Reinvestment · Selling to buy again
Syncing the sale and the purchase: dates are not endured, they are designed
"The dates were out of our hands." It is the line you hear most when a chained transaction goes badly — and it is almost never true. The dates of a sale are conditions, not fate: the deadline for your sale, the signing of your purchase and the margins between them are negotiated just like the price. Syncing them is the core of selling your home to buy another — and it is design work, not luck.
The problem: accepting the calendar as it comes
Usually each transaction arrives with its own "factory" dates: the buyer of your home proposes theirs, the seller of the next one proposes theirs, and each contract is signed on its own. An undesigned calendar does what two uncoordinated trains do: crash. Handing over your home falls before the signing of the new one, or your buyer's financing is delayed just when your own purchase cannot wait.
Syncing turns the order around: first you decide which date each transaction needs —looking at both at once— and then you negotiate each deadline with that map in front of you. The date stops being something that happens to you and becomes something you ask for.
The numbers come before the dates
There is a prior step without which no calendar holds: the sums. Chained transactions do not collapse on day one — they collapse halfway, because the sale funds the purchase and a single budget carries both. If the sale yields less than expected, or costs appear that nobody counted, the hole is not visible at signing: it shows later, when there is no room left to manoeuvre.
The numbers do not fail halfway; they failed at the start — halfway is just where you find out. That is why the sums are done in full and beforehand: what is really left from the sale, what the purchase really costs and what margin there is between the two. The calculator estimates it for you for free, and with that number the dates are negotiated from a different position.
The deposit contract is where the calendar is signed
The deposit contract (arras) is when the calendar becomes a commitment: how long until the notary, what conditions must be met beforehand and what happens if something is delayed. In a chained transaction, the type of deposit you sign also shares out the risk differently — the Civil Code expressly regulates a deposit that lets you pull out at a price, and contracts allow others that do not — so it pays to choose it knowing that your sale is carrying your purchase. The three types and what each protects are in the deposit contract guide.
The "what ifs" are answered there, before signing — not afterwards. What if the buyer's mortgage is delayed or falls through? What if the handover of the new home moves? What happens to the deposit in each scenario? It pays to agree those cases expressly in the deposit contract — deadlines, extensions and what happens to the deposit —: the law leaves those conditions to the parties, and once signed they are no longer negotiated: they are accepted. And that safety net is not an internet template — it is drafted by someone who knows the law and knows your transaction, because your net has to hold your weight, not a generic one.
Margin: the difference between an adjustment and a drama
Can anyone guarantee that everything fits to the day? No — and whoever promises it is selling you smoke. What you can do is sync with margin: each deadline has its slack, so a delay is an adjustment and not a drama. Financing that takes two weeks longer, a deed signing that moves a few days — all of that is foreseen in a designed calendar, and completely throws an improvised one.
The real stages of a sale and their approximate timings —how long each step takes and what depends on you— are in the timeline of a property sale. Syncing is no more than putting two of those calendars side by side and making them fit on purpose. The overall picture —timings, money and contracts turning together— is in selling and buying at the same time.
Frequently asked questions
Can the dates of a sale really be negotiated?
Yes: they are conditions of the contract, like the price. The deadline to the deed, the handover date and any possible extensions are agreed — and in a chained transaction they are agreed looking at both transactions at once, not each on its own.
What happens if my buyer's financing is delayed?
Whatever you agreed in the deposit contract — which is why the scenario should be foreseen expressly: how long you can wait, with what extensions and what happens to the deposit. If it is not in writing, the delay turns into a hard-nosed negotiation at the worst possible moment.
Can I sign my sale and my purchase on the same day?
It can be arranged, and in well-joined transactions it is done: both signings back to back, even at the same notary. It requires both calendars to have been designed together from the deposit contract on — it is the result of syncing, not a last-minute trick.
What comes first: the dates or the numbers?
The numbers. Without knowing what is really left from the sale, any calendar is decoration. With the sums done, each date is negotiated knowing what margin you have — and that shows in every deadline you ask for.
Ten minutes on your case
Your specific calendar —which date each transaction needs and where you need margin— is not solved in the abstract. Start by calculating what you would be left with and, if you want to draw the map with someone, ask us for a ten-minute call. The full plan, in selling your home to buy another.
Calculate what you would be left withYour assets are no place to improvise.