Every Realtor in Texas has this client. The family that’s outgrown the three-bedroom in Round Rock. Maybe there's a new baby, a new job in Frisco, or a parent moving in. They've toured, they've found the house, and they're ready. Then someone asks the question that stalls more deals than interest rates ever will: "Do we sell first, or buy first?"
Right now, that question matters more than usual. According to Texas Realtors, statewide inventory reached 5.5 months in the third quarter of 2026, and active listings rose 2.8% from a year earlier. Yet closed sales fell 2.4%. Some of the people who could be buying are homeowners whose down payment is locked inside the house they live in.
An idea born in the Navy
Tim Herman, UpEquity's founder and CEO, didn't come to this problem through real estate. He came to it through the military.
Before founding UpEquity, Herman flew F/A-18s off aircraft carriers and was one of the Navy's first F-35C pilots. Like most military families, his moved often. Every move brought the same puzzle. Sell first, and you might have nowhere to live. Buy first, and you risk carrying two homes, or writing a contingent offer that sellers don't take seriously.
Herman figured there had to be a better way. After leaving the Navy, he went to Harvard Business School, and in 2019 he founded UpEquity in Austin.
From the start, the company made one decision that shaped everything else: it would not try to replace agents or loan officers. The homeowners who need this help already trust someone. UpEquity's job is to give that person a better tool.
Buy first, move once, sell later
The idea behind UpEquity's Trade Up program is simple: let homeowners buy their next home before they sell their current one. Here's how it works:
A backup offer on the current home. UpEquity makes a backup offer to buy the client's existing home, removing the home-sale contingency.
Equity, unlocked. UpEquity advances the equity trapped in that home so the client can use it toward the down payment on the new one.
A stronger purchase offer. With a down payment in hand and no home-sale contingency, the client competes like any other strong buyer, closes, and moves in.
A better sale. With the family moved out, the old home can be prepped, staged and listed, aiming to sell for top dollar.
The client chooses their own agent and their own lender. That's by design.
For Realtors: your next deals are already in your database
Start with the leads who went quiet. They toured, they asked good questions, and some even fell in love with a house. Then they hit pause. Juggling a sale, a purchase, a move and a family all at once felt like too much. They didn't stop wanting the home; they lost confidence in the plan. Those buyers are worth a second call, this time with a simpler path.
Top agents aren't waiting on new leads. They're looking at the past clients they closed five or ten years ago, who have built real equity and keep saying "someday." Often, "someday" really means "I don't know how to do this without moving twice." Answer that, and a conversation becomes a plan.
Buying before selling changes the work itself:
Two transactions, one client. You represent the purchase and the listing, rather than watching a family stay put.
Cleaner offers. A non-contingent offer competes on equal footing, even when inventory is tight in a particular neighborhood.
Easier listings. A vacant, staged home shows better than one with kids, pets and a 7 a.m. school run inside it.
Fewer deals lost late. When a contingent offer is about to lose to a cleaner one, you have another move to make.
It gives you one more answer to the hardest question your clients ask.
For loan officers: keep the borrower you already won
Loan officers see the sell-first-or-buy-first problem from a different angle. The borrower is qualified on paper, but the down payment is sitting in a house that hasn't sold. The file stalls, the client goes quiet, and months later they buy with someone else, or not at all.
Debt-to-income is the other wall. Many move-up borrowers can't qualify while carrying two mortgages. Because the backup offer commits to buying the existing home, that home effectively comes out of the borrower's DTI, so they can qualify for the new mortgage on its own.
With equity available before the sale, the down payment no longer waits on a buyer, and the purchase moves on a real timeline. You keep the loan, and the borrower gets to the closing table instead of the sidelines.
There's a relationship benefit, too. Agents remember the lender who brought them a way to save a deal. When referral partners have plenty of lenders to choose from, an answer to the move-up problem stands out.
Texas families shouldn't have to move twice
Texas keeps growing because people keep building lives here. They change jobs, have kids, care for aging parents and decide it's time their dog gets a bigger yard. Each of those moments starts with a homeowner who wants to move and isn't sure how.
Whether or not they ever work with UpEquity, Texas agents and loan officers have good reason to treat buy-before-you-sell as a standard part of the toolkit, not a niche product. For Herman, it's the conversation he wishes his family had been offered every time the Navy sent them somewhere new.
The homeowners on the sidelines aren't uninterested. Most of them just need a plan.
UpEquity is an Austin-based, veteran-owned mortgage company, founded by Tim Herman, that helps homeowners buy their next home before selling their current one. NMLS #2101265.