Sell first or buy first? The right order when you’re downsizing
What’s the right way to do this? We get asked constantly. Sell first, and you could be left with nowhere to go. Buy first, and you have committed before you know what your home is worth or when you can pay for it.
There isn’t one right answer. It depends on where you’re heading, because the three most common destinations work in three completely different ways.
If you’re buying a property in the residential market
Here you’re competing with the whole market, not just other downsizers. When you find a property you want, what matters is being able to put a strong offer forward.
You can make an offer subject to the sale of your home, but in a competitive situation a seller may take a cleaner offer, even at a slightly lower price. Equally, you may not want to list until you know the right property is out there. That is the bind, and the way out of it is being ready to move when it appears.
That sounds like pressure. It isn’t, if you start early. Being ready is a short list:
You know what the home is realistically worth, not what you hope it’s worth.
The campaign is planned and any presentation work is done or costed, so nothing takes six weeks to arrange.
The decluttering has started. Not finished. Started.
Your seller disclosure pack is in hand.
That last one is newer than most sellers realise. Since 1 August 2025, the Property Law Act 2023 (Qld) has required a seller to give a buyer a disclosure statement and a set of prescribed certificates before the buyer signs the contract. The certificates take time to obtain, so if you want to move on a property the week you find it, that pack needs to be sitting ready rather than started on the day.
If you’re moving into a retirement village
This works very differently, and it’s where most people are surprised. How much time you have depends on the apartment: a resale from an outgoing resident, or a new one, either off the plan or built but not yet lived in.
Buying a resale
There is more urgency here, because resales only come up as an apartment becomes available. If there is a waitlist for the retirement village, outgoing residents and operators will favour a cash contract, because it allows a swift handover and gets the outgoing resident their exit entitlement sooner.
This is not always the case. Some operators will hold an apartment for you under a subject-to-sale clause while you actively sell. When your house sells, you settle on the apartment.
Buying new
HHere you usually have time. While the village finishes construction and your move-in date is confirmed, you can ease into the move rather than rush it: start the decluttering slowly, and take up the events operators often host so new residents can get to know each other before they arrive.
For apartments that haven’t sold before, operators will usually offer a subject-to-sale clause, giving you an agreed period to sell your home and settle on the apartment, and usually more flexibility on terms and timing.
Deposits are refundable under the Retirement Villages Act 1999 (Qld), not left to the operator’s discretion.
Sales teams at villages deal with this constantly. An incoming resident selling a family home is the normal path in, not the exception.
So the sequence is negotiable, provided the conversation starts before you’re under pressure. Where it goes wrong is when someone finds the apartment they want, discovers there’s a waitlist for that floor plan, and has to rush a sale to secure it.
If you’re moving into residential aged care
Here, timing usually isn’t a choice at all.
Entry is needs-based. It follows an assessment, and it’s often triggered by something sudden: a fall, a hospital discharge, a diagnosis, a carer who can no longer manage. Families who thought they had time find they don’t have many options.
This ient consultant and a financial adviser will lay out the options and help you work out which one makes sense, and we are glad to point you to people we know and trust.
On the property side, having a specialist manage the sale when that phone call comes means you are not explaining the situation from scratch. The plan gets made with care, by someone who understands that everything coming next depends on it.
And if there’s a gap between the two?
Sometimes there’s a short window between selling and moving in. It’s one of the most ordinary parts of this move, and there are straightforward ways to handle it:
A longer settlement.
A negotiated move-in date at the other end.
A short-term rent-back, so you stay on in the home after settlement.
A coordinated handover, so the two dates are set to meet.
With your permission, we deal directly with the sales team at the place you’re going, so the two timelines are talking to each other instead of you standing in the middle of them. Most agents sell the home and stop there. We treat the sale as one part of a bigger move, because that’s what it is.
What all three have in common
Start early and the decision stays yours. Leave it and the decision starts making itself.
Ray White Downsizing is a specialist Brisbane agency built for this move, and getting us involved early doesn’t commit you to anything. It means that when you find the place you want, or when circumstances decide for you, the property side is already lined up: you know your number, the home is ready, and we can move at the speed the situation needs rather than the speed a standing start allows.
Not sure yet? That’s fine
Plenty of people have this conversation a year or two before anything happens. That’s the ideal time to have it, not the wrong one.
If you’d like to know what your home is worth and how the timing might work for where you’re heading, our lead agent Kirralee Couch will talk it through with you. Call her on 0418 871 554. No cost, no commitment, and no expectation that you’re ready.
About Ray White Downsizing
A specialist Brisbane service for people selling the family home to move into a retirement village, an over-50s community, a smaller home, or residential aged care.
Kirralee Couch leads it, with 16 years in property and close to a decade of that inside the retirement living industry. She handles every sale herself and coordinates it around the rest of the move, at the pace that suits the family.
Thinking about downsizing? Call Kirralee today.