I wasted $900 and opened a HELOC on our old home larger enough for the down payment in the new one.

The idea was it would be easier to sell our place if we were out of it (have a lot of kids, toys, etc.).

In the end, open door actually offered a price well above what i thought the house was worth (doubt they are still doing that—they took a bunch of losses around this time a little less than two years ago). So we got to set the date of sale to line up perfectly and rent back for 7 days to make the move easier.

Knowing more of your situation would help. For me moving twice would be a nightmare.

Other options to look into if you don’t have enough equity in your house for HELOC is a bridge loan. Bridge loans can be used if the sale date and purchase date don’t line up perfectly (this is similar to the HELOC idea above). Basically you buy house 2/1, but have agreement to sell your house 2/20. You need a bridge loan for the new house down payment. Once your house sells 20 days later or whatever you pay off the bridge loan.

For me figuring out a way to make the financing work where we had ownership or access to both houses for a time and paying a bit of extra interest for a few months was way WAY better than moving twice. For you it may be different.