Selling one property to buy another in Uruguay

Most sales are not really sales: they are moves. Somebody sells because they want to buy something else — bigger, smaller, another neighbourhood — and the two operations have to fit together.

The three routes

1. Sell first

The safest. You sell, the money is available and you buy without pressure or conditions. And a buyer with the money in hand negotiates better: it is worth more than a strong offer that depends on someone else selling first.

The cost is logistical: between the two operations you have to live somewhere. That is solved either by negotiating a period to stay on after the sale — agreed and put in writing — or with an interim move.

2. Buy first

The most comfortable and the riskiest. You buy what you like without rushing, but now you own two properties and face real pressure to sell yours.

That pressure is paid for in price. If you take this route, have your own property valued, prepared and with its documentation in order before buying the other one.

3. Coordinate both

The ideal and the most delicate. Both deals sign close together — sometimes the same day — with no interim move and no double ownership.

It requires both sides to accept the timing and, above all, the documentation of both properties to be spotless: on a tight calendar, one missing paper delays the whole chain.

What is worth doing whichever route you take

Search before you sell. Even before listing. Look, visit, understand real prices for what you want to buy. Plenty of people sell and only then discover that what they wanted costs considerably more than they thought.

Have your property ready first. Valued, prepared and with the paperwork checked. In a two-deal chain, whoever is ready sets the pace.

Talk to the notary at the start. If the two operations are going to be chained, they need to know from day one to organise the timing.

The most common mistake

Planning the purchase around the price you hope to get rather than the one the market will support. The whole chain is built on that number: if it is inflated, the chain collapses.

That is why the valuation is not a closing formality — it is the first piece of data of the next purchase.

How we work

When we know there is a purchase behind the sale, we plan it differently: the timing, the kind of buyer we look for and the conditions we negotiate all change. And we give you a realistic selling timeframe for your property, which is what you need in order to decide the order.