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We are interested in buying a house that is under contract and has a closing date of 3 weeks from now.
Spoke with the seller and he said he will let me know if the deal falls thru.
The only thing I can think of is to offer the buyer (who I don't know who it is) money to not close , and then offer the seller a higher price than their contract sales price.
Sorry, but this I don't understand - even if you could find out who the buyer is, why would you want to offer them money to not go through with a sale? I gather you're going this alone and you don't have an agent representing you. I'm just thinking as well about all the expenses the current buyers have incurred to date, time, etc. etc. plus the fact they obviously like the house and thus due to close in 3 weeks.
I would want the seller to know the entire arrangement.
Any suggestions ?
My suggestion is to listen to Mike and others and simply put in a back up offer and if you really like the house, do as Mike suggests and make your b/u offer strong. Then see if the sale goes through. If not, it wasn't meant to be and the right house will be out there. JMO but get going on a counter-offer so at least you're first in line if the sale falls through.
A lot more deals are not seeing there way to the end nowadays. If they haven't got their mortgage committment yet then the deal is in now way set in stone. So yes def. go through with a good strong backup offer, but be careful to not overextend yourself because of your desire for this house.
If you could find out the buyer's info you could put forth your suggestion to buy him out, but I imagine the buyer would hold you up for a lot more knowing how bad you want the house.
As a seller I would be a little leery about just letting a good qualified buyer get away also(the one with the accepted offer). Say your scenario played out, and for some reason now your deal with the seller falls apart(financing, inspection, buyers remorse, injury to you, job loss, etc...) The seller would be left with nothing. Where's his/her motivation? The sellers best move would be to take your backup offer and just let offer "A" play its way out. If it falls through he has you in reserve.
I spoke to the seller a few days ago and he said he will definately call me if the deal falls thru.
I told him I would raise my offer.
I think I'm in good shape now if the deal falls thru , mentioning a number would only obligate me to a much higher price.
I like Mike J's suggestion about putting in a solid back up offer (a real offer in writing). If you really want the house there is a difference between asking a seller to call you if a deal falls through and providing an actual written offer that they know they can fall back on if the current deal breaks down. As a seller I would be much more confident walking away from a deal if I knew I had a back up offer. I would feel less confident if all I had was a coversation with a person who said they would make an offer if the deal fell through. There is a big difference between the two IMO.
If I really wanted a house with a contract on it, I would make my best offer as a back up and hope for the best.
I spoke to the seller a few days ago and he said he will definately call me if the deal falls thru.
I told him I would raise my offer.
I think I'm in good shape now if the deal falls thru , mentioning a number would only obligate me to a much higher price.
As someone who just moved into the house that she closed on in early July...a house that had at least one backup offer and interest from other couples...I would have told you to get lost. No amount of money could have swayed me. Sorry. In fact the backup offer almost soured the deal, since the sellers balked at contributing any money towards the thousands of dollars of repairs that this house needed prior to moving in because someone made a backup offer at full asking after they had accepted my offer under asking price. I wish I could find that guy and thank him for that.
The realtor gave you great advice...find another house.
Paying someone to default on a contract ... hum, not a great idea. If a licensed agent has a hand in any such thing it will be a violation of the NAR code of ethics.
You may want to offer a back up contract. Your agent can write up the offer and deliver it to the listing agent. No ethics problem, it's perfectly legal and it won't cost you a cent. Go for it & best of luck!
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