Should You Continue to Market a House After You Have a Contract? -EP 87

On this episode of the Real Estate Fight Club podcast, hosts Jenn Murtland and Monica Weakley discuss pending listings and the potential of other offers. How do you help clients navigate their offers and do you need to think about back-up plans?

 

Episode Highlights: 

• In the United States, a listing goes to a pending status once an offer is accepted.
• Jenn has heard that in Canada a listing does not go into a pending status until all contingencies are cleared. 
• Monica and Jenn discuss the different levels of an accepted offer status in the United States. 
• Most agents won’t show a house if it has any pending status in any part of the process. 
• It is a smart practice to notify your sellers to keep accepting offers and staying open for showing past the pending contract. This way, you can avoid on-again-off-again listing situations.
• In many states, many contracts allow for buyers to back out at several periods along the way in the contract and still get the earnest money back, which has the potential to hurt the seller. 
• Monica and Jenn agree that contracts favor the buyers disproportionately. Jenn mentions that buyers also don’t want to spend a bunch of money if it’s not going to be right.
• When we talk about hundreds of dollars of due diligence, Monica says it must be a leap of faith by both sides to make it work.
• By making some changes in the contract, it  can be a lot more fair for sellers and enable them to set them up to win in case of failure.
• Eric, the tiebreaker for this episode, affirms that a seller can accept an offer and keep the house in an active status, but it should be in writing.
• The seller should be informed about all available options.
• Eric stresses the importance of communicating things with the buyers and keeping all parties informed when showing already signed properties.
• What if a seller keeps a property open post signing a contract and they receive a higher offer?

 

3 Key Points:

1. Monica and Jenn discuss the addendums, workaround situations, and notices that one can give to a buyer. 
2. There is a  stigma around properties that don’t get sold. How does it stay fair for both the buyer and the seller?
3. Eric Barth joins the conversation to conclude the thoughts on time frames and how to best manage offers and properties in different situations.

Resources Mentioned:

• Jenn Murtland LinkedIn | Facebook | (513) 400-1691 | Website
• https://jennifermurtland.com/Vault/
• Monica Weakley website | LinkedIn | Facebook
• Real Estate Fight Club Podcast  Facebook page
• Eric Barth: Website | 859-912-2104 | eric@ericjbarth.com