A Hubbard is a Hubbard is a Hubbard

I recently had a buyer who was interested in purchasing a house but needed to sell their house before they could buy (a Hubbard Contingency).  Sure, they could get a home equity loan or bridge loan but didn't want to risk being stuck with owning two houses.

In this buyer's market, sellers are more willing to accept this contingency but watch out for a "domino" effect:  many contracts do not limit the progression of Hubbard contingencies!

In the case of my buyer (#1), they had a Hubbard on the house that they wanted to buy.  Within a short time period, a buyer (#2) came along and made an offer to buy their house with a Hubbard contingency on the offer!

Then buyer #3 came along about a month later to purchase buyer #2's house without a house to sell (finally).

Talk about a tense situation!  As the date of the Hubbard contingency approached for buyer #1, inspections on buyer #2's house were not yet resolved. 

Three homes were dependent upon one inspection resolution!

Fortunately the inspection issues were resolved, the mortgage contingency met and both houses were sold so that buyer #1 could then go ahead and buy their dream house (a total of 3 houses in the chain of events).

Sound complicated?  You bet.

What to do?  Consider asking your seller, who signs a Hubbard contingency, to include a clause in the contract to say that they will accept the contingency IF THE BUYER WILL AGREE TO ACCEPTING OFFERS ON THEIR HOUSE WITH ONLY INSPECTION AND MORTGAGE CONTINGENCIES!!

If you don't stop at the FIRST Hubbard contingency, you could find yourself in a situation with 2 or possibly 3 back to back and several homes dependent upon the home at the end of the chain to sell.

You don't want your sellers to sit on pins and needles all this time - moving is stressful enough without a "Double" or "Triple" Hubbard Contingency.