Two homes, one moving day
Moving within York Region from Markham to Richmond Hill sounds simple because you are not going far, but the hard part is not the distance. It is making sure the sale of your current home and the purchase of your new one close in a way that works for your schedule, your mortgage, and your movers. There are really two ways to sequence this:
- Sell first, then buy. You list your Markham home, accept an offer, and use that closing date as your target for finding and closing on a Richmond Hill property. This protects you from carrying two mortgages, but it can mean a short-term rental or storage if the timing does not line up perfectly.
- Buy first, then sell. You find the Richmond Hill home you want and negotiate a closing date, then list Markham with that date as your deadline. This avoids a temporary move but means you are briefly holding two properties, so financing needs to be arranged carefully.
Neither approach is automatically better. It depends on your mortgage situation, how firm you need your dates to be, and how comfortable you are with some uncertainty. This is where having one person coordinate both sides matters, rather than working with two separate agents who are not talking to each other about timing.
What affects the schedule
A few things decide how tight or how flexible your timeline can be:
- Closing date flexibility on both ends. Some sellers and buyers can move their dates by a few days or weeks; others cannot. Shayan Navi negotiates this directly as part of the offer, not after the fact.
- Financing conditions. If your purchase depends on the sale proceeds from Markham, your lender will want to see that sale firmed up before releasing funds for Richmond Hill.
- Current market pace. How quickly homes are selling in Markham right now and how much competition exists for Richmond Hill listings both affect how much lead time to plan for. These figures shift, so rather than quoting a number here, Shayan Navi pulls the current pace for both markets when you are ready to plan dates.
- Moving logistics. Movers, closing lawyers, and any renovation or cleaning work between closings all need their own buffer.
Why Richmond Hill specifically
Richmond Hill has some longer-term changes worth knowing about if you are planning to stay for years rather than just the next move. Early work is underway at Langstaff GO Station, and the subway extension is planned to connect to the Richmond Hill GO line. That is a multi-year project, not something that changes your moving timeline now, but it is useful context if transit access factors into which part of Richmond Hill you choose. Markham and Richmond Hill border each other, so you are likely keeping the same commute routes, schools in range, and general lifestyle. The move is more about finding the right property and the right neighborhood fit than adjusting to an unfamiliar region.
Building your actual timeline
In practice, a coordinated sell-and-buy plan usually includes:
- A walkthrough of your Markham home to understand what it will take to list and what it is likely worth in today's market.
- A conversation about what you want in Richmond Hill and which neighborhoods fit your budget and priorities.
- A decision on sequencing, sell-first or buy-first, based on your comfort with risk and your financing.
- Coordinated offer negotiations so closing dates on both transactions are set with each other in mind.
- A closing day plan that accounts for movers, possession times, and any gap in between.
How Shayan Navi helps with exactly this
Shayan Navi works both sides of this kind of move together, rather than treating the sale and the purchase as separate transactions handled by different people. That means one person is tracking your Markham listing activity and your Richmond Hill search at the same time, and negotiating closing dates with both transactions in mind. If you are starting to think about this move, a straightforward next step is a call to go over your Markham home's position in today's market and what is currently available in Richmond Hill, so you can see what a realistic timeline looks like for your situation specifically.