Hopeful Dwelling Consumers Waive Contingencies to Compete in Purple-Scorching Housing Market – CBS San Francisco

WALNUT CREEK (KPIX) – One way that buyers in this hot real estate market are highlighting their offerings is by waiving any contingent liabilities. Brokers fear this will lead to lawsuits.

Abhinav and Moshika Guha started looking at houses in November. They submitted seven offers and were outbid every time.

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“In some cases we have chosen not to offer anything because we know we will lose,” said Abhinav Guha.

They are looking for all possible ways to sweeten the deal.

“We have a 49ers season ticket, so we would include a game of your choice for the 2021 regular season. We did that this morning, ”said Moshika Guha.

In addition to tickets, they plan to offer an outlist whenever possible, as well as something they have never thought of before – drop all contingent liabilities.

The most common types of contingent liabilities for home buyers are:

• Financing, meaning the sale will only take place once the buyer has been approved for a loan.
• Inspection, where buyers can step back if an inspection reveals a problem they were not aware of, or if they can request repairs from the seller.
• Valuation, meaning the house must be valued for the same or greater value than the offer.
• Home sale, the buyer can choose not to close the deal until they sell their current home.

It is now common practice to forego all of this.

“Our agents basically ask the first question, how uncomfortable do you want to get?” said Earl Rozran, vice president of experience at Sereno Real Estate.

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Rozran’s main concern is the amount of money buyers can lose on these unconditional offers in the event they have to withdraw.

“Your deposit will likely go to the seller and 3 percent of a million dollars is $ 30,000 to be withdrawn from your bank account,” Rozran said.

“There is no out. So you have to step away from the bail, you have to essentially step away from $ 50,000, “said Michael Delehanty, a real estate agent in Walnut Creek.

Delehanty says this market is unlike anything he’s seen in his career. He hates the idea of ​​dropping contingent liabilities.

“It puts your customer at risk. My job is to protect my clients’ interests and give them the home they want … I think agents will find themselves in court at some point, ”Delehanty said.

Are the Guhas comfortable with this risk?

“We just got over it a bit,” said Moshika Guha. “Whatever it takes to get the house we want is the market.”

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According to the National Association of Realtors, 76 percent of home sales in 2020 were related to contingent liabilities. Nine percent of them failed, mainly because many of those buyers lost their jobs last year. House sales cancellations prior to the pandemic were closer to 2 percent.