Why Make A Back-Up Offer?

Why make a Back-Up Offer? Because half the time you end up getting to buy the house. That is a good reason!

It takes time and trouble to go through the exercise of making a Back-Up Offer. Lots of agents won't do it. From a Buyer's Agent's perspective, I like making Back-Up Offers. Lots of times it is possible to negotiate more favorable terms for the Back-Up because the Seller assumes that the contract in first position is going to close and so they really don't have to pay all that much attention to our deal. Right????? Wrong...Seriously, half the time when there is a Back-Up Contract, it is the Back-Up that gets closed!

From a Listing Agent's perspective, I love having a Back-Up Offer. Having one of those in the file takes a lot of the drama out of negotiating repairs during the Option Period. It is a great way to shield my Seller-client from the emotionally wringing process of repair negotiation. We just have to decide what we are willing to do. We let the First-contract-buyer know what our position is and then they just have to decide if they can live with those repairs or not. Very cut-and-dry.