| There Goes the Perfect House |
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There it was. The perfect house. The perfect neighborhood. The perfect price. I e-mailed the listing to my client as soon as I saw it was available. She called me 30 seconds later and said she was more excited about it than she had been about anything in her 6 months of looking for a home. We scheduled a time to see it that afternoon. But I already knew she wouldn’t buy it.
Not 30 minutes later I got a text message from my office. The house was gone. Already scooped up by someone else who also knew it was the perfect house. How I hate making the call to my buyers when I find out the house they want has been placed under contract by someone else. But I already knew she wouldn’t buy it.
You see, she has a house to sell before she can buy the next one. That’s how I knew she wouldn’t buy it. I’ve seen the story unfold before. People start planning a move, but they want to make sure that they find a house they like before they give up the house they have. Sounds logical, until they find the house they like. That’s when the disappointment begins.
They can’t make an offer because they must have the money from their house to buy the next one. Then, the house they want is sold out from under them and they start looking for the next perfect house and the scenario plays out again. Sometimes, they are afraid to put their house on the market because they haven’t found the one they want yet...you see how the circle goes.
However, an offer CAN be put on a house, even if the buyer has to sell first. The offer is considered contingent on the sale of the buyer’s house, and the seller has to agree to this. When this happens, the agent for the seller continues to market the property. If another acceptable offer comes in, then the buyer is given first right of refusal (usually 48-72 hours) to remove the contingency by agreeing to buy the property even if theirs hasn’t sold yet, or, if they can’t arrange that, they must forfeit the house to the other buyer.
But if a seller accepts a contingency offer, how can they be sure that the buyer is doing their utmost to sell? The Tennessee Association of REALTORS has a form called the “Sellers Right to Continue to Market Property Addendum and Notice.” In this form, it says, “In the event the attached agreement (the offer) is contingent upon the sale of the Buyer’s property, the Buyer and Seller hereby agree that said property will be listed with a licensed real estate Broker and advertised in a local Multiple Listing Service (if one exists in that market). “For Sale by Owner” is not sufficient, the house must be listed through a real estate agent to give it the best shot at being sold in an expedient manner.
So, if you KNOW you are going to move, then visit a few open houses in your desired area and price range to get a representative idea of what you may be able to purchase. Then, list your house with a REALTOR, for heaven’s sake, or you won’t have a good shot at getting the one you want. If you have the time, wait for an offer on your house, insist on some time before closing, then use that time to do some serious house shopping when you can make a serious offer on the perfect house.
Claudia Stallings
Coldwell Banker Wallace & Wallace
