I’m currently in the process of selling my current house and looking for the next house with my fiancé. Due to our financial situation and the HCOL area we are in, we need the equity from our home sale to use towards the down payment for our next home. I understand the downsides of the contingent sale, especially from the perspective a seller that we’d be buying from.
I think we found a buyer who likes our house and neighborhood enough to go under contract and wait, with the stipulation that we can cancel the contract if we do not find our next home to move to. The plan is to stay pending on our house, and we will have to inspections completed behind the schemes while we are looking. Would this generally remove most of the risk from our offer from a seller’s perspective (house under contract, inspections completed, etc.)? Or would our offer still be weak due to the contingency?
Posted by emilyginger
4 Comments
weak stil tbh
As far as your purchase offers this is called a closing contingency, is normal, but still makes a weaker offer, especially in an area where homes are moving relatively well. You will almost always lose to a similar offer without such a contingency.
Having your buyer on hold is novel, though. That’s kind of nuts on their part.
You will be able to make much stronger offers and increase your acceptance odds if you can just close on your sale and either rent back or move into a transitional housing situation temporarily:
Also, getting a buyer who is willing to let you back out of the offer if you don’t find a house is even tougher so. I have never had a buyer that’s willing to accept that.
Sell > rent > buy.
Cue excuses.