[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by Laker14

what contingencies a seller will accept typically depends upon how "hot" the market is. I have a wealthy (very wealthy) relative who wanted to buy a desirable home in San Francisco during the most recent super-hot real estate period. The "asking" price was north of $6 million. He knew if he wanted it he'd have to move fast, and make a "no contingency" offer. When he first walked through the place he had with with him a slew of building inspectors for all of the various parts of a building you'd want to know about. Roof, electric, plumbing etc etc. They spent most of the day there. He made an offer, above asking price, no contingencies. He got the property.

That is an extreme case. I sold a property in a depressed, small town in upstate NY. In order to get it sold I had to accept all manner of "reasonable" contingencies. It had to pass inspections, and it was even contingent upon the sale of the buyer's current home. At that time, and in that place, that was a normal contingency. In fact, I had bought a home with that very contingency.

My understanding is that when the market is hot, The Villages doesn't entertain any contingencies in their new home sales. I could be wrong about that, but that's what I've been told. When we bought our resale, we had a few reasonable ones, primarily the passing of inspections and acquisition of a mortgage. My seller could have told me "no" on the contingencies, and would have had to wait for anther buyer.

In essence, contingencies are just another negotiable aspect of the offer one makes, and like all negotiable aspects, are subject to relative strength of the positions of the two parties, and the relative strength of the desires to get the deal done.

Very true, and even at that it took over a year to sell my NY home