How much equity do I need to move up in Washington County?

This is the question underneath every move-up conversation, and it is almost always asked with the wrong number in mind.

People think of equity as: what my house is worth, minus what I owe. That figure is real, and it is not the figure that arrives at your next purchase.

The number that actually matters

Net proceeds. What lands in your account after the sale closes.

Between market value and net proceeds sit several things:

What you actually sell for, which may not be what a portal estimate says or what you hope.

Selling costs. Commissions, title and closing costs, any transfer or recording fees.

Your loan payoff, which includes interest to the payoff date and is slightly more than your last statement balance.

Repairs or credits negotiated after the inspection. On a house you have lived in for years, assume there will be something.

Moving costs, and the costs of preparing the house to sell in the first place.

None of that is dramatic individually. Together it is the difference between the number in your head and the number in your account, and it is routinely larger than people expect.

Why this matters more for a move-up than a first purchase

A first-time buyer knows exactly what they have — it is in a savings account.

A move-up buyer is planning around a number that does not exist yet and will not be known precisely until closing. Every decision downstream depends on it: which houses you can consider, whether you can put enough down to avoid mortgage insurance, whether you can compete without a sale contingency.

Building a plan on the wrong number is the single most common way a move-up goes sideways.

Get a net sheet, early

A net sheet is a straightforward document that walks from an estimated sale price down to estimated proceeds, itemizing what comes out along the way.

Any competent agent will prepare one. I do it before anyone starts looking, because it changes the conversation entirely — sometimes upward.

Ask for it early. Not when you are under contract. Before you start touring, because that number determines which houses are actually in play.

If your move involves selling up north rather than locally, the conversion question is a bit different and the Buying Power Report runs it on your actual address.

How much do you actually need

I am not going to give you a percentage, and I would be suspicious of anyone who did without seeing your situation.

What determines it:

The price of what you are buying. Obviously, but the relationship is not linear once you factor in loan limits and mortgage insurance thresholds.

Your loan type and what your lender requires. This is the binding constraint for most people and it is a lender question, not an agent question.

Whether you want to avoid mortgage insurance, which changes the target meaningfully.

Whether you are buying before selling. That structure has its own requirements and may need more cushion, or financing to bridge the gap.

What you want to keep in reserve. Emptying your accounts into a down payment is technically possible and rarely wise — particularly here, where the cooling system is the mechanical item most likely to need attention and you want the capacity to deal with it.

The reserve nobody budgets for

Worth its own section because it catches people.

A new house in Washington County frequently comes with immediate costs that are not in anyone’s spreadsheet:

Landscaping, if you are buying new. Often front only, sometimes nothing, and landscaping a yard from bare dirt in this climate is a real project.

Window coverings, frequently not included in new construction, and not a small item in a house with a lot of glass and a great deal of sun.

Whatever the inspection turns up that you decided to absorb rather than negotiate.

The furniture that does not fit the new floor plan.

Budget for the house you are buying to cost more than the closing statement says. It always does.

Why portal estimates mislead move-up buyers specifically

Worth its own note, because this is where the wrong number usually comes from.

Automated valuation estimates work from public records and broad patterns. They do not know what you have done to the house, what condition it is in, or what makes your specific street different from the one behind it.

They are frequently wrong in both directions, and the error is larger on unusual properties — larger lots, homes with significant updates, anything that does not match the pattern.

The failure mode for a move-up buyer is not that the estimate is a bit off. It is that they build a plan on it, tell a lender a number, start looking at houses in a bracket that number supports, and then discover late that the real figure is different.

Use the estimate as a starting point and nothing more. The real number comes from someone standing in the house and comparing it to what has actually sold nearby.

What I would do, in order

1. Get a realistic valuation of your current home. Not a portal estimate. What it would actually sell for, in current condition, at a price that moves.
2. Get a net sheet from that number down to proceeds.
3. Take that proceeds figure to a lender and find out what it actually buys, given their requirements and your income.
4. Subtract a genuine reserve for the first year in the new house.
5. Then look at houses in what is left.

Most people do this in reverse — find the house, then work backward and hope. That is how buyers end up stretched, or discovering late that the plan never worked.

The good news for a lot of people here

Plenty of Washington County owners have more equity than they realize, particularly anyone who bought some years ago. The net sheet conversation frequently goes better than expected rather than worse.

But “better than expected” is only useful if you find out before you have shaped your plan around a guess.

I am Kelsey Earl, a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley, and almost every move-up conversation starts with the wrong number. Clients quote me their equity; what funds the next house is what is left after the costs of selling.

What to do next

Ask me for a net sheet on your current home before you start looking. It takes very little time, it is free, and it is the number the entire plan rests on.

Then take it to a lender before you tour anything, because their requirements — not the sale price — set your actual ceiling.

Tell me what you are trying to move into and I will run the numbers both ways so you can see the honest version rather than the hopeful one. And if you are still deciding which part of the county you want to land in, that question comes before the math.

Note: General information about how move-up equity works, not lending or tax advice. Talk to a licensed lender and, where relevant, a tax professional about your specific circumstances.