What St. Louis Homebuyers Need to Know About Active Contingent Listings
If you are in the process of buying a St. Louis house, you are probably spending countless hours scrolling through online listings searching for the home of your dreams. As you look, there are three common types of listing statuses that you will notice: active, pending, and sold. However, there is a fourth status that you may come across, active contingent. Can you still see the St. Louis house and make an offer?
What is Active Contingent?
When a St. Louis house is in a status of active contingent, it means that the seller has accepted an offer from the buyer. However, the offer has contingencies included that need to be met. The most common ones are for the house passing the home inspection and appraisal, and the buyer being able to secure financing. At times it will also include the buyer being able to sell the house they currently own before closing on this new house.
Once the contingencies have been met, the status of the house will change from Active Contingent to Pending.
Can you place an offer on an active contingent listing?
While the St. Louis house is already committed to another buyer, it isn’t officially sold and anything could still happen. If this house is the house of your dreams, it could still be worth it to schedule a showing and make an offer.
Keep in mind that the vast majority of times the original offer will go through without a problem, so do not get your hopes up too much. However, it is worth a try if you really do like the house. Your backup offer could motivate the St. Louis seller to not be willing to give in too much to demands that the first buyer is making. This could lead them to backing out of the deal instead of agreeing to make repairs suggested from the home inspection, which leaves them open to accepting your offer.
If you are making an offer on an active contingent St. Louis listing, you want to make your listing as strong as possible. This is not the time to submit a low ball offer in hopes of negotiating with the seller. You want to come in strong with a good offer and no contingencies. You want your deal to be enticing to the seller so they would rather be able to accept your offer instead of the original offer that they accepted.
It is worth a shot to try to secure a St. Louis house that you love. But don’t get your hopes up when dealing with a listing where the seller has already accepted an offer.
On the off chance that the original deal does fall through and your offer is accepted, make sure you are prepared. The seller will be leery after having one deal fall through, so do your part to make the real estate transaction as easy as possible for the seller. They will most likely want to move things along quickly, but don’t forget to complete your due diligence before signing on the dotted line.