life. BUT the logistics of selling and renting for a year then buying were also pretty tough. We have two kids, so renting a place big enough for the four of us to be comfortable (plus all our stuff which would have had to be in storage for a year) would have been really stressful too, plus that stress would have been stretched out over a year.

We put our house on the market, and while it was up for sale had our realtor show us houses that we may want to buy, knowing we couldn't make an offer until we had a purchase agreement on our own house. Once we got that down, there were a few houses that we liked, and two that were at the top of our list. We got outbid on one but had the offer accepted on the other (all within a week of the purchase agreement on our sale.)

Our realtor was great at the timing and the negotiations. The tough part is that on both the sale and the purchase you don't REALLY know what day you'll close until the mortgage company calls with the clear to close which is a day or two before closing. We closed on our sale one week, had occupancy in our old house for two more weeks. Had a clear to close on the new house (with immediate occupancy) within that time range, but at the last minute the mortgage company needed an extra couple days for the title company paperwork. Including the weekend, we had a 3 day "homeless" gap. Thankfully my parents live in the area, so we stayed with them for a few days, had all our stuff in storage pods so they were flexible on the timing, and got in the new house after the weekend.