Marin County Real Estate Contingent Offers
Sellers accepting Contingent Offers is catching on but still represents a small portion of homes in escrow.
Currently, there are 159 homes in escrow (this does not include homes that have gone Pending – all contingencies removed because MLS does not identify Contingent Offers for this group). Of those 15 are Contingent Release.
What this means is the home is in escrow and one of the conditions of closing is the buyers current home must sell first. There are lots of variation on how this can be written but typically after a couple of weeks the seller can accept a new offer kicking the current buyer out of escrow. Of course the original buyer gets a 72 hour notice and can remove the contingency but usually if they could it would not be there in the first place.
The strongest Contingent Offer to make is when the home you are selling is in escrow and you are just waiting for it to close. Other times to use it is when the home you are buying has been sitting on the market for a long time, the seller is extra motivated, or your offer price seems just right.
If the buyers home is priced correctly and in a price range/area that sells fast this type of offer may be considered as less risky.
