An agent showed a home that I have listed to their customers a week ago that since has an accepted offer on it from another Realtor. The agent who called saw the home now had a sale pending but wanted to know if the Seller would consider taking a back-up offer. The current offer was a good one or the Seller wouldn’t have accepted it, but you never know 100% for sure that any sale will work, so it’s usually in the best interest of the Seller and can’t hurt to have another offer in your back pocket in case something gets soft with the other sale. The back-up offer might even be a better offer in terms of price, terms or less contingencies. Until all contingencies are eliminated or satisfied then the outcome of any transaction is not absolutely certain. So I told them to write the offer, send it over and we would take a look at it.
When I’m working with Buyers, I usually stay away from showing a home that has a pending sale, let alone writing a back-up offer. The reason is that the primary offer in place usually works and I don’t want my Buyer-customer tied up. Something better might come along and they could miss the opportunity to act upon it because they were focused on the other home. The only reason I would is if my customer really wanted that particular home, above all others, and thought it would be worth taking a chance. Besides, the Buyer can always withdraw the back-up offer at any time unless the Seller agrees to make it the primary offer.
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