I'm smiling as I write this
.
Years ago, made an offer on a house contingent on the sale of ours (this is in CA). The offer was accepted with the condition that the seller's house remained on the market with no "sold" sign and if another offer was recieved that the seller chose to accept, we would have 72 hours "to perform", which is to say, close the deal whether or not we'd sold our house.
When our broker presented that counter-offer to us to sign, we were discouraged because it was unlikely we'd be able to close on our house in 3 days.
Our broker, a friend, started laughing and said "I haven't told you everything." It turns out the seller's broker made a typo; instead of 3 "days", the document said 3 "months".
I said, "Yeah, but they made a mistake!" "Not as far as I'm concerned!" he said laughing. "Let's just wait and see. As it stands, we've got 3 months to close on the sale of your house."
So, a week later the seller gets another offer and our broker is notified that we have 3 days to perform. Our broker says no, 3 months. So he gets a call from the broker who owned the company wanting to meet with him in his office.
Our broker friend, a cocky little guy, was laughing when he called and told us and said that he wanted us to go to the meeting with him, which we did. The broker was a pompous ass who sat confidently at his desk and said "Don't be ridiculous! Nobody gives 3 months to perform on a contingency sale! The seller has accepted another offer with a cash deposit and that's that!", or words to that effect.
So our broker said, "Well you did; read your counter-offer. And the state real estate commission won't be happy to learn that you accepted 2 offers on the same piece of property. My buyers have 3 months from the day your counter-offer was signed and returned, to perform. Good luck in explaining that to whoever's offer you also accepted. I think we're done here, no?"
The broker, all red faced and seemingly about to blow a blood vessel in his forehead, said nothing, just gave a backhanded flip towards the door to his office, which we walked out of - smiling.
We sold our house well within the 3 month period and moved into our new one.
Anyway, if you proposed such a performance clause (with no typo
), the seller might accept it, no? Seems the seller would have nothing to lose. No gaurantee for you since the house could be sold out from under you, but if they don't get another offer before you sell, you're locked in, no?