You find a new place you can close on simultaneously with this house sale (or the next day and stay in a hotel for a night), you ask for a rent back option, or you bite the bullet and find temporary housing (either a rental or the friends and family plan).

Why is temporary housing not an option? Will you burst into flames if you set foot in a rental?

We rented a house for a while until we found the house we wanted. Yes, moving twice is a pain, but it was WELL worth it.

Your bargaining power goes up enormously when you don't have a house to sell, and if you find a house that you want to do some work on, you can have it done before you move in.

In a heartbeat, if I sold this house someday, I would totally do another 6 month rental house to find at my leisure just the house I want.

It also is a very, very good way to make you take a hard look at all the crap you accumulate and say "do I really want to move this twice?" We sold a LOT of stuff at a garage sale, gave a lot of stuff to goodwill, and threw a TON of stuff out. Now when I think about buying "stuff", I go, will I want to move that someday. It's a good clutter prevention techique (heh hehe).

I'd try to negotiated closing date or leaseback if you can. Certainly can't hurt to ask.

Be glad your house sold so quickly--we're the other way around: bought a new one and trying to sell the old one. It never works out . . .

We bought first and sold second, and the closings were within two weeks of each other. I think we got lucky. We did NOT want to move twice, and I don't blame the OP for not wanting to either. Plus, we did not want to lose the house we knew was perfect for us.

Renting something is not an option because we are a family of 7 including someone elderly, 3 small kids, and pets.

There is nothing in this area to rent even adding another 30 minutes to my husband's hour commute and having to drive the 3 kids to 2 different schools.

So, yes I probably would burst into flames from the stress.

Ah, that makes sense. We have a lot of good rental options where I live, even with the menagerie of pets that we own.

Are you SURE there is nothing in the area? Have you looked into it seriously?

If you call a local real estate agent and say, I have Grandma, three kids and 2 dogs and I want to rent a house for 6 months and pay 1500 and we're looking for our next house, he'll either say, no way (unlikely), or "I'll find that for you", probably with one of his other listings that's stale on the market and the owners would do anything to get some income rolling in on it.

It doesn't have to be stressful if you approach it calmly and with a game plan. Buying a house that you don't really like because you had to, that's stressful for me...

We are going to make an offer on a house, but it's not my dream house. It's barely big enough and it's not decorated in my taste. Abviously I can fix the decorating and my husband says we can add a sunroom/porch to give it a little more space.

It has a big yard, but it's not level. My husband thinks we can build a small retaining wall and bring in dirt to level. That was one of main reasons for moving to givie the kids room to play in the yard.

I just seems like a lot of work (painting, flooring, yard, sunroom, etc.).

Here's what I'm currently in for a situation. Realize, I may be the exception not the standard.

We went under contract for full asking price shortly after putting our house on the market in Feb/march. closing was to be 4/25/2008. Our realtor urged us to sell first, get the $$ then buy. Well, as luck would have it, the closing was 'postponed'. Then again, and again over the past 13 days or so. We moved into my in-laws a few towns over by 4/25 and have been there since. We still have not closed.
As of today, 5/9 we still have not closed but have given our buyer until Monday a.m. to have everything ready to go and until Wednesday to have the closing. On that day the house will go back on the market and damages will be collected for failure to secure financing. They are on 'round 3 of obtaining a mortage'.

Husband and I work opposite shifts, we live at his parents and we drive to pre-school 3 days a week and soccer one day on the weekend in the town we are selling our home in.
Last week my husband kept telling me it looked like my head was about to explode! It is so frustrating. But trying to see the glass as half full - I am THANKFUL I did not have a closing on a house I wanted to buy the same day as the one I need to sell b/c then I'd be in a pickle and have 2 mortages - then we would have really seen some head explosion!

It's all a pain in the you know what, but we could be in a much, much worse situation.