The short answer is yes. But what you'll find in almost all your answers is that you will not be operating from a position of strength.

I don't know how other agents are finding it, but I'm finding that the lenders/banks are looking for the least contingencies as possible. I've found quite a few lenders/banks that don't even want to deal with offers that have inspection contingencies. Pretty much "AS IS" condition. This is one area that contractors and professional home buyers are excelling in their purchases. I find it interesting how lenders/banks work differently in different states and even how different the rules can be from one lender/bank to another.

Not for a sale of buyers current property, No.

Banks often allow short time contingency periods for 1. inspection of property, often allowing the buyer to pay for mold testing, termite inspections, radon testing, and whole house inspections. - the banks don't pay for these inspections, the buyer pays for them.
2. appraisal contingency 3. buyer financing contingency.

I have never, ever heard of a situation where a bank allowed for a sale contingency of the buyers previous house.

The article linked below tells you a little about the patience and risk tolerance required from a buyer, seller, or Realtor in a short sale situation. My opinion of short sales for buyers? High Risk, Low Reward.

Web Reference
http://www.brokeragentnews.com/news/residential/2008_2/2_4_2…

To sum up the article. 1. Buyer waits a long time for the bank to anything. 2. Buyer has to sign banks counteroffer that is full of anti-consumer clauses. 3. Buyer has to pay nearly full market value. (discount, if any is much tinier than you think it will be) 4. Bank can cancel the sale at any time up until close of escrow, with no consequence to the bank and no compensation to the buyer


In my not so humble opinion ( imnsho,) ) The reasons why the failure is above 80% are:

1. Many sellers don't qualify, they think that being upside down and hating it is enough.
You must also be undergoing hardship not of your own making. such as illness, unemployment or natural disaster. Stovall gives a few other reasons.

2. Prospective buyers think that these are bargains, so very few buyers offer close to full market value. The banks will not approve sales at huge discounts, tiny discounts: yes.

3. The wait, 4. the paperwork, the wait 5. the anti-buyer addenda, the long wait 6. the uncertainty of the sale, still waiting 7. the perception, if not a reality, of bad faith dealing by the bank loss mitigation managers.

.I linked below to an article in Broker Agent News by Steve Stovall. He gives a pretty good description of the short sale process, seller, property, paperwork, and buyer requirements

Hello Mollie,

You are still the Seller of the property, however the lender does have to approve the contingency. It really depends on what your contingency is. You may be eliminating a potential buyer, just keep that in mind.

hi mollie,
i am currently an agent for countrywide homes in the mountains west of boulder co. i have not been able to get them to look at an offer that has a contingency attached to the closing. have you looked a doing a bridge loan?