Buying your first home is usually easier than buying your second since there are two transactions involved in the process. In most cases we recommend selling before buying, especially in a buyer's market.

We also recommend having a back up plan in case you don't find the right property in time to settle both properties on the same day. A bridge loan is an alternative but they are expensive and qualifying can be difficult.

A back up plan can include temporary housing with friends, relatives or short term rental. These alternatives raise the question., "What do I do with all of my stuff?"

This is where Pods can come in handy. Pods is one of several companies that bring a container to your house so you can load it at your convenience. With Pods you avoid trips back and forth to a storage unit since once your container is loaded Pods will pick it up, take it to a secure storage facility, and drop it back at your new home when you are ready.

Pods have worked well for many of our clients BUT HERE IS A HEADS UP!

Pods is a franchise company. They sell franchises by zip code. We recently had clients who sold their property and used Pods to store their belongings while they were in temporary housing. A few months later they purchased a wonderful home less than a mile from their old property. The problem was that their new home was in a different zip code and the Pod franchise did not cover that area. The added fees for delivery were significantly more than the pick up and storage for six months!

It should be noted that Pods did disclose that there could be additional fees if delivery was to a different franchise area. The information was in the fine print of the contract and certainly did not indicate that the fees could be onerous.

After a great deal of effort we were able to help our clients get Pods to remove most of the additional fees but you can avoid the hassle by verifying the zip codes covered by whatever Pods franchise you start working with. If there is a conflict you can work it out in advance or look for an alternative.