I can't speak for your situation, only you know what you can take on. For us though, we knew we were going to build, already bought the lot so we put our house on the market. We wanted to wait to have our house sold before we built for 2 reasons, the first, so we would know how much $$ we had to use on the new home and secondly for my sanity( not sure if that one is working out so well). I wanted to enjoy the building process and did not want to dread each day my new house was closer to completion due to worrying about 2 house payments. We knew how the housing market is and we also knew that we were not going to give our house away so we knew we had to be willing to sit on it and wait. We just sold, 7 1/2 months later and now I am boxing up and we will be moving into a townhome in the same community we are building in because we want to be at the home site as much as possible. I am not looking forward to moving twice BUT the good side is that we are going to be getting rid of some stuff in the move which won't clutter the new house and since the kids will have to share a bedroom in the rental, I am hoping it will make us all appreciate the new place once we're in. I think you have to look at your own individual family, lifestyle, economic status, etc. befor deciding what you should do. Good luck, it's definitely a gamble!

Our original plans was to start building in December and put our house up for sale about six months into the build. Due to the economy that has changed. We are planning to put our house up for sale within the next two weeks and start building once we sale. We would rather delay our building than to be stuck with two house notes or to shortsell our home.

In this market across the country....list it NOW!!!...If you're one of the lucky ones in this day....and actually sell...rent an apartment.

Our problem is there are no apartments available here. We are a fairly small town and only have one aparment complex that is not government assisted. There are a few rent houses available, but they are not located in a good part of town. We are a family of five with a 15, 7 and 4 year old. We definitely wouldn't feel safe.

If you will be working with a real estate agent go ahead and contact now. They will be able to tell you how long it's taking for homes to sell in your area and price point. If you do sell before your are finished with your home try to get a rent back. That's what we did and it worked pretty well.

As a side note, timing the sell of a house is like timing the stock market . . . pretty much impossible.

Especially in this housing market I would sell now. Unless you can afford 2 house payments. If you can afford to make payments on both houses then you could risk waiting. Personally......I am with missstaceyh...I would not be able to stand the thought of not knowing whether the house was going to sell or not. And when we were making those decisions the economy was fine.

We did sell within a week and had 6 weeks to pack up a house we had lived in for 23 years. We moved into our new house suite above the garage but if that had not been built in time we were prepared to camp in a travel trailer if we had to. I am glad it did not come to that! I guess since rentals are difficult to come by in your region you could rent your house if 2 payments were not an option but there are risks involved with that too. How quickly do you expect your house to be built? Do you have relatives who live close by?

List it NOW. Chances are, in this housing market, you'll be able to live there through most of your build anyway. If you do sell it before the new house is done, you're going to have to make a sacrifice for a few months and rent. Most of us are not in "ideal" living situations during the construction process, but we need to make sacrifices. People live with in-laws, live in teeny trailers, live in unfavorable parts of town... it will be worth it in the end!

If you can afford two houses, list it when convenient. If you can't afford two houses, then I'd list it immediately and if having two houses would be an impossible burden I would sell it before you even start to build. You will be able to find an alternate place to live during contruction if necessary. I've known several people who have been stuck with two houses, two mortgages, two property tax bills, two lawns to maintain, etc. and it has been very stressful for them.

I'd sell it first. The economy will get worse before it gets better, and better will probably be a long time in coming.

Most people go over budget on building, intentionally or otherwise, so plan for extra money there.

Is there a town within commuting distance where you could rent? Not an ideal solution, but not being able to sell a house in a down economy for possibly several years would be a drain in all sorts of ways.

Anne

DD and DSIL listed their house late last summer and have had lookers but no offers.

We'll be in our new house in April, and they plan to move into our downstairs late summer so their first-grader can start school where she'll be when they build -- on the lot next door to ours. They'll begin the house when this one sells, but in this economy, who knows when that will be. They just don't want to risk two payments at the same time.

YESTERDAY~~~unless you can afford two mortgages. I personally am waiting to start building until after this house sells.....that will mean renting while the other house is being built, but better than having two houses~~

We are waiting to list our house until a month or so before our new build is to be finished due to difficulty in preparing a house to show with 2 crazy kids and 6 pets in residence and a spouse and myself that work nights and sleep during the day. Our new house is within 20 minutes of our current house and the plan is to list it for up to 6 months (extra $ stashed away for this) and if it doesn't sell, use it as a rental for a year (or a few years) until the market improves. We have a couple other rental properties so this isn't completely uncharted territory for us, but it may be an option for those unable to sell current house and already have a build underway.