"We frown on contingent sale offers." 🙁

Having an offer contingent upon the sale of another home certainly isn't the strongest offer though.  I just had a transaction canceled because of it, haha.

I've had successful closings where the buyer had a sale contingency. The first one that popped into mind was a seller/buyer client of mine. They sold and then bought all in the same day. It was perfect.

Thank you very much, Wanda, for sharing your observations and advice.

Hello Wanda - all sorts of things can lead to a blog post.  Real life situations, questions as well as answers or simply random musings.  It's ActiveRain after all.  

I so agree with you Wanda and it amazes me that agents cannot educate their sellers.....

Wanda depends on the market conditions here.  A number of years back we had a domino of 4 sales - boom boom boom BOOM.  1 home sold right away, the next one sold with in weeks, the next on time, the very last one a few days late.  But we got em all closed. It was a nice feeling to keep those dice falling.....in the right direction of course.

The "other house" that needs to be sold before buying the next one scenario. Now you are selling  two homes. And if the "other house" has a buyer with a sale contingent on his house sale. More than one domino has to fall just so. That situation needs an air traffic controller wearing an "R". Way way different than my "other house" is under contract, cash sale, squeaky clean title and set to close this Friday. And buying the second home is cash, schedule for the following Friday.

Do the in and out short timing contingency sales but really study all the moving parts involved before advising and guiding them. Is the other house in your market or three time zones away? What if they have lots of repairs and slow on the draw to get the "other home" even on the market let alone will it sell or is it priced realistically Wanda Kubat-Nerdin - Wanda Can! ?

you are right, if the seller won't even consider a contingent sale offer that should be up front and center in the listing! While maybe not ideal, it can certainly be done.. and after all it is still an offer

I recently worked with a client who wanted to submit a contingent offer on the home that she wanted to buy. Her current home was not on the market and not ready to go on the market. I talked to the listing agent for her target home. As I expected, she was expecting multiple offers for the home and suggested that I not waste my time writing a contingent offer for the property. She only confirmed what I had already told my client...who did not receive the news graciously.