You found your new dream house you want to live in. There is only a slight problem – you have not sold your existing house yet. Sure, you could go for financing the new house and carry 2 mortgages until your existing house sells, but in today's market that is very risky and you would need to have a lot of cash and good credit scores to do so. I personally advise against carrying 2 mortgages on 2 different houses in a scenario like this. Rather speed up the process of selling your existing house.
Put your marketing hat on and get going. Look at the housing market in your area – especially your neighborhood. Who are your competitors? What sets them apart from your house? Are those houses better equipped than yours or is their location a plus? Analyze the market and prepare a list. Identify homes that will not sell because the owner is just not doing enough to make them ready for the market.
As an example, when you are having a showing, make the house ready for the showing. Do not just leave the house and think it will sell itself. It will not! Start by cleaning up. Remove clutter. Rent a storage unit and move boxes and unused furniture out. Make room to have the house make a larger larger appearance. If you have "personalized" your house a lot, remove some of those personalization. Potential buyers need to be able to imagine them self owning your house. It will not help having your pictures of last fishing trip all over the walls. Less is definitely more.
If all homes in your neighborhood are priced at the top range of the price class, consider placing your listing 2-4 Percent below those prices – if you can afford it. Often $ 5,000 or $ 10,000 optical difference will close the deal. This works especially well if you have a lot of equity on your house and can afford this move. It will speed up the sales process and drive in offers. It also takes away ammunition on the buyers side. If they want to low ball you, you can always point out that all the other houses in the area are much more expensive and so on. You get the idea that you are just lowering your price upfront and not when an offer comes in.
It's not a single one marketing point that will sell your house. It is a combination of marketing efforts that will sell your house. Do not go the single marketing route. Use many different marketing channels and your house will sell for sure. Price it right – especially if you already found your future house. You might also want to consider talking to the seller of the other house to see how flexible they are with accepting your offer, but to delay closing the deal until you can sell your house. You might have to pay asking price, but that incentive can make the difference.