Should You Accept A Backup Offer?
Congratulations…your home is under contract!
At this point you may be asking if you should accept a backup offer?
I am certainly not opposed to accepting a backup offer but before you do I want to explain one big negative aspect of backup offers you may not be aware of.
Our contracts in Texas are very buyer friendly. Most will come with a termination period where the buyer can cancel a contract for any reason.
When you accept a backup offer you are tying your property to that 2nd buyer while at the same time that 2nd buyer will continue to shop other homes and perhaps go under contract on a different property.
Hopefully this won’t happen, but what if the first buyer you are under contract with loses their job 2 weeks into the transaction and has to cancel your contract? Immediately your home will now be under contract with the backup offer.
That sounds great, but what if that 2nd buyer has already gone under contract with another home, or has changed their mind about your home? In that situation you have to wait for the backup buyer to officially terminate the backup contract before you can sign another primary contract.
What you may consider better for you is just having us keep a list of all the buyers who expressed interest and any others who contact us while your home is under contract. That way if something happens with your primary contract, we can immediately reach out to everyone at the same time and not commit yourself to one backup offer who may no longer be interested in your home.
This can be a complicated decision. Please let us know how you would like to proceed and if you would like to talk in more detail about how backup contracts work.