How to Buy Help Clients Buy Before They Sell
This episode introduces HomeLight's Buy Before You Sell program — a 0% interest bridge loan that lets move-up buyers unlock equity and remove the departing residence from their DTI, enabling non-contingent purchase offers. LOs learn how the product works mechanically, how it's priced (2.4% of departing residence sale price), and how to use it as a wedge to win agent relationships. Best for LOs who regularly lose move-up buyer deals to DTI problems or home-sale contingencies.
A 0% bridge loan that triggers the Fannie/Freddie departing residence guideline lets LOs qualify move-up buyers on one mortgage payment instead of three — saving deals they'd otherwise have to turn away.
Takeaways you can run this week
- Visit lenders.homelight.com today and fill out the intake form to see if your company is already a HomeLight partner — if you're at Fairway, loanDepot, CrossCountry, or use The Loan Store wholesale channel, you may already have access.
- The next time a move-up buyer's DTI is blown by their existing mortgage, apply the Fannie/Freddie departing residence guideline: a bona fide, contingency-free cash offer on the departing residence removes that payment from DTI entirely — HomeLight's offer qualifies as that trigger.
- Host a 30-minute in-person or virtual class for 10+ agents, using HomeLight's free pitch decks and one-pagers (available on lenders.homelight.com), framing the product as your 'contingency buster' for their stuck buyers.
- Invite HomeLight's team to co-present a webinar to your agent list — they will join and handle the product explanation, then you close by showing agents how it fits your local market, reducing your prep time to near zero.
- When a deal is about to fall apart because a departing-residence contract collapsed, call HomeLight immediately — they can step in with a cash offer on the departing residence and rescue the closing, preserving your purchase commission.
- Rebrand the product under your own name (e.g., 'ABC Mortgage Contingency Buster') — HomeLight white-labels the program and only surfaces their name on required legal disclosures, so agents and clients associate the solution with you.
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GET FREE ACCESSThe playbook
- 1. Client owns a home and wants to buy a new one but faces two blockers: equity is locked up, and existing mortgage payment blows DTI.
- 2. LO submits the departing residence address, client name, and agent name at lenders.homelight.com.
- 3. HomeLight issues a contingency-free cash offer on the departing residence valid for 120 days after the client closes on the new home.
- 4. Because a bona fide contingency-free offer exists, the Fannie/Freddie departing residence guideline removes the existing mortgage payment from DTI.
- 5. HomeLight simultaneously issues a 0% interest bridge loan up to 75% CLTV on the departing residence (up to $2M equity unlock) — no monthly payment to count in DTI.
- 6. LO qualifies the client on the new purchase mortgage only, enabling a non-contingent offer.
- 7. Client closes on new home, moves out, stages the vacant property, and lists it on the open market.
- 8. Client has 120 days to sell on the open market at full market price; if unsold, HomeLight purchases it.
- 9. At closing of the departing residence sale, HomeLight collects 2.4% of the sale price as its fee.
- 10. LO earns their full origination commission on the new purchase mortgage.
Worth quoting
“You can now qualify the client for the new home only with the new payments — not with that existing mortgage payment, and not with that bridge loan payment.”
“I get to do something I thought was impossible — I get to literally save transactions and see agents' lives light up.”
Best for
LOs who regularly lose move-up buyer deals because the client's existing mortgage payment kills DTI or forces a home-sale contingency that sellers won't accept.