Relocating and Need to Sell Your House Fast
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Quick Answer
Yes, you can sell a house fast when you need to relocate, and a direct cash sale is typically the quickest legitimate path to a closed sale in Rhode Island. Traditional listings commonly take 60 to 90 days or more from listing to closing, while a direct cash sale can close in as little as 7 to 10 days on a date you choose. That speed matters most when you are paying for a new home or apartment at your destination while still carrying the mortgage, property tax, and insurance on the Rhode Island house you are leaving behind.
Why relocation puts a house sale on a deadline it usually does not have
Most home sales do not come with a hard deadline. A relocation does. A new job start date, a lease signed at your destination, a spouse’s start date, a child’s first day at a new school: these are fixed points on a calendar that do not move just because your Rhode Island house has not sold yet. That mismatch, a fixed moving date sitting against a home sale with no guaranteed timeline, is the exact problem this page is built to help solve.
A traditional listing generally takes several weeks to attract an accepted offer in a normal Rhode Island market, then another 30 to 45 days to close once an offer is in hand. Add in the time it typically takes to get a house ready to list (repairs, cleaning, staging, photography), and the full process from decision to closed sale often runs two to four months from start to finish. If your move date is already set before you have even listed the house, the math is working against you from day one.
What double carrying is actually costing you
For every month between your move date and your Rhode Island home’s closing date, you are very likely paying for two households at once. That means your new rent or mortgage payment at your destination, plus the mortgage, property tax, homeowners insurance, and utilities on the house you left behind, whether anyone is living in it or not. Add a lease-break penalty if you signed a temporary rental at your destination, and the total can run into the thousands before the old house ever closes.
The calculator below adds your new home’s monthly cost to your current Rhode Island home’s monthly cost, multiplies that by how long a traditional sale is likely to take, and shows the total overlap cost. It is the number most people relocating never calculate until it has already happened to them.
Two-Home Overlap Cost Calculator
Relocating on a deadline? See what it costs to carry your new home and your Rhode Island home at the same time while a traditional sale plays out.
Cost of carrying both homes
If your move is job related, two things are worth knowing first
Some employer relocation packages include a Guaranteed Purchase Program, where the relocation company itself will buy your home from you at an appraised value if it has not sold on the open market by a set date. This can work as a backstop, but it typically pays below what an open-market sale, or even a direct cash offer, would net you, and the terms are set by your employer’s contract rather than by you. Worth asking your HR or relocation contact for the specifics before assuming it is your best option.
Second, if you sell before meeting the IRS’s normal two-year ownership and residency requirement for the home sale capital gains exclusion, a job-related move may still let you claim a partial exclusion. Under the unforeseen circumstances safe harbor in IRS Publication 523, a work-related move can qualify if your new job location is at least 50 miles farther from the home than your old job location was. The exclusion is prorated based on how long you actually lived in the home compared to the two-year requirement, not eliminated entirely. This is real IRS guidance, not tax advice tailored to your situation. Confirm the specifics with a CPA before you file. (See the IRS’s Publication 523 for the full rules, linked below.)
Your options
- List traditionally and hope the timing works out. Can net a higher price on paper, but ties your move date to market conditions, buyer financing, and appraisal outcomes you do not control.
- Rent it out remotely. Solves the sale timeline but turns you into a long-distance landlord. See our vacant property page if the house would sit empty in the meantime, or our tenant issues page if a rental situation has already gone sideways.
- Let a relocation company buy it under a guaranteed purchase program. Fast and certain, but usually the lowest net number of the options here, since the price is set by an appraisal formula rather than a market or a negotiated offer.
- Sell directly, on your timeline. A cash sale lets you set the closing date around your move date instead of the other way around, including closing before you have even finished packing, if that is what the deadline requires.
How it works with Moss Home Solutions
Tell us your move date and we will work backward from it. We can close in as little as 7 to 10 days, or on whatever date fits your relocation. There is no buyer mortgage approval to wait on and no risk of a deal falling through during your final weeks in Rhode Island. See our how it works page for the full step-by-step process.
Common questions
Straight answers to what people ask most before selling a house to relocate quickly.
With a direct cash sale, closings in 7 to 10 days are common, and you can typically choose your own closing date to match a job start date or lease. Traditional listings, by comparison, usually take 60 to 90 or more days from listing to closed sale.
This is exactly where a direct cash sale helps most. Since there is no financing contingency or buyer mortgage approval to wait on, the closing date can be set around your move rather than the market's pace.
Some employer relocation packages include a Guaranteed Purchase Program that will buy the home at an appraised value if it has not sold by a set date. It is a real option worth asking your HR about, but it typically pays less than an open-market sale or a direct cash offer would.
Often yes, at least partially. The IRS allows a prorated partial exclusion of home sale gain when the sale is due to a qualifying work-related move, generally one where your new job is at least 50 miles farther from the home than your old job was. Confirm your specific situation with a CPA.
No. A direct, as-is sale means no repairs, no staging, and no inspection contingencies to negotiate around before you have to leave.