Laura
More often then not Available with contingency means that the buyer of the home you are looking at has a home to sell. You can place an offer but the firs buyer usually has a clause giving them 48-72 hours to respond to the third party offer. If the first buyer cannot show ability to purchase without the sale of their home, you can negotiate with the home owner.
Lately it has become common to include morttgage and home inspections in "available with contingencies" . Personally I do not find that necessary and really shy away from using it because you might be wasting someone's time. If the property is so bad that you make home inspections a cause I would tell a client to stay away from that particular property. As to mortgage, one should have at least a pre-approval in hand and should have spoken to a loan officer about the potential seller. That too is my personal opinion.

Hello Lauer!

Available with Contingentcy means that the seller has signed and accepted an offer on their home, But there are things that the buyer must do to "Finalize" The purchase of the home. Most common "conditions" of an offer is Selling a Home, Home Inspection and Mortgage Approval.

The best way to find out what "Condition" is ....is to have your Buyer Agent call the Listing agent and find out. If the "Condition" is selling a home...in The Buyer's market which we are in....it is like the home still be available IF you do not need to sell. So, I would go and take a look at it. If you like the home and want to make an offer on it....the current buyer would get called and be requested to purchase the home without selling their current home and if they can not do that...which most can not. Then you can negotiate with the seller for the purchase of the home.

Even if the home condition is something other than the Buyer selling a home a buyer can usually still view the home and place a Backup offer on the home. There are many things that can come up in a Home Inspection and depending on what the current offer is on the home...IF the seller has a backup offer that is better than the current offer they have then there is an advantage of accepting the back up offer.

I hope things information helps you. For more information about Learning before you Buy...visit my free website at http://www.LehighValleyRealEstate.TV

Good morning!

As Bev mentioned, available with contingency can mean several things. Most of the time, what it means is that a buyer has made and offer on the home, which the seller has accepted, but the offer is contingent upon the sale of the buyers existing home. In this case, the seller may opt to continue showing their home to other prospective buyers. In the event that another buyer places an offer on this home, the first home-buyer that placed the offer has first option to purchase. If the original buyer opts out, then the next offer can be accepted by the sellers.

Brigita McKelvie, REALTOR, e-PRO, GRI
Keller Williams Real Estate, Bethlehem, PA
Office: 610-867-8888 Direct: 610-393-9424
E-mail: brigita@brigitamklv.com
Web: http://www.brigitamklv.com
Blogs: http://activerain.com/blogs/brigitam

In Pennsylvania in can mean several things. First of all the home is under contract but has contingencies and until those contingencies are satisfied, the seller wishes to have the property available for showings.
If it is a home sale contingency, that means the Buyer has a home to sell and the agreement is generally contingent upon the sale and settlement of the Buyers existing home. There is almost always a clause that would allow the seller to accept another agreement of sale and release the existing buyer upon written notification. There are a few variations in this type of contingency. The other contingencies would be inspections and financing. The Seller cannot accept any other offers with these type of contingencies unless inspections issues could not be agreed upon by Seller and Buyer or unless the Buyer would not be able to obtain a mortgage. If I can be of any help, please feel free to contact me.
Bev Kalb
Century 21 Longacre Realty
610-845-6000 x 208
610-442-6897 direct

There may already be an offer on the house but it isn't a strong offer so they are continuing to show the house. Usually they are looking for a better offer than what they have.