When deciding whether to accept a contingent offer, there are a few questions you should ask first.
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Let’s say you’ve got your home for sale on the market and you receive an offer from a buyer that is contingent on them selling their existing home. Should you accept it?
The first thing we need to find out is if the property that they own is currently on the market. If it’s not, that’s going to indicate a somewhat risky situation.
If their property is on the market, find out whether it’s sitting at a higher price range or a lower one. Properties in higher price ranges tend to take longer to sell, while properties in a lower price range tend to receive offers quicker.
If the property is under contract, we need to find out whether or not the buyer of that property has removed contingencies already. If they have, that means that there is a pretty good chance that the property is going to close.
Contingent offers can potentially be better than others.
Most of the time, when a buyer puts in an offer on your property and they have a property to sell, they’re usually pretty serious about their offer. From their point of view, if the home they’re selling is under contract, they won’t want to back out of the offer that they have on your property because it could leave them with nowhere to go.
For these reasons, if all of the conditions look right, we’ll usually recommend that sellers go ahead and accept a contingent offer. Contingent offers can potentially be better than other offers because that buyer has more motivation to close than a buyer who doesn’t actually have to make a move.
If you have any other questions on this topic or any others, feel free to contact us directly by phone or email. We’d love to hear from you.
