I currently work full time and own a home in Pennsylvania (mortgage paid off: home value 290K) . My goal is to stop working at the end of June (no more paycheck and no more employee health benefit) and relocate my family (me, wife, and 4 and 6 year old children) to New England at this time. This process will involve downsizing (my goal is to buy a 200-225K home) and me not working in any capacity for at least the summer of 2015 and minimally thereafter.
Are there ways that I could buy my new home (New England) ahead of time (month or two if I find something we really like… market is low volume where we are going so we feel we need some flexibility if we find something in the Spring) and not have to originate a mortgage? Currently, I have cash to pay 20% down on the new home, but not buy outright without liquidating assets. after selling my present home, which as said we own outright (290K) do not plan on carrying a mortgage on the new one (i.e., if I had to get a mortgage to buy the new home I would pay it off as soon as our current house was sold).
It seems very inefficient (i.e., a waste of money) to have to originate a mortgage when we do not plan on needing the mortgage long-term. Didn’t know if there were any way we could use the equity we have in our current home to bridge the 2 sales at a reduced cost to us? I assume getting a mortgage on the new home (i.e., would be viewed as a second home) while I am still working and earning a good salary would not be an issue.
I realize I could just sell/buy simultaneously, but feel that this would be VERY stressful at such a dynamic period of life (stopping work, moving out of state, dealing with lowing employee health insurance, 2 young kids and wife, etc…). Not having to time everything perfectly would on paper significantly reduce the stress of all these events.
Any ideas/advice? As we will be dealing with health insurance at the same time and the interstate move we see this setting up as being a stressful time and want to minimize that as things always seem to get worse than planned.
Thanks in advance for insight/direction.