<prompt> Human: I am 37, employed full time in a decent job that pays ok. Live on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. I have a partner and we have a son whos six. Hubby has two older kids who live in another state and who come stay in summer and holidays, etc. Most of his income pays for child support, health insurance and his own gas. In 2006, before our son was conceived, we bought a house. Its a solid, good house that, since our son, has become too small and just a really not cool situation. The house is an A-frame with one large loft-style bedroom and one bath. We thought this would be acceptable for the short weeks we would spend with the kids visiting. Then we had our own unplanned but not unwanted kid. 6 years later, I am dying to get out of this house and to get something bigger, and closer to our jobs we are pretty far out in the country. I havent tried putting the house on the market yet for lots of reasons, timing being the main one and an insurance battle over a roof claim claim denied, yay! which is now resolved, having taken a loan to buy myself a roof. We bought for 59,500 and owe 49,500, not counting the roof loan 3k. Also comes on about 1.5 acres. My kid is in kindergarten and I want to move schools in summer so he can start fresh in a new place. I am desperate to get somewhere new before the kids visit this summer. I can only qualify for 75k worth of new house with this old house on my books, and I dont think I could sustain two payments for any length of time while we tried to sell. Technically we could rent it out, this is an option but not one I like much for lots of reasons. Please just tell me if you see any way for me to get out alive here, I cant see the forest for the trees. Thx for reading.Edit: After reading all your responses and talking to my bro, I think I know what I need to do and I feel a lot better having a goal and some realistic expectations in mind. Thanks rpersonalfinance! Assistant: Stage it and sell it? Selling a house is a lot time and effort, but you need to get it done if you want to sell it quickly and at market value. As for the financial end of your situation it sounds like youve made minimum payments on a 30 year note with ?APR. Unless the house has appreciated in value you probably dont have much equity in the house. Anyways, when you get a contract on the house, you can set up 30 day contingency to buy another house. Edit: you need to talk to a realtor Human: Right, clearly we dont have much equity. I have made more than the minimum payment whenever possible, and have shaved several years off the 30 year note that way, so I have actually tried to get ahead, to no avail, apparently. When we talked to a realtor last year, she told us we would be lucky to walk away from a closing breaking even.Assistant: Thats just it, breaking even would be fine for your situation. Youre not drowning, your treading water. Human: That would be fine, I agree. But the trouble is having to pay for two houses waiting to break even on this one. I really cannot afford to do that without for more than 2-3 months tops. Even that is stretching it, honestly.Assistant: Selling your house would be first, then youd go buy another while the contract is pending. People do this all the time. Just make sure theres a clause in each contract to allow you to back out if there are issues with them. Human: But then I dont control the timing of the move, and thus the school change for the kid. And all our stuff is in here, making it seem even smaller than it is. I think it might take a long time to sell that way - it took the last guy 2 years to find our dumbasses to take it off his hands. I dont have two years, I need out by summer. Oldest kid is 13, nuff said.  <response>: Ok look, this whole thing with the kid is your problem not his. Literally hundreds of thousands of kids change school districts, many of them at odd times of the year. Its not a big deal, hes in 1st grade! You owe it to him to make the smart financial decision so hes not growing up in a home where the money is always tight and credit is impossible. Thats the hard thing to deal with, making new friends at 5 is easy. 