Help Your Buyers Win By Shortening Contingencies

Salt Lake City Real Careers and Training Estate Podcast with Joshua Stern

A great tip to help your buyers in this market is shortening the contingencies in their offers. First and foremost, before you even come up with dates to write in the offer, call the listing agent. Find out what’s most important to that seller as far as those dates go. They may be looking for a long leaseback, for example. Knowledge is currency in this market. Let’s start with due diligence. Make that deadline as tight as possible. You might even consider waiving this contingency. If you do end up waiving it, make sure your buyer knows what that means and what they’re giving up. If not, make it as short as possible. Seven days is a great number; it means you’re working with your buyer to get the inspections scheduled immediately. “First and foremost, before you even come up with dates to write in the offer, call the listing agent.” Next, look at the financing and appraisal deadlines. If you remember my last video, we talked about getting a fully digitally underwritten pre-approval. If your lender does this, there’s a good chance you can shorten that deadline. Typically it’s 21 days, but you can knock it down to 17 or 14 days. The less space there is in the contract between these contingencies and the actual proposed closing, the better the chances your buyer has of winning the offer. If you have questions about today’s topic or there’s anything else I can help you with, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to hear from you.