Real Estate Contingency Question

[daemom]

Our house has been on the market for almost three weeks with just a handful of showings. Today we received an offer with a contingency clause to sell their house. They want 72 hours to be able to get a bridge loan in the event another offer comes around. If you have a house with an offer like this, and accept it, is it not shown and just passed over? Is it known on the MLS that it has an offer, or does it show contingency? Thanks for any help!

 

[SillyMe]

Usually if there is a contingency it can still be shown, in the event an offer without a contingency comes along.

 

[lovmy2girls]

You could request to your agent, not to put the status as contingent. That way some realtors will still be more likely to show it.

 

[golfgal]

Even with an accepted offer without a contingency you have the choice to keep the house on the market until it closes and continue showings (at least in Minnesota you do). It would be smart to keep it on the market with a contingency. If they get a bridge loan they can remove the contingency and then you can take it off the active listings.

 

[daemom]

Thanks so much for your input! You've erased a concern I had! Any good or bad experiences that anyone has had?

 

[barkley]

we entered into a sale agreement a few months ago wherein the buyer had 30 days to sell their house in order to buy ours. during that period of time we could continue to show our home and the contingent buyers would have a 24 hour first right of refusal to remove their contingency. we went with 24 hours because most offers in our area have to be responded to within less than 48 (people don't want to be left hanging any longer). we could not take another contingent offer that we preferred over the the current one pending.

don't know how the laws work in different states but in ours the mls must be updated to reflect the contingent status, and it does/did deter other realtors from showing.

that said-i can see an x number of hours of right of refusal/to remove the contingency, but why would they request the time to see if they qualify for a bridge loan? their circumstances would likely be no different from the time they made their original offer, and it seems that they could ask their lender flat out at that time if it's possible.

our real estate agent advised us not to consider a contingent without making sure their financing (with the sale of their house) was in order from the get-go (our realtor crunched the numbers to see if what they anticipated getting from the sale of their house was realistic with comp sales and the adverage time on the market in the area they lived in-said he'd seen too many get qualified for a loan approval believing they'd get x number of dollars out of their own home, and failing to do so could not qualify for the increased home loan amount-as it was they just squeeked by because they "spaced" on factoring in a hefty pre-payment penalty on their existing mortgage).

 

[cats mom]

We accepted a contigency once.
Yes, our house was still listed and available to show, but I can tell you that showings definitely slowed way down.

We accepted because our agent checked their finances and said that everything looked so good that they actually could buy our home even without selling theirs and of course their agent said thats exactly what they would do if needed (didn't get that bit in writing though)
Long story short, we ended up selling to someone else and IMO accepting the contingency just dragged the whole process out a lot longer than necessary.
Of course in the end we had a bidding war happen, so maybe it was for the best, timing and all... but it was sure stressful.

I'd say a lot depends on the market in your area.
If things were really slow and it was a decent offer I'd consider doing it again.
But if things were selling pretty well I'd probably say no thanks, come back when your house sells and if ours is still available... we'll talk then.

Good Luck!

 

[bamajill]

Hi,

I'm a Realtor in Alabama and I will say that I've sold a few that had cont. contracts.

If someone tells me there is a contract I generally will not show the property, but if they specify it is a contingency contract then I have no qualms about showing it (if I know the details and it is something simple like a 72 hr. break clause).

Good luck!!! Real estate is a crazy business and I hope that those making the offer can sell their property quickly and you can breeze through the closing w/no problems!

(I will say that almost NO ONE here puts a contract on the mls listing...you won't know it until you call about it....it's very rare for it to show on the computer listings until it has already closed...but then again, it's Alabama )

 

[SillyMe]

Hi,

I'm a Realtor in Alabama and I will say that I've sold a few that had cont. contracts.

If someone tells me there is a contract I generally will not show the property, but if they specify it is a contingency contract then I have no qualms about showing it (if I know the details and it is something simple like a 72 hr. break clause).

Good luck!!! Real estate is a crazy business and I hope that those making the offer can sell their property quickly and you can breeze through the closing w/no problems!

(I will say that almost NO ONE here puts a contract on the mls listing...you won't know it until you call about it....it's very rare for it to show on the computer listings until it has already closed...but then again, it's Alabama )

They keep the listing as active in MLS until it closes? Our realtors get fined if they don't have it listed as pending within 72 hours.

 

[bamajill]

Yes, we don't have to do anything to the listing until it actually closes.

I can see both sides, b/c if you pend a listing it will not tend to show anymore....and if it is just w/a cont. contract then you could be stuck waiting for months!

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

We were a buyer with a similar circumstance (no 72 hr bridge loan thing). We were in a flood zone and the state was buying our houses. We needed to ensure that the house would be purchased, even though it met all the qualifications. The sellers said they had no problem with the contingency since they hadn't shown their home in months and we were the first reasonable offer they had in 6 months. They took our deposit, etc. And lo and behold after no action for 6 months they accepted an offer the following week. The realtor didn't even tell our realtor. Then they didn't want to send the check back. Not sure if this is normal or not as I've never had this happen before. I was told that their realtor would just write "void" on the check and keep it in the file. I don't think so. I had them mail me my check.

Good Luck with everything.

 

[barkley]

They keep the listing as active in MLS until it closes? Our realtors get fined if they don't have it listed as pending within 72 hours.

out here they have to show it as either 'active'/'contingent' or 'pending'-some realtors take them off mls if a contract is entered into (non contingent) but most wait until escrow closes.

 

[jfulcer]

Not that it really matters to you, but when we bought the house we are in now, we put a contingency into our offer that said no go if financing didn't get approved.

The seller also had an offer into another house that was contingent on the sale of their house (they couldn't buy if we didn't get the house). The seller of THAT house had an offer in on another house that was contigent on the sale of their house.

Well, after all was said and done, there were 6 houses in total trading hands that was all pretty much contingent on us getting the financing. Luckily we didn't tip that first dominoe and everything went ok. I think we all were sweating bullets for a few days.

I don't believe that the realtors that were selling the house we bought showed it to anyone else. I honestly wouldn't blame them if they did...