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Found a great house. Need to be in a specific school district. VERY hot market.
House goes under contract and seller has accepted my back up offer. I am second in line. But I suspect it's unlikely to be executed. Has anyone ever heard of making a cash offer to the buyer to walk away? We are on a tight timeline in terms of needing to move. I have been watching said market for about 2 months and only found 2 or maybe 3 possibilities in that time.
The agent had never heard of it but said she would mention it to her managing broker.
If you’ve struggled to find a house in this hot market, the buyer has too. Very, very unlikely they’ll walk away unless you’re offering a huge amount.
Found a great house. Need to be in a specific school district. VERY hot market.
House goes under contract and seller has accepted my back up offer. I am second in line. But I suspect it's unlikely to be executed. Has anyone ever heard of making a cash offer to the buyer to walk away? We are on a tight timeline in terms of needing to move. I have been watching said market for about 2 months and only found 2 or maybe 3 possibilities in that time.
The agent had never heard of it but said she would mention it to her managing broker.
It could be done, but as someone else said, the chances of the buyer doing that are between slim and none. In fact, it might have the opposite effect on the buyer. Once he hears your offer for him to walk away so that you could buy the house, that would make him even more determined to buy the house himself since it would tend to confirm his decision to buy it.
You would be much better served, IMO, to add that money to your second in line contract with the seller. That way, if the buyer tries to get the seller to do a bunch of repairs or make other concessions costing money, the seller would be more inclined to try to get out of the first contract in order to sell to you at a higher price.
It could be done, but as someone else said, the chances of the buyer doing that are between slim and none. In fact, it might have the opposite effect on the buyer. Once he hears your offer for him to walk away so that you could buy the house, that would make him even more determined to buy the house himself since it would tend to confirm his decision to buy it.
You would be much better served, IMO, to add that money to your second in line contract with the seller. That way, if the buyer tries to get the seller to do a bunch of repairs or make other concessions costing money, the seller would be more inclined to try to get out of the first contract in order to sell to you at a higher price.
Hmm...maybe. My husband thinks since they seller signed the backup we were higher but I don't agree. He said if it wasn't higher, they would just re-list if it fell through. Who knows? I hate overthinking these things.
I am so mad at myself for hesitating because apparently the seller wanted to get out of the house so he would have likely taken my offer. He accepted the first offer in an hour.
People take backup offers only to have another potentially acceptable buyer. Husband should assume nothing about the respective merits of the primary and backup contracts. Suppose the seller prefers this buyer. Suppose the buyer actually has made a superior offer, you are just the next best thing, and you screw up a deal to which you are not welcomed, and not a party?
Talk to an attorney to be certain of your potential exposure to liability and civil suit. You might be playing with fire.
Different states, different law. An NC real estate attorney told me that doing exactly what your husband proposes would land me in court.
Your Backup only made it easier for the Seller to say no to Buyer #1 when it came to Inspection Repairs and negotiations.
Very seldom do Backups work. You should not have gotten yourself tied down and just kept looking. I would have told the agent... Call us if it doesn't work out.
Your Backup only made it easier for the Seller to say no to Buyer #1 when it came to Inspection Repairs and negotiations.
Very seldom do Backups work. You should not have gotten yourself tied down and just kept looking. I would have told the agent... Call us if it doesn't work out.
I agree with first and second sentences and disagree with the rest. I advise my buyers to write a backup if they like the property AND to keep looking. If they find something they like better, we can easily cancel the backup. In this market every listing agent has a list of agents who have said "call me if it doesn't work out" so the person with the signed backup will win. Nothing lost but a little time to become next in line.
Backups seldom become primary but this tight market calls for using every tool in the box to get a property for your client. I have had enough backups work that I always recommend writing one.
I agree with first and second sentences and disagree with the rest. I advise my buyers to write a backup if they like the property AND to keep looking. If they find something they like better, we can easily cancel the backup. In this market every listing agent has a list of agents who have said "call me if it doesn't work out" so the person with the signed backup will win. Nothing lost but a little time to become next in line.
Backups seldom become primary but this tight market calls for using every tool in the box to get a property for your client. I have had enough backups work that I always recommend writing one.
Definitely continuing to look. I don't understand the backup to mean that if we find something else, we are tied down to this house. As far as I can tell, our contract is only 'activated' if you will, if the other one falls through. Is that incorrect?
Found a great house. Need to be in a specific school district. VERY hot market.
House goes under contract and seller has accepted my back up offer. I am second in line. But I suspect it's unlikely to be executed. Has anyone ever heard of making a cash offer to the buyer to walk away? We are on a tight timeline in terms of needing to move. I have been watching said market for about 2 months and only found 2 or maybe 3 possibilities in that time.
The agent had never heard of it but said she would mention it to her managing broker.
As both a buyer and seller I suggest you not do anything to try to discourage the buyer because it could really bite you in the a$$ to where they'll do everything to work with the seller just so that you do not get it. You've only been looking 2 months. If you needed to be in that school district why haven't you been looking longer? Buyer one could have been out there many more months then you and had many deals go bad on them where they missed out on writing an offer like you did.
I suggest you take the advice of the last post before mine by 1insider and also keep looking. You may have to ease your requirements just to get in until you can find that house of your dreams in a year or 2 when the market cools. Losing that house could be the best thing that happened to you if you do lose it. It wasn't meant to be for a reason. Maybe you're paying a prime price for it.
I do suggest you consider going to Facebook to see if the town or development has a Facebook group, asking there if there's anyone thinking of listing their house and try to find one any way you can. We have realtors in my town that do that. You'd be surprised how many people will consider listing their house in a heartbeat. My agent friend texted me last week asking if we're ready. She has buyers, the market went up in price by over a hundred thousand dollars but there isn't enough houses in my development.
I sort of did this a few years ago. There was a lot of land that a client of mine was interested in. They didn't take my advice about how much to offer and so they lost out in a multiple offer situation. I found out the lot was put under contract by a local builder and so I approached them with a proposal that they transfer the purchase contract to my client and that my client would then contract with them to build a custom home on the property. This particular developer does this quite commonly and it's such a normal business practice for them that they put language in their purchase contracts that makes them transferable.
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