Should we accept this contingency?

17 years ago

In August 06, we moved out of our house and put it on the market with a realtor. Being unhappy with her performance, we let the contract expire in January 07 and didn't renew.

We decided to try selling it ourselves. We haven't been "hard & heavy" into advertising yet - just bought a sign the other day and so far no ads in the paper - but planned to be more aggressive beginning in May.

On Saturday, a woman & her boyfriend saw the house advertised on the credit union website (free advertising!) and called about it. Hubby showed it to them last night and they seemed very interested!

The glitch is this: If they give us an offer, it would be contingent on them selling BOTH of their houses! Not knowing how long this would take, Hubby & I are nervous about that possibility. With the selling season coming upon us, we don't want to miss out on it this year.

Advice, please?

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Comments (9)

cordovamom
17 years ago
Accept the contingency with a kick out clause. Continue to show the home, if you get an offer that doesn't have the contingency of buyers selling a home then the first buyers have the obligation to drop the home sale contingency or walk on the house so that you can accept one of the other offers.
sparksals
17 years ago
I would normally agree with cordovamom, but in this case they have to sell TWO houses. While you can do the kickout clause, that doesn't give them alot of motivation to actually sell their homes. Telling them to come back when both homes sell would, if they are really set on your home.
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I would amend the previous poster's advice: If you have patience -- and cash reserves -- THEN you can wait for the right buyer to come along. In the meantime, you're pouring money down a deepening well. We sold our home four months ago, at a price only slightly higher than we paid for it 13 years ago. The loss of value was a shame, but we were ecstatic to find a buyer (a demanding and difficult one, like most these days...), as the process of selling took us over 15 mos. all together and with my husband out of work we had virtually zero $$ left in the bank to pay the mortgage on the day we signed the contract. As 2010 winds down, we find even more reasons to feel lucky. Home prices in our city -- B of A's headquarters, no less! -- have dropped steadily since we closed, as unsold inventory has grown. I don't know what kind of economic factors you must weigh in your area, Phoggie, but if our recent experience is anything to judge by your best bet is to price your house as low as you think you can bear economically (and be prepared for the buyer to offer well below that), and get out of this killer-market quickly. A jaw-dropping price will generate a straight-up offer, and you can avoid contingent contracts. They can be a total nightmare and don't always result in a deal, as we found out on the first house we sold. Meanwhile, while waiting on the buyer to come through, you've lost time and opportunity. Good luck with this situation. You say you have an 'interested' buyer. Yes, in all fairness and justice, your buyer should come up in price now that you've chopped your asking price. But in order to sell your home you may have to drop your idea of what's fair and go for what's effective -- what's going to get you to the closing table. If it were me, I wouldn't dither!
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lala44
17 years ago
In our area around Seattle, if you accept an offer with a home sale contingency, your home will not be shown anymore by agents. It is marked "contingent" on the realtors hot sheets and mls listings. We are selling our home and have been asked by several buyers if we would accept a home sale contingency. We along with our agent thought that it was not a good idea. Yes, there is a kick out clause, but if your house isn't shown; there would be no other person to make another offer.

If your buyers really want your home, they will try to work out a way to get it. They can drop the price on their home or do a bridge loan.

The buyers who wanted our home have theirs sold privately to a family who is also doing a home sale contingency on their home. It might just be a never-ending circle of "contingencies".
jy_md
17 years ago
It depends. When we got an offer with a home sale contingency offer, we knew the market was softening so we were a bit nervous. What our agent did was check out the buyers' townhouse and asked around about it. She really liked what she saw (It was apparently in absolutely wonderful condition and newly renovated) and advised us to accept. We accepted with the kickout clause Cordovamom mentioned. They sold their house in 2 days.
sparksals
17 years ago
lala - you are right. The home sale contingency can be a very dangerous domino effect that affects many people down the line. I might consider it for one home IF it was already for sale and possibly under contract. Even though it's a buyer's market and we have to move cross country, I just can't take the risk of losing the exposure of MLS to a home sale contingency. I would much rather have it listed as active.
cpowers21
17 years ago
Definitely have the kick out clause. Two houses......yikes. I would give them the typical 24 hrs to remove the contingency if another offer comes in. In Georgia we now have an active contingency status. This means there is a contract but everything is not set in stone and other offers will be accepted.
terezosa / terriks
17 years ago
In our area around Seattle, if you accept an offer with a home sale contingency, your home will not be shown anymore by agents. It is marked "contingent" on the realtors hot sheets and mls listings

But the OP is not listed. This is a FSBO. I would have an attorney write up the contract with a kick out clause.
mmelko
17 years ago
As an FSBO - it would not matter. I'd write the contract with a "kick out" or what we call a 48 hour first right of refusal - which means the same thing.
theroselvr
17 years ago
I'd be nervous. Having the clause for one out of two houses wouldn't be so bad, but since they need to sell two, the chances of one sitting on the market could be high. What would ease my mind would be to have my realtor check their houses out, getting comps to see if they are realistic on pricing both properties like jy md said.

Should we accept this contingency?

Comments (9)

cordovamom

sparksals

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lala44

jy_md

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