Meet with your agent far
in advance of listing or house hunting. You need them to brief you on
items like how long you should expect your home to take to sell on
today's market, what (if anything) you can do to move it faster, and
whether listing after doing some improvements to your home, at a
different time of year or at a different price point than you had
planned can realistically be expected to make an impact on your time
frame.
You also need their professional opinion as to what
price you can expect to get for your home. This will impact whether you
need to consider a short sale (if your home's value is less than you
owe on it, for example) which, in turn may affect your ability to
qualify for a home loan in the short-term. (Short sales often make it
difficult to qualify for a new home loan for a couple of years.) If you
need to buy in the near-term, but your home is unlikely to sell except
as a short sale, you'll need to discuss the legalities and logistics
with your mortgage professional, attorney and/or a CPA, as well.
Actually,
the information about how long your home will take to sell, how much
you can expect to sell it for and whether you're expecting to have to
sell it at a short sale is all information you'll need to provide to
your mortgage professional, so definitely collect it as early as
possible in the process. A year before you need to move is not too soon
to have your first meet up with your agent.