I did this a few years ago. I sold right as the pandemic swept through, March- April 2020. The pros for me were: rental was actually slightly less than my mortgage, as were utilities, so there was some immediate savings - probably on par or slightly more than I got in equity from the principal portion of my mortgage payment each month. I also didn’t need a sale contingency on my offers - no worrying about the daisy chain of selling and buying simultaneously. I almost had an issue with my previous sale where the buyer quit his job right before settlement and his mortgage company did an income verification and almost pulled mortgage until his father co-signed. That spooked me

I also did a 6 month lease, not a year, with the expectation that I would find something in that time period and then could go month to month without a penalty for breaking lease if I didn’t. It ended up working out for me because I found something and had a month left on my lease after settlement to paint, update, and move in slowly.

Really the only con was moving twice in a short period of time and needing a storage unit @ 100 a month for a few months.

I don’t see any financial reason why this doesn’t make sense personally if it’s worth your peace of mind.