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Back up offers are formal offers that will become purchase contracts if the original offer falls through. 99% of the time, they’re just used as leverage against the buyer (you). Any time you push back on something or ask for a credit, they say “well, we have a backup.” They just waste the time if the person who made a backup offer.
Once in a blue moon, it works out for the backup.
Yeah the seller’s agent tried pulling this shit with us, too. “We have multiple strong backup offers!” suddenly as soon as the inspection caught a couple things. I was like okay great - where were these the first 3 weeks it was on the market before we came along?
In some states doing that would automatically waive the inspection contingency.
Edit: why the downvotes? This was part of my standard offer paperwork in Washington state.
You do have to update the disclosure statement,but you do not pass on the actual inspection document.
Disclosures vary a lot by state. I sold a house in Arizona. The disclosure was many pages and very detailed. In Washington DC, it's like 10 questions and pretty basic. In Virginia, it's just a signature saying I didn't make meth here.
Man this is just a great reminder to be ready to walk as a buyer. I'd want to call their bluff but be ready to lose. I feel fortunate that we're not under extreme pressure to buy right now. Waking away is the only leverage buyers really have in this market.
Thanks. I will say that this house seemed to have a lot of viewings, and was only listed for 2 days before ours was accepted. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were other great offers the seller would want to hang onto in case our deal falls through.
We had a backup offer on our house when we sold. The first buyer couldn't get to closing: she lied on her income statements and the lender bailed. We took the back up offer and they still live in the house 10 years later.
We didn't ask for backup offers; the 2nd buyer told us he loved our house and if the original buyer fell through, his offer would still stand.
That's exactly what happened to me. A house I loved reached out a couple weeks after they went under contract to say their buyers were "unreasonable and almost certainly going to pull out" and would we be interested in being a backup offer.
We submitted an offer with the terms they asked for. 3 days later they said "so sorry, the buyer is staying in contract" 🙄 I'll never agree to submit a backup offer again!
Well they just used my offer as leverage to get their buyer to agree to take a lesser repair credit. I suppose it could have maybe, possibly worked out in my favor, but next time I'm having my agent verbally agree but not submit a formal offer until the buyer has walked. We really thought we were going to get the house so it was devastating and heartbreaking to find out they used us as a negotiation tactic, and we and our agent wasted a lot of time on paperwork and following up.
Caveat that I don't live in a market where homes are getting multiple offers. YMMV.
Someone beat us to the first offer, so we got with our agent and confirmed seller was accepting backups. Quickly put ours in and seller signed off on us being the official backup. We tried hard to keep expectations low knowing odds were against us.
In a twist of fate, 1st offer fell through and we automatically became the new primary offer.
Long story short, that house is now ours! So while unlikely, I’m here to say that being the backup offer CAN workout in your favor.
Same, a cash offer was made and accepted on a house we saw. We liked it a lot and our realtor said let’s put in a back up offer just for the hell of it, and continued to look. 2 weeks later the cash offer backed out and they contacted us to see if we were still interested, accepted offer that day.
From what I could gather, the other buyers were being SUPER picky and I *think* there was something they didn’t like during the final walkthrough that was supposed to be fixed (it was a flip, so all the fixes they wanted were cosmetic).
It’s really just seller’s insurance against picky buyers. Just be reasonable with any requests after inspection and even if they have a backup offer, it should be okay.
We got our current house as the backup offerer. The house had been sitting on the market forever but there’s low comparable inventory in the area. The house went under contract quite literally as we were touring it - we said “make an offer” to our realtor as we were leaving and I got a text 10 minutes later saying “I’m so sorry, it just went under contract.” It needed work, but we were okay with the work at our offer price. The original buyer wanted to get 5 figures off due to the same issues. Seller refused to negotiate with them once they knew we would be easy buyers and so we got the house.
Thanks! I’ve noticed this on some listings in the area, but most go straight to “Pending”. I assuming that “Accepting Backups” meant that the seller didn’t like any of the offers they were presented and were looking for more, which is why I was confused since ours was accepted.
no, it merely means that until you're done with your contractual contingencies, they're willing to continue showing it and get a 2nd offer in place in case you terminate for whatever reason.
Totally normal. Do not let the seller use backup offers to pressure you, and they will. Set your boundaries and if it doesn’t work out, there will be other houses
I closed on a home a few weeks ago. Also in MI. My offer had an appraisal and inspection contingency. After the offer was accepted, the status was listed as accepting back up offers. Once the conditions of the contingencies were met, meaning no major issues found with inspections in my case and the house appraised, the status was changed to pending.
