You’re ready to move, you’ve put a lot of time and effort in to make your house look great to buyers and you’ve hired a great agent (hopefully me).  After just a few days of showings, you get a great offer…

But, as your agent reads the offer, you see that it has strings attached. The buyers have conditions.

Lots of offers have conditions, so this is not necessarily something to panic about.    These are some of the more common conditions in a real estate contract:

• The most common conditions in a buyer’s offer are aspects such as inspections, and attorney reviews. 
• Often, the buyer includes a statement that the purchase depends on his securing financing.  These are
  very common and most conditions are resolved within a few days to a few weeks.
• The contract will place conditions on you, as the seller, to obtain the appropriate certificates from yo
• ur city regarding transfer of ownership.  You’ll likely need to have or install working smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors and a fire exti
  nguisher. 
• You may be required to provide warranty information on major systems or appliances.
•  Another common condition is that your house will be in “broom clean” condition prior to closing, so your furniture will need to be out of the house.  

Then you have the dreaded conditions.  This is where your buyer’s offer is conditional on him/her selling their home above a certain price in order to purchase your home.  The problem with this is you don’t know the condition or if their home is properly priced for a quick sale.  Your realtor can usually look at the buyer’s house and let you know if it’s priced to sell, as long as they’re familiar with the neighborhood. If you have this type of contingency (condition) you can ask your attorney during the review to put a time limit for the buyer to be under contract on the sale of their home.  You can also opt for a kick out clause in which you’ll continue to show the house and if a better offer comes along, you can “kick out” the original buyer.  Your attorney will handle the details of this for you. 

Conditions are normal.  They’re part of every contract and there are ways to deal with them.

 

All opinions, information and data provided is deemed reliable but is subject to errors and omissions. Not intended to solicit other Brokers’ clients. We cooperate with them fully.