You can make an offer contingent on the sale of your home, but the seller may or may not accept it. Here’s how an offer contingent on the sale of your home can be structured.
Offer Contingent on the Sale of Your Home
Standard contingencies in most offers would include things like a home inspection, financing, a septic inspection, and a well inspection. But there are two other types of contingencies. One includes an offer contingent on the sale of your current home. If your home is not currently pending, you’re asking a seller who may be thousands of miles away from you, to accept an offer that is subject to the conditions of another real estate market, another buyer, and perhaps contingencies in that offer. Some sellers in the Sequim, Port Angeles, or Port Townsend areas may not feel that is a strong offer.
On the other hand, the standard addendum with this kind of contingency includes a “bump clause,” which means the seller can accept your offer and keep his house for sale in case a better offer comes along. If a better offer comes along, you have the right to waive your contingency and proceed to closing, essentially matching the other offer. If your home hasn’t sold and you can’t cash out your Sequim seller, then you are bumped, and your transaction is terminated.
Offer Contingent on the Closing of a Pending Sale
A much more attractive offer contingent on the sale of your home happens when the sale of your current home is actually pending with a firm closing date. In that case, the seller in Sequim is going to feel better about signing an agreement with you, although it will still include a “bump clause.’
Last Updated on November 3, 2015 by Chuck Marunde