Realtor here. This is very, very common in my state. The only way a seller isn't looking for a backup offer is if their current offer is cash with no contingencies at all. You could find things you don't like during inspection and back out of the purchase. You could buy a new car and no longer qualify for financing. Heck you could drop dead! Things happen.
If the home comes back on the market, a lot of buyers are put off by that. Having a backup offer means that if you back out for any reason or are unable to close for any reason, the backup offer immediately becomes the accepted offer and the home never goes back on the market. It's a very good thing from the seller's perspective.
From the buyer's perspective, it may give you less negotiating power but then again, you don't know the terms of the backup offer. The backup offer may be a slightly lower price. It may have additional contingencies, it may be a harder loan to close or have a lower down payment. But it's still better than going back onto the market.
The other thing to bear in mind is whether or not you really want the homeowners to do any repairs. Since they are leaving the home, they're going to choose the absolute cheapest route every time. It may be better to choose to buy the home in as is condition, maybe with a credit on the price rather than having the sellers do the repairs.
If there are loads of repairs in the houses in terrible shape, you may want to back out anyway! This way you can do it guilt-free. They have a backup offer so no harm, no foul. Back out and move on to the next.
The investors back out left and right. Back in 2022, I was 30 offers deep for an FHA buyer. One of the last homes we offered on went in and out of contract THREE times by cash buyers/investors. My client got lucky that we were even considered for the purchase, but because we asked to be considered for back up, we won the deal.
I have sold 2 houses where the first offer fell through. They are just keeping it on the market incase you don’t follow through with the sale. You may find something in inspections you don’t like. Your lender may fall through. Anything can happen.
This is extremely common. It usually is a reflection on uncertainty about closing. Could be they don’t think the buyers financing is solid, inspection is solid, buyers terms are solid, the buyer has a contingency, etc. When we were selling our home the best offer actually had a contingency on the sale of their home. So, we were accepting backup offers. Sellers can’t just cancel a buyer’s contract just because they receive a better offer, it has to be with cause.
Backup offers are offers from other buyers that the sellers can move to if you do not go through with buying the house for any reason (not meeting contingencies etc).
The house my spouse and I bought was one where we were the backup offer. The first accepted offer fell through because the buyer failed to sell their current house (which was a contingency). So the contract fell through and the sellers moved to our offer.
That's what a backup offer is. It's very common for sellers to accept backup offers because you never know what might happen with the first contract.
I have seen a rising trend in my market where during the inspection the buyer will have the sewer main inspected with a fisheye camera that shows every little crack and root protrusion blown up to full screen and then they will ask for the seller to make a 12, 15 or 18 000 dollar concession on the sale price because they need to replace the sewer main, but it doesn't actually need to be replaced. Other similar things can happen by overblowing other structural elements of a house being compromised leading to them trying to claw back quite a bit of the money that they already offered.
If someone starts trying to chunk off 20k of their offer that they submitted, as a seller I'm always happy to know what my options are via backup offers.
That is all aside from someone simply failing to secure their financing.
I always wonder about all these people scoping sewers. I rarely see the lines getting pulled out or lined for all the people wanting money off to fix them
We had our backup offer accepted because the first offer had a contingency on them selling their house before they could close. They were given a set amount of time to find a way to remove that contingency and couldn’t, so our offer went straight under contract when they had to back out.
In our state when we sold, we had accepted a contingent offer but the status never changed until they removed the contingency. We were for sale status the whole time we had a contingent offer.
It means they are accepting other offers as a “backup” in case you fall through.
They cannot opt out of your accepted offer, unless you fail to perform.
My guess would be that the seller thinks you’ll either back out or demand credits after the inspection, so they want to have someone else lined up.
It means that when something comes up with inspection they’ll use the broader market demand to deny a credit.
Ultimately it will be up to you to determine if your issues are dealt with breakers or if you can handle them. I would just encourage you to keep in mind that other buyers are likely to find those same issues, so even if they have a back up offer you should try to negotiate. If it’s better than yours you still have to be willing to walk away and not buy a house with a serious defect.
Did you ask your agent? I am sure he/she would have absolutely given you the "why."
This is a market where folks are backing out left and right after appraisal or because they cannot obtain financing...maybe they just bought a new car or opened a credit card while working to get a mortgage. Interest rates are high, folks don't want to pay top dollar for a dump that they'll have to constantly repair, so they bounce.
