The default trade-up program in its live markets. Homeward makes a cash offer on your next home, you move in, then list the old one. Two-stage close structure, 7% fee ceiling.
Homeward solves the contingent-offer problem: you want to buy your next home but you need to sell the current one to fund the purchase. Homeward buys your next home in cash, you move in and pay rent to Homeward while your departing home is listed, and at closing on the departing home Homeward sells the new one back to you.
The product works. The math used to work better. The current fee structure caps at 7% of the purchase price or $17,500, whichever is higher, on the cash-offer leg — before rent accrues while the departing home is listed. In a slow market, the carry compounds.
Three steps: (1) you qualify with Homeward, (2) Homeward makes a cash offer on the home you're buying — the seller sees a non-contingent cash close and doesn't care that the money is Homeward's, (3) you list the departing home and at closing you buy the new home back from Homeward at the agreed price plus the fee.
While your departing home is listed, you pay rent to Homeward at roughly 0.55–0.75% of the new-home value per month. This is the variable most sellers underestimate: at a $650,000 new home, that's $3,575–$4,875 per month in rent on top of the existing mortgage on the old one.
6.4 / 10. The right call if you absolutely must buy before you sell and you're confident your departing home will sell in under 45 days. Past that window, the all-in cost starts to resemble an iBuyer's discount — without the iBuyer's speed. In hot markets where the departing-home listing moves fast, Homeward still clears Knock and Orchard on certainty of fund. In slow markets, the economics tighten quickly.
We'll compare Homeward, Knock, and Orchard for your specific markets and timeline.
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