes.
In my experience the problems are rarely about whether someone can afford the next house. They are about sequencing.
The settlement on the house you are buying lands before the money from the one you are selling. It is common, it is solvable, and it is far easier to solve before you sign than in the week it happens.
What your home is worth and what you walk away with are different numbers once agent fees, the remaining loan and any break fees come out. Working that out early changes what you go looking at.
Your existing mortgage does not just disappear. Fixed portions may carry break costs, and some loans can move to the new property instead of being repaid. That is worth checking before you assume you are starting fresh.
None of these are reasons not to move. They are reasons to have the finance conversation before the emotional one about the house you have just seen.
Roughly what the sequence looks like when it goes smoothly.
What you owe, what your home is likely to fetch, and what that leaves you to put into the next one.
Sell first, buy first, or aim for the same day. This is the decision everything else hangs off.
So that when the right house appears you can act rather than scramble.
With conditions that match the plan, which matters more here than on a first purchase because two transactions are in play.
Working with your solicitor and the lender so the money is where it needs to be on the day it needs to be there.
Ideally. I stay involved through both settlements rather than handing you over halfway.
If you are thinking about moving in the next year, an early conversation is worth more than a late one.
Every lender treats low deposits differently, and those rules change. I put your application where it has the best chance rather than wherever is quickest.
Paperwork, lender questions, conditions coming back. I handle the back and forth so you can get on with your life.
The lender pays me once your loan settles. That is the same whether you are buying with 5% or with 20%.
I work with first home buyers in Tauranga, Mount Maunganui, Pāpāmoa and across the Bay of Plenty, and with plenty of people who live nowhere near me. Most of this happens by phone, email and video call, so where you are does not change the advice or how easy it is to reach me. If you are local and would rather sit down together, that is easy to arrange.
The things people ask me most when they are moving from one home to another.
It is the lower risk option, because you know exactly what you have to spend and you are never carrying two mortgages. The trade off is that you may need somewhere to live in between and you buy in whatever market exists when you are ready. Buying first gives you control but exposes you if your current home is slow to sell.
It is short term lending that covers the gap between buying your next home and selling your current one. It lets you move when the timing does not line up. It costs more than an ordinary home loan and it assumes your existing home will sell, so it suits some situations and not others.
Sometimes, yes. Some loans can be transferred to a new property rather than repaid, which can avoid break costs on fixed portions. Whether it is possible depends on your lender and your loan, so it is worth checking before you assume you are starting from scratch.
Less than the sale price. Take off what you still owe, the agent commission, legal fees and any break fees on fixed lending. What is left is what you have for the next deposit. Working that out early usually changes what people go looking at.
It is common and it is solvable. Options include negotiating the dates, a short bridging facility, or arranging the finance so the purchase does not depend on the sale completing first. The key is raising it before you sign rather than after.
Usually you are working with equity rather than savings, and the same lending rules apply as for any owner occupier. If your equity after selling is under 20% of the new purchase, the low deposit rules come into play in the same way.
Nothing. The lender pays me once your loan settles, the same as for a first home purchase.
