KARAKTER Realty · Calgary Downsizing

Sell first or buy first when downsizing in Calgary

Why this decision is different for a downsizer

An upsizer worries about carrying two mortgages. A downsizer usually worries about the opposite problem: selling the family home and then having nowhere they want to go. The money runs the other direction too. The house you are leaving is the larger asset, and the home you are buying often costs half of it or less.

Take a common case. A SW Calgary house sells for $1.15M with $150,000 still owing. Selling costs at the traditional Calgary commission rate, with GST and legal, come to about $42,000 and leave roughly $958,000. A $650,000 condo bought outright, plus about 0.8% in Alberta closing costs, needs about $655,200. That family can buy without a mortgage and still has about $303,000 left over. The downsizing analyzer runs this for your numbers.

Because the sale funds the purchase so comfortably, the risks in a downsize are timing and fit. That is why the sequence decision deserves a real conversation instead of a rule of thumb.

When selling first is the right call

Sell first when the purchase depends on the sale proceeds and you do not want to borrow against the house to bridge the gap. You list, accept an offer, and let the conditions come off. From that point your equity is a known number and you shop with no subject-to-sale condition weakening your offer.

The tool that makes selling first work is a long possession date. Asking for 60 to 90 days between the firm sale and possession gives you two to three months to find and buy the smaller home. Some buyers will pay a little less for a long possession, so Ryan reads the buyer pool for your community before setting the terms. A rent-back is the other option: you sell, close, and lease the home back from the buyer for a short, agreed period.

If the timing still does not line up, a furnished rental fills the gap. In Calgary a 30 to 60 day furnished rental typically runs $2,500 to $5,000 a month, plus storage. That is real money, but it is bounded and you know it in advance.

When buying first makes sense

Buy first when the home you want is scarce. A main-floor bungalow on a quiet street, a specific condo building, or a villa complex with few units may come up once a year. Waiting until your house sells can mean watching it go to someone else.

There are three ways to fund a buy-first downsize. Savings or investments can cover the purchase outright. A HELOC registered against your current home lets you draw the purchase funds and repay them from the sale; it has to be set up while you still own the house, and most lenders want it in place before you list. A bridge loan works once your sale is firm, covering the days between the two closings. The bridge financing guide covers the cost math.

The risk is carrying two homes if the sale runs long. Count property tax, utilities, insurance, and upkeep on both, and ask your insurer how a vacant house is covered, since many policies limit coverage once a home sits empty for an extended period.

Offers conditional on your sale

A purchase offer conditional on selling your current home is weak in a tight market and workable in a looser one. Condo supply has generally run higher than detached supply in Calgary: in April 2026, apartments and row homes sat at 4.6 months of supply while detached homes were under 2.5. A condo seller facing more competition is more likely to accept a sale condition than a detached seller in a hot segment.

If you go this route, list your house first and have it showing well. A sale condition attached to a home that is already on the market, priced right, reads as a plan. A sale condition attached to a home that is not listed yet reads as a wish.

How Ryan reads the decision

Three questions settle most cases. How much of the purchase depends on the sale proceeds? How scarce is the specific home you want? And how much would a gap cost you, in money and in disruption? Ryan pulls current supply for the segment you are buying into and the days on market for your own community from the live market reports, then lays out both paths with the numbers side by side.

The answer often changes during the search. Someone who planned to sell first finds the right bungalow early and switches to a HELOC. Someone who planned to buy first sees thin demand for their house and decides to sell first after all. The plan is a starting point, revisited as the market answers.

This page is for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. Always engage qualified professionals (mortgage broker, lawyer, accountant, financial planner) for your specific situation. KARAKTER Realty is licensed under RECA.

Updated 2026-10-23