Case study | Written by Caitlin Ellis
How a Family Bought in Dominion Valley Before Their Condo Sold
A young couple needed to sell their Ashburn condo before they could buy a bigger house. In that market, sellers were not accepting offers that depended on another home selling first. We got theirs accepted on a golf course lot in Dominion Valley, then sold the condo in its first week at full asking price. They moved up without carrying two mortgages and without moving twice.
What was the situation?
A younger couple with a toddler owned a condo at Metro Walk at Moorefield Station in Ashburn. They wanted a single-family home in Prince William County with a yard, more room, and a neighborhood their daughter could grow up in.
They had narrowed it to two communities: Dominion Valley and Piedmont, both in Haymarket.
Why is it so hard to buy before your current home sells?
They needed the money from the condo to buy the house. In real estate that is called a home sale contingency, which just means your purchase only goes through if your current home sells. Most move-up buyers need one.
The problem was timing. Homes were listing on a Thursday and going under contract by Sunday, usually above asking price. When a seller has three clean offers by the weekend, there is no reason to take one that depends on somebody else's condo selling first. In that market it was not a weaker offer. For most sellers it was not an offer at all.
That left them with two bad choices. Sell the condo first and hope to find a house before they had nowhere to live, or keep writing offers that kept losing.
What did we recommend, and why?
We kept them contingent and went after the right house instead of the most houses.
A contingent offer gets accepted when the seller believes the contingency will clear quickly. That is not about the buyer's paperwork. It is about whether the listing agent on the other side trusts that the first home will actually sell, and fast.
So the plan was built around making that case credible before we ever wrote the offer. We knew the Ashburn condo market, we knew what their unit would do and how quickly, and we were prepared to show our work.
What did we do?
We found them a house off Solheim Cup Drive, toward the end of the neighborhood west of Route 15 in Dominion Valley.
The lot backed to the golf course but kept enough trees for real privacy, which is the version of a golf course lot most buyers actually want. The house had a two-story family room, a two-story dining room, and a main-level primary bedroom. They could walk to one of the smaller pools in that section and to the tot lot, which mattered more than anything on the spec sheet given they had a toddler.
Then we negotiated the home sale contingency and got it accepted.
That came down to credibility on the other side of the table. We are with Samson Properties, which gives us a network of more than 5,000 agents, and we had the relationship and the track record to support what we were promising about the condo. The listing agent believed we would sell it in about a week, because we had done it before and because they knew us.
Without that, the offer does not get accepted and those buyers do not end up in Dominion Valley.
Then we had to deliver. We listed the condo and had it under contract in the first week at full asking price, with limited contingencies, which kept the purchase on track and gave the sellers of the Dominion Valley home no reason to regret taking the risk.
What did the buyers end up with?
The house they wanted, in the community they chose, rather than whatever was left after the contingency ruled them out.
No double mortgage and no second move. They bought while still owning the condo. It went under contract in the first week at full asking price with limited contingencies, so they were never carrying two properties for long and never had to move into something temporary in between.
A lot they will not outgrow. Golf course frontage with tree privacy, walkable to a pool and a tot lot, in a section of Dominion Valley that stays quieter than the main gate.
What would we tell someone in the same position?
If you need to sell before you buy, do not assume a contingent offer is off the table, and do not assume your agent can get one accepted either. Ask them directly how they plan to make the listing agent believe your current home will sell. If the answer is vague, that is your answer.
What makes this work is being able to demonstrate, specifically, what your home will do on the market and how fast. That means knowing your current market cold, having the prep work thought through before you are under contract, and having a reputation the agent on the other side will take a risk on.
It also helps to be realistic about which house to chase. A contingent offer is more likely to land on a home that has sat a week than on the one everybody saw Thursday night.
Common questions about buying in Dominion Valley before your current home sells
Often yes, and there are three main ways to do it. You can make your purchase depend on your current home selling first, which is called a home sale contingency. You can carry both mortgages at once if you qualify and can afford it. Or you can use a bridge loan, which lets you tap the equity in your current home to buy the next one before it sells. Which one fits depends on your finances, how competitive the market is, and how much risk you can live with.
No, but it is the safest route financially and the most disruptive to live through, since you may need somewhere to stay in between. Most of our clients would rather not move twice, which is why we spend time up front figuring out which approach actually works for them before they start touring houses.
It depends almost entirely on whether the seller believes your current home will sell, and sell quickly. That is what happened here. The agent on the other side trusted our read on the Ashburn condo market and our track record, so they took the risk. Then we sold the condo in its first week at full asking price. The offer itself was not unusual. The credibility behind it was.
That is exactly the risk a home sale contingency protects you from, because the purchase does not go through if your home does not sell. If you instead buy first with a bridge loan or by carrying both mortgages, you are exposed, which is why the prep work on your current home matters so much. We get pricing, repairs, staging, and photography done before you need them, so the day we go live, we go live.
Start by answering one question: can you buy without selling first? If yes, the plan is simpler and we focus on timing the two settlements so you are not doubled up for long. If you need the equity from your current home, the conversation starts with a lender, and then it comes down to how competitive the market is and how much risk you want to take. Every one of these is different, and the work is figuring out which path is yours before you have to commit to it.
It depends on the market when you are shopping. In a fast market it comes down to being ready the day something lists and having financing that gives the seller confidence. In a slower one there is more room to negotiate on price and terms. Dominion Valley is the largest community in Haymarket, so there is usually more inventory to work with than in the smaller neighborhoods nearby.
Who wrote this case study?
Caitlin Ellis is a licensed REALTOR® and co-owner of Ellis Properties at Samson Properties, serving Loudoun County and Northern Virginia. She and Steven lived in Haymarket for four years, and she has closed 87 transactions across the town. She works primarily with clients who are selling one home and buying another at the same time.
