All Forum Posts by: Steven Johnson

Settlement periods are always negotiable. You tend to see shorter settlement periods in residential transactions and the longest in land transactions where entitlements contingencies are customarily found.  The particular circumstances will dictate what is appropriate and acceptable. 

Yes, you just specify that the earnest money is “hard” (non-refundable for any reason). It’s more of status or condition of the earnest money. But don’t do that until after you are 100% satisfied, convinced, and ready to lose that money if you don’t proceed. 

Is the house currently empty? If not you may find they’d be happy to have more time to move. But if it’s already empty it’s a harder sell as no one wants to deal with squatters. (Especially you as the new owner.)

Good luck and let us know what they say. 

An earnest deposit is worth nothing. You can offer a 50% earnest deposit. Then when you got to look at it you say, “Oops, I don’t like the inspection report, oh, I’m not moving any more so I don’t qualify for a 2nd mortgage, etc etc, please tell the title company to give me all my money back.”

if you mean a 3-5% non-refundable no matter what happens to the house (you find termites or water damage or a cracked foundation) or yourself, (you lose your job and can’t get a loan or decide not to move)  earnest deposit. Then that’s really the $10-$20k I was talking about in my post. 

Quote from @Steven Johnson:

Quote from @Wayne Kerr:

Absolutely - you can add anything into the contract that you want on the buyers side 

Now the other part of the equation is the seller - do they want to wait 6 months to close? My guess would be no, so it may make it difficult 

I believe they have bridge loans for this sort of thing - I'm not too familiar with in, but it may be something for you to look into

 I'd be interested in a bridge loan! What would it take to qualify?

I'm guessing 20-25% equity, decent credit score - look up bridge loan/gap loan - but it basically acts as a short term loan between selling your hosue and buying a new one. It's secured by a portion of the equity in your current home even if it's for sale. I don't know the specifics but it sounds like something that may work for you. The interest rate is likely higher being that it is a short term loan, so it may cost more depending on how long it takes you to find a new house/sell yours 

@Steven Johnson

Of course you can offer to close in 6 months. Its just whether or not it will work for the seller. Sure, if the seller can and/or wants to get out sooner and offer is available for that, you will get beat out. So make a strong offer, especially sizable EMD (and it can be more than your "money down"). Just make sure you can get your loan (assuming you are using financing) since who knows in 6mo...

Good luck.

Absolutely - you can add anything into the contract that you want on the buyers side 

Now the other part of the equation is the seller - do they want to wait 6 months to close? My guess would be no, so it may make it difficult 

I believe they have bridge loans for this sort of thing - I'm not too familiar with in, but it may be something for you to look into

Give them a NON-REFUNDABLE $10-$20k EMD and an additional $3,000/mo or $1,000/mo more than their payment, whichever is more. You have to make sure they think it's a win if you don't close. If they think they lose if you don't close, why would they take your offer unless they have ZERO buyer interest. (Meaning it's a bad deal you shouldn't buy anyway.)

Imagine 5 months from now and they’ve made $10-$20k in mortgage payments, missed the prime spring selling season, and you just ghost them?  Or… interest rates have dropped and now they could sell for $50k more to a stranger but have to sell to you? That’s their downside, what’s the upside to taking your offer over being done?

You can put the closing date whenever but I doubt they will accept that. Most I've seen was 60 ish days. Doesn't hurt to ask though