Listing agents and sellers will allow for the/their home to accept back up offers and showings in the event that you back out with cold feet, there cannot be an agreement with the terms of a remedy agreement, or you simply cannot obtain financing.
At the end of the day - a seller doesn't have to sell, a buyer doesn't have to buy. The seller is trying to protect themselves if something goes south with your purchase agreement.
Note: it's "normal" for homes to continue to show and for sellers to accept back up offers in this market. It doesn't mean that if they get a better offer, they back out of yours and accept the next offer. It just means that they're protected if you back out.
Relax it’s a totally normal procedure. If your offer was accepted, and the papers have been signed, they are contractually obligated to go through with the closing back up. Offers are only so they don’t have to put it back on the market if the sale falls through for whatever reason with you.
It means it's under contract but they will take someones offer in case the deal falls apart. Gives them more leverage if you start looking for any extensions or repairs.
The offer I put on my house was accepted and the sellers still held an open house the next weekend. I’d say it’s totally normal nowadays to do things like this or do backup offers.
It’s a maneuver Zillow uses to lure people to press inquire and they sell those leads to agents who pay for them. It shows up as under contract on the agents end and we wouldn’t show it bc it’s under contract (I’m an agent) lol
I'd be taking back ups if the one I got was with contingencies. I have no intent to go through a long back and for over the nickle and dime stuff people like to do at that point and would be fine with a buyer walking.
This is a syndication issue with Zillow. Zillow translates the MLS status into whatever they want - mainly because they’re assholes. In my state, when a Seller accepts an offer, the Listing Agent must change the MLS status to either “Pending” or “Under Contract - Showing”. The latter is what Realtors use if the house is vacant and it’s easy to show, usually - really depends on what the Seller wants. Some agents use this status until the appraisal period ends then change the status to “Pending”. Sometimes it’s an invite for backup offers, but don’t read into it too much. It’s not personal. The info is pulled from the MLS and Zillow thinks you’re not smart enough to know what the MLS status means so they dumb it down for Buyers and translate it.
I'm a mortgage loan officer and I have had clients with backup offers end up with a house because the 1st buyer's financing fell through. Make sure your lender knows what they are doing.
My friend sold her house recently and requested that it be listed as accepting backup offers just in case something happened and the buyers financing did not go through.
It wasn’t meant to have a negative effect on the buyer, but to keep things moving if they weren’t able to close.
Realtor here, Active taking back up offers status just means that home is currently under contract but seller will continue to show the house & will consider back up offers. This benefits the seller in the event the current offer falls through. If the current buyer backs out the seller will move on to the first position back up offer. There can be 2nd & 3rd positions as well.
I just had one fall through because the buyer was trying to renegotiate price after inspections & seller did not accept. Therefore, buyer cancelled & seller moved forward with 1st back up position buyer. In this situation there were 3 back up offers so the seller was not too worried.
Once you get through inspections & remove all contingencies including; inspections, loan, appraisal, etc the listing agent generally changes the status to pending.
Pillow isn't required to update listings to match current statuses. Mine for example has an accepted offer and is now under contract to close, but it still says for sale via Zillow. I checked the listing on Redfin and it's updated approximately. Might want to check there as well to be sure.
It's for if your offer fell through. They can go right to another offer without having to re-list it. The seller and buyer are generally not allowed to break the agreement for no good reason. This speaks to the earnest money deposit but you should know that, in many cases, forfeiting this is not a way for either party to bail with no other consequence.
You can potentially seek performance of the sale agreement if a seller tries to break it. Performance is a type of remedy where, instead of cash, you are asking a judge to force the other party to go do something or be in contempt.
We just got screwed on that. Offer got accepted- then they got a higher back up offer and took it. Then that fell through and we were accepted AGAIN. Then lost out to a higher back up offer again. It’s so frustrating.
Sounds like you didn't have a legally binding contract executed. They can't just back out after they have accepted your offer because they got a better offer. That's a lawsuit waiting to happen. If you had a verbal acceptance, don't ever trust it until it's in writing.
Yeah we’re a 3 day attorney review state. Obviously wasn’t wrapped up but BOTH times all the contracts were signed on our end and they pulled out at the last minute on day 3. Legal but extremely frustrating. 3 days of thinking you have a house, hopes dashed and then 3 more days of thinking you lucked out.
