Curiosity about Contingency...

justme04

Has anyone here ever made an offer on a "Contingent" listing and gotten the purchase?  I'm curious because a house DH and I fell instantly in love with went contingent and it was a house we really wanted to make an offer on but someone beat us.  As a benefit we couldn't need a contingency...we are absolutely ready to purchase right now.  Do you think we'd stand a chance?

Sisugal

You should always have a contingency of an acceptable inspection.

Yes, by all means put in an offer.  There is always a possibility. 

There is 100% no possibiity if you do not put in an offer. Get moving, gal.

lil_jen051708

I'm not really sure how a house goes contingent but...

an offer should be contingent on inspection and financing.

If the sellers accepted an offer but that offer is contingent on those buyers selling another house, I would assume your offer would beat them.  Typically if someone makes an offer but it's contingent on the sale of their house there is a right of first refusal Clause.  Lets say Couple A is selling the house.  Couple B puts in an offer but has a house they need to sell.  You guys come along and put in an offer.  Couple A might have to go to couple B and see if they can remove their selling contingency [usually within 24 hours].  If couple B can't or won't remove the contingency, then A can accept your offer.  

justme04

Alright.  We saw the house before it went contingent...like a week before, but didn't jump right away because we had a couple more showings that week. Then it went contingent and DH was like, guess that's gone and wanted to move on.  I'm just stuck on it so until I hear that it is completely sold I probably won't give up hope.  We just toured another house that had come off contingency 4 days ago...so I guess the potential buyer didn't sell their home before their option was up.  Our realtor is supposed to contact the selling agency to see what kind of contingency it is.  Fingers crossed for this being based on a home sale as well, since we are coming from apartment living and are good to go.  We've not seen anything else that we've liked half as much as this one.  It went contingent the day we were ready to tell our realtor to put in our offer...and didn't do it right away because like I said DH wasn't sure we could put in an offer or had a chance in hell and he wanted to keep looking at houses.  Now it feels like we've seen every house that would meet our guidelines in the area we want to buy and nothing has come close.  So before we move on to another school district that isn't so good and hope for the best...I guess I just want some final closure on this property which DH now agrees with having seen every other property.

GreenBride624

Definitely have your Agent talk to their Agent.  It all depends on how the current contingency is worded.  Good luck!

LoveKiss

It certainly does not hurt for your agent to call the listing agent and ask what the contingency is.

FWIW I would not give up a school district just because there are currently no homes on the market in that area that fit my criteria. As a parent, I would rather wait for the right home to come on the market. It took us 18 months of patience, but the right house in the right district was worth it.

justme04

LoveKiss:

It certainly does not hurt for your agent to call the listing agent and ask what the contingency is.

FWIW I would not give up a school district just because there are currently no homes on the market in that area that fit my criteria. As a parent, I would rather wait for the right home to come on the market. It took us 18 months of patience, but the right house in the right district was worth it.

18 months isn't a good time frame for us.  We don't have time...or a lease long enough to get that much time to look.  As for the school district it is a decent district but the area also had a convenient travel for DH to get to work....we planned on looking in better school districts this time if it comes to that.

Disneygeek77

Yeah go ahead and put in an offer if it is contigent on the sale of their home.  The contigent offer will have 24 hours to decide of they want to take the contigency out of the contract or not.  They might decide it isn't worth the risk of having two mortgages and back out. 

FemShep

You should have your agent talk to the selling agent.  Odds are, there's nothing the seller can do, but it depends on the situation, and you'll only know if you ask.  Also keep in mind that spring is the hot season for listing homes, so you may see new homes come up soon.  And as you've learned, in many parts of the country the market is very hot, and you simply can't wait to put an offer in.  (My boss literally made 20 offers, most over asking, before he had one accepted.)

There are many kinds of contingencies, and they limit the options a seller has.  If, for example, there is only an inspection contingency, once the inspection has been done and both parties agree to move forward, there's no way to get out of the agreement.  If there's a mortgage contingency, the buyer must usually apply within a certain timeframe.   

Also keep in mind that a home shows as "contingent" even after the P&S agreement has been signed and contingencies have been met (so the seller can't back out) but before it's officially sold.