When sellers are buyers, how do you manage logistics of moving?

In an earlier time, some of the home-sellers I worked with didn't want to be "homeless" or move twice, so they put their house on the market AFTER buying their next home. Not everyone has the financial ability to do this, and probably less so now than then. But, some of my clients did have the assets to, so for a while they had two mortgage payments (maybe three if you count the bridge loan separately). Once the new house was purchased, they moved and the old house was sparsely furnished and showed very well.

Then the payments kicked in. After the clients had made one (or more) of these extra payments, they started getting anxious and cranky. For the ones that were doing this at the beginning of the market decline, it was especially nerve-wracking. More on that story in another post.

Nowadays, bridge loans don't seem to come up. Maybe the market reputation has made people wary of grabbing the next mortgage before they know they're shut of the first one or maybe people don't feel so flush with cash after all. Anyways, sellers who are buying (in the area) are trying to manage concurrent closings.

And I'm racking my brain to devise a system or process to help. If we call the seller-buyer 'SB', the person buying the seller-buyer's house 'B' and the seller selling the house seller-buyer is buying 'S', then maybe we can sort something out. First, the situation: B wants possession of the house when the deed records. Not unreasonable, but negotiable. Risk in today's market is that a glitch happens and SB is moved and the transaction fails at last minute. Agonizing to consider, but it does happen. Usually, B wants to close on Friday and have the weekend to move in. Not unreasonable, but SB wants the weekend to move out. Delima. The other side of the transaction is not easier. S wants to close on Friday and move over the weekend. S wants possession to be three days after recording. Not unreasonable, although insurance coverage and other potential issues have to be considered. Our poor SB is stuck there in the middle - especially if S isn't willing to accommodate.

How to accommodate everyone? That's what's keeping me awake. If, out of meanness or circumstance, S can't move until recording of deed and must have two days to accomplish move, and SB can't finance purchase until their home sells, and B needs to move on weekend, how is cost and stress reduced for SB?

I've heard of even more transactions being strung together. Managing the transaction and coordinating the timing of paper events is one thing, and I'm cool with that, so if I could devise or learn a strategy for the SB, I could maximize my service to SB (and S and B). Got ideas? Experience?

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