So, let's just say you have a great house, a fantastic house. You love this house, but it's just not quite working for you anymore. It's a little too small. It's a little too big. Maybe you just heard the light rails in downtown Mesa and you can't wait to move here, whatever.

Much like poultry, which comes first, the buy or the sell? Well, for some people, the two transactions are independent. Maybe you have a rejungle, you hit the lottery or whatever. You paid this house off. Maybe you can afford two mortgages at the same time. You can buy and sell at your leisure. That's awesome.

For a lot of people, they need to use the equity in this house in order to buy this house. And you know, the only way to get the equity out of here, short of another loan of some type, is to sell it. So, here's a couple of tips to get you there.

First off, you need to do some research, I mean, a lot of research. Now, I know there's a lot of people that watch a lot of HDTV and think they have their finger on the pulse of the market, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about details. And remember, you need to understand there's a buyer and seller market for both transactions. Just because it's a seller's market for this deal doesn't mean it's going to be a seller's market for this deal. You need to understand that down to the nth degree. You need to understand what your options are for buying, like what houses are really interesting to you because you may need to pull the trigger very quickly and you want to make sure you know what house is going to work and what price you need to pay for it.

Next, you're going to have to set yourself some realistic expectations. This is no time to pay hardball, alright? What you need to do is figure out what you need to get out of your house that you're selling, in order to get into the house that you want to buy. Know what that bottom line is, not that you're going to market it there, oh no, but you need to know where that is, so that you don't cross that line.

Okay next, you need to have your ducks in a row. And I mean, you need to have your ducks in a row. Have a good lender, not one of those 1-800 guys, no, a very experienced lender who's got your back because if things start to go a little wonky during the transaction, sometimes a lender can come through and save the day with some solutions. Yes, that's the guy that you want on your side.

And it goes without saying that a good real estate agent, experienced agent who's been around the block a few times, is definitely going to be able to help you navigate through this. So, have everything ready. Have your cash ready. Have your pre-qual done. Start packing. Get ready packing because believe me, everything goes so fast. You're going to be amazed. The more you can do ahead, the better.

Okay, with all that planning, you might feel really good going into this, but you need to have a plan B. You can't plan for everything. Maybe you just couldn't find the right house. You don't want to settle. Well, you need to have temporary digs. Whose couch can you sleep on? Can you get a short-term rental? Maybe can you put your stuff in a pod? Believe me, it's better to have a plan B and not use it than to not have a plan B and wish you had one. Last but not least, you're going to have to understand a couple of negotiating strategies coming into this, in particular, in the contingent offer and the post possession agreement.

Now, here's the thing. If you come along and you put an offer in on a house, you have a much better chance of them entertaining a contingent offer if you have this house under contract, even better if it's through the inspection period.

Now, it's got to be in writing and there's got to be some language in there that addresses if things go wrong cause in real estate there's always something that can go wrong. So, we want to make sure that both parties are protected.

Now, I'm not going to lie. This is one of the most stressful types of transactions in real estate, but it's very doable, done a bunch of them. You just got to do... You just got to do your work here to make sure that it goes well. A good experienced agent is definitely going to help and you may need to stock up on a little bit of alcohol just to help for those stressful days. If this is something you're interested in doing and you'd like to sit down and work out a little game plan, well, Sell your home the minute you're ready with sell my sarasota home.