To make it smooth from a title side, they might have to buy your property and then sell you theirs or one of you may have to get a bridge loan to have one closing completed before the next closing is accomplished. 

This works fine for smooth transactions, but won't cover you if anything goes wrong.

The landlord game can get rough but if you have that going for you it pretty much smooths all the rest out. 

We've owned for about 6 months and everything has gone smooth.

Somehow, in his smooth rat brain, he thought that was the secret to making money in real estate -- getting other people to do anything that looks like really hard work with uncertain outcomes for you.It all put me in mind of a well-known passage from one of Theodore Roosevelt's speeches:"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

Good luck on the move hope it goes smoothly.

The purchasing experience went fairly smoothly for me. 

Also, any pointers on how to prepare over this year (or 2) to make things go smoothly on the next one?

Seeing if anyone has been through this process and is willing to share guidance/advice on how to make it go as smooth as possible.

Most I estimate and manage myself, so I have had to work through many obstacles, and hopefully that experience will help when things don't go so smooth.