@kayla9800
OK, this gets a bit esoteric so be patient with me.
There is a general rule that says that if you sell your primary residence in less than two years due to unforeseen circumstances that are the primary reason for moving, you can qualify for a reduced exclusion. There is also a list of safe harbor provisions, which are circumstances that will be deemed to satisfy the regulation. One of the safe harbors is that you sold your home because of a change in the location of your employment. The regulations say that this change must occur while you still own your primary residence (I looked it up and it does say that). So in order to meet the safe harbor conditions, you would have to have the new job offer in place before you sold your former home.
You don’t have to meet the exact safe harbor conditions if you can show by your specific facts and circumstances that the primary reason for selling your home early was a change in your employment location. But this will be harder to show if you are moving before you have a job offer.
Essentially, you don’t get the partial exclusion if you are selling early so that you can move closer to your children, or for better weather. If that is the primary reason you are moving, then you should either wait the full two years, or you sell early and pay the capital gains taxes.
If you can show by your specific facts and circumstances that the primary reason for selling early was a job change or another unforeseen circumstance, then you can qualify for the exclusion even if you don’t meet the safe harbor because you did not have the specific job lined up in advance.
I will make up one imaginary scenario, and you can to use as a guide to whether your situation meets the unforeseen circumstances rule. Suppose the company announces they are closing their Washington branch and offers everyone relocation to Texas. But you don’t want to move to Texas, and you have family in North Carolina. You have an unforeseen circumstance because if you remained in Washington, you might not be able to afford your home, and you will have to move someplace sooner or later anyway. The primary reason for selling is the closing of the branch where you worked. You decide to move to North Carolina and you eventually find a new job there. The situation is such that you were forced to move due to an unforeseen circumstance, even though it does not meet any of the exact safe harbors.
Hope this helps.
