Buying Your Next Home? A Guide for Next-Time Buyers
Are you a next-time buyer looking to buy your next home? Then you'll face different challenges than when you bought your first home. You need to sell your current home, find a new one, and often decide quickly. Libero Aankoop is the buyer's agent for next-time buyers and helps you with a smart bidding strategy and successful negotiations.
We don't come along to viewings. Instead, we specialise in the part that really matters when buying your next home: making a winning offer and negotiating. That saves you time and money.
When are you a next-time buyer?
You're a next-time buyer if you already own a home and are moving to another one. That might be because your family is growing, you want to relocate to a different region, or you're ready for a home that better suits your current life. Unlike a first-time buyer, you already have experience buying a house. You know how an offer, a purchase agreement, and the transfer at the notary work.
The difference with first-time buyers is mainly the added complexity. As a next-time buyer, you need to sell your current home while also searching for a new one. Often there's equity involved, and sometimes an existing mortgage you want to carry over. That combination makes moving up in the housing market slightly more complicated than buying your first home.
What challenges do next-time buyers face when buying their next home?
Selling and buying at the same time
Sell first, and you risk your dream home being gone already. Buy first, and you might end up with double housing costs. We think it through with you: together we look at which order works best, selling first, buying first, or running both processes at the same time.
Competition from first-time buyers and other next-time buyers
The housing market is tight. You're competing with buyers who are just as well prepared. Our bidding strategy gives you up to 4x more chance of getting the home.
Moving fast without mistakes
With more than twenty years of experience, we know exactly what to watch for in the purchase agreement, even if you've bought a home before.
Besides these challenges, a few practical matters also come into play as a next-time buyer:
- Double housing costs: temporarily paying two mortgages, or rent and a mortgage side by side.
- Timing: the sale of your current home and the purchase of your new one need to line up.
- The chain: your purchase sometimes depends on the sale of your current home to another buyer.
- Bridging mortgage: often needed to cover the period between buying and selling.
- Selling subject to conditions: gives you certainty, but also brings negotiation points of its own. Take a look at our no-risk clause as an alternative.
What advantages does a next-time buyer have?
Moving to a new home also has clear advantages compared to buying your first home:
- Equity: your current home is often worth more than your mortgage debt, which gives you extra funds of your own.
- More funds of your own: this sometimes lets you get a higher mortgage or make a sharper offer.
- Buying experience: you already know the process, from offer to purchase agreement and notary.
- Stronger position: with equity and experience, you're often in a firmer negotiating position than a first-time buyer.
What does the buying process look like for a next-time buyer?
Together with your mortgage adviser (from Libero Financieel), you work out your maximum budget, taking your expected equity into account.
With a home valuation or an appraisal, you know exactly how much equity you can put towards your next home.
Our bidding strategy gives you up to 4x more chance of getting the home. We usually put together a well-founded offer within a few hours.
We negotiate on your behalf over the price, the completion date, and any conditions.
We check the purchase agreement for clauses that protect you, such as financing and a structural survey.
For the transfer of your new home, we coordinate the timing with the sale of your current one.
How does our buyer's agent help next-time buyers?
We guide you through the most important part of the buying process: the bidding strategy, negotiations, and checking the purchase agreement. Thanks to more than twenty years of experience and over 39.100 home buyers helped, including many next-time buyers, our buyer's agents know exactly which bidding strategy works in which situation.
- A well-founded offer within a few hours
- New listings up to 48 hours before Funda
- Negotiating with no conflicting interests, 100% on your side
- A fixed base rate of € 1.795,-, regardless of the purchase price
- Purchase agreement review by our specialists
Using your equity for your next home
As a next-time buyer, you often have equity in your current home. You can use that equity as funds of your own when buying your next home, which lets you make a sharper offer or means you need a smaller mortgage. A home valuation gives you an accurate picture of that equity.
Arranging a bridging mortgage or the right type of mortgage isn't something we do ourselves, that's the domain of a mortgage adviser. Our sister organisation Libero Financieel gives you independent advice on equity, bridging finance, and the rest of your financing. That way you arrange your purchase and your financing under one roof.
What should you pay attention to as a next-time buyer?
- Conditions: make sure these are properly recorded in the purchase agreement, for example for financing.
- Completion date: align the completion date of your new home with the sale of your current one.
- Selling your current home: decide early on how and when you'll sell your current home.
- Financing: make sure your financing is arranged before you make an offer.
- Equity and bridging mortgage: work out beforehand how much equity you have and whether you need a bridging mortgage.
Frequently asked questions from next-time buyers
A next-time buyer is someone who already owns a home and is buying another one. Often the current home and the new home are sold and bought more or less at the same time.
That depends on the value of your current home and your outstanding mortgage debt. A home valuation gives you an accurate picture of this.
Often yes, for example if you buy your new home before your current one is sold. Our sister organisation Libero Financieel can advise you on this.
Yes, that's possible with a bridging mortgage. This gives you peace of mind while searching for your next home, but it does mean temporarily higher costs.
By carefully aligning the sale of your current home with the purchase of your new one, for example with a no-risk clause or a sale subject to conditions.
Ideally before you start searching. That way we can determine your search profile, budget, and bidding strategy together, before you plan your first viewing.
Yes. Even if you already have experience, a buyer's agent helps you with a stronger bidding strategy and saves you time during negotiations.
That depends on your situation and the housing market. We look together at which order works best: selling first, buying first, or running both processes at the same time.
We work with a fixed base rate of € 1.795,-, regardless of the purchase price of your new home. See all the details on our rates page.
As a next-time buyer you often have more options than a first-time buyer, but also more choices to make. The right bidding strategy, good planning, and clear agreements about selling and buying make the difference. Follow our step-by-step home buying guide or find out directly how making an offer on a home works, and take the step towards your next home with confidence.
Ready for your next home?
Tell us your situation and we'll start thinking it through with you right away.