Sell Contingent Upon Successful Purchase

Another alternative, which is similar but a little less nerve-wracking, is to list your house “contingent upon the successful negotiation of a home of the seller’s choice”. This option works best when it is a strong sellers’ market.

How it works:

In this situation we would negotiate with the buyer for your home to allow you some time (probably around ten days) to find and successfully negotiate on THE HOUSE. If we are unable to find THE HOUSE during this set timeframe, we can either renegotiate with the buyer to get more time or we can work to find a new buyer. Assuming we find THE HOUSE, we can write a non-contingent purchase agreement, putting you in a strong negotiating position on THE HOUSE. This does, however, put you in a much weaker position with the buyer of your current house and it will likely cost you money in the negotiations because there is a heightened risk to the buyers… they are unable to write offers on/negotiate on any other property while they wait to find out whether you are able to go forward with the sale. You will also potentially need to reimburse your buyers for the costs of completing their inspections on your property should you decide not to go forward with the sale.

Pros:

1. Same pros as above, with the added pro of not needing to risk having to move into temporary housing.

Cons:

1. Likely to cost you thousands of dollars in the negotiating of the house you are selling because it is a huge concession for the buyers to make and concessions cost money in negotiations. Additionally, you may assume some of the buyers’ risks (i.e. cost of their inspections).
2. It may be hard to sell this concept in the current market where many of the agents who are representing buyers may have never encountered this situation and will recommend that their buyers avoid it.