It looks like I'm going to be moving from DFW to Salt Lake City and I'm starting to ponder the best way handle the possibility of buying our new house before our current house has sold. I have seen suggestions for taking out a bridge loan, using a HELOC from my current home, or borrowing from my 401k to fund the down payment on the new house until our current one sells. Any advice on best strategies to follow or things to consider?

If some info helps, we have about $300K in equity in our current house, ~$2M in our 401K, excellent credit, and will probably purchase a house in Salt Lake City for about $700K. My wife telecommutes and will keep her current job and I will have a written contract for my new job. Thanks for any thoughts.

Renting for a year is great advice - we didn't for our first home and ended up really unhappy with where we were living. For our second we rented a year and fell in love with the neighborhood. Which of course means we could have jumped in and bought, but extra peace of mind knowing before buying.

Another plus was not having to bid on houses contingent of our own selling.

Good points about renting. That would be ideal for the reasons that you describe but, from what I have seen so far, finding a rental with our 3 large dogs is likely going to be tough.

I'm moving for a university job so there is no relocation assistance on the home-selling/home-buying side.

Ah, well that sounds fairly stable so you might as well just jump in.

Is telecommutes and "working remote" same thing?

I recall it is what the Texas agencies call remote work. Before it was cool.

And btw, I'm jealous on the change of scenery..

I have a friend who move to SLC a little over 2 years ago. They rented for the first year then bought about a year ago. That is ideal if you can pull it off.

My friend was a life long Texan but now loves it in SLC. Lots of outdoor activities. Cost of living higher than Texas though.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We've done mortgages twice with Jay before, so I'll definitely reach out to him. We'll probably take another look at rentals, too, but I'm not too hopeful that we'll find a lot of options eager to lease to a couple with two Great Pyrenees mixes and a Siberian Husky.

I am in a similar situation and I have learned yet again, money talks. The house I am looking to rent in the new locale said no pets over 25lbs. I have a 110lbs black mouth cur that needs a yard and I need 4 bedrooms. Asked if I paid a $100 extra a month if we could get the rental lease done and she said absolutely.

I did a bridge loan with Jay for this. Risk is super high rate if your current house doesn't sell quickly.

I have no dog in the fight having been retired for a couple of years but a HELOC usually has a promo rate for 6 to 12 months and is interest only for 10 years if a sale doesn't happen quickly.