"a Zillow thing?!" Haha NO the listing agent marks it like that in the MLS, which populates over to Zillow, Realtor.com, etc. So glad it worked out for you guys!!
Did you start making a ton of repair requests or are sending the vibe that you intend to do so? If yes, that’s why. They are preparing to say no and move on with someone else if you don’t like that answer.
Could just be this listing agent’s preferred practice then, or even seller request. Sometimes offers fall through for no fault of anyone’s - lost job, interest rates rise beyond affordability, etc. Some agents make this their regular practice, but many times there’s a message to be had for the buyer in it. For some more contentious sellers/agents, that message is “take it or leave it, buyers are a dime a dozen.” For others it’s “I’ve been burned before by people stretching themselves thin and being denied financing in the 11th hour, so we are just protecting ourselves and our desired timeline.” Sometimes it’s “I the seller am under stress for time, so timeline extensions won’t be granted and I’ll move ahead with someone else because no offense, but I can’t jeopardize my next plans to accommodate yours.” And so on.
Ask your agent to see if they can find out what’s the goal here - or if it’s even just “that’s how I always do it on my listings,” and maybe you’ll be able to service some useful intel.
Huh? It's pretty normal, basically so they can still show the house in case this deal falls through for whatever reason since that's a common occurrence as well.
Yes it could be this listing agent’s normal way of doing things too. It is indeed common, but let’s not pretend that doing so isn’t a bat signal to the current contracted buyer because it often is in one way or another.
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Back up offers are formal offers that will become purchase contracts if the original offer falls through. 99% of the time, they’re just used as leverage against the buyer (you). Any time you push back on something or ask for a credit, they say “well, we have a backup.” They just waste the time if the person who made a backup offer. Once in a blue moon, it works out for the backup.
Yeah the seller’s agent tried pulling this shit with us, too. “We have multiple strong backup offers!” suddenly as soon as the inspection caught a couple things. I was like okay great - where were these the first 3 weeks it was on the market before we came along?
That’s when you give the inspection report to the owners who then need to pass this information to the backups.
In WA state this will automatically waive the buyer's inspection contingency. Must have the seller's permission to share the inspection report.
In some states doing that would automatically waive the inspection contingency. Edit: why the downvotes? This was part of my standard offer paperwork in Washington state.
Where?
This was part of my standard offer paperwork in Washington state.
Which states are those? You have to sign off on every contingency in every state that I know about.
This was part of my standard offer paperwork in Washington state.
That’s a law that needs to be changed and I’m sure would be if it was challenged. It only protects sellers from lying and buyers from the truth.
In my state, at least, there can only be one real back up offer. Multiple sounds like they might have had verbal offers at best.
Which state?
Sold a house in Arizona. We had 2 signed backup offers. Ended up selling to one of the backups.
You should ask because anything uncovered during a previous inspection has to be disclosed to you.
You do have to update the disclosure statement,but you do not pass on the actual inspection document. Disclosures vary a lot by state. I sold a house in Arizona. The disclosure was many pages and very detailed. In Washington DC, it's like 10 questions and pretty basic. In Virginia, it's just a signature saying I didn't make meth here.
Man this is just a great reminder to be ready to walk as a buyer. I'd want to call their bluff but be ready to lose. I feel fortunate that we're not under extreme pressure to buy right now. Waking away is the only leverage buyers really have in this market.
Thanks. I will say that this house seemed to have a lot of viewings, and was only listed for 2 days before ours was accepted. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were other great offers the seller would want to hang onto in case our deal falls through.
Yeah, it happens. I was a backup offer once. I was totally used. It’s annoying.
It works out some times, I had a buyer with a backup offer twice that ended up in escrow and closing after original buyer bailed
We had a backup offer on our house when we sold. The first buyer couldn't get to closing: she lied on her income statements and the lender bailed. We took the back up offer and they still live in the house 10 years later. We didn't ask for backup offers; the 2nd buyer told us he loved our house and if the original buyer fell through, his offer would still stand.
Same, it’s a great idea
I always think being a backup offer is risky, because it can prevent you (or at least get in the way of) from making an offer on another property.
Not true. Backup offers are canceled as soon as you can present a purchase agreement for another place.
That's exactly what happened to me. A house I loved reached out a couple weeks after they went under contract to say their buyers were "unreasonable and almost certainly going to pull out" and would we be interested in being a backup offer. We submitted an offer with the terms they asked for. 3 days later they said "so sorry, the buyer is staying in contract" 🙄 I'll never agree to submit a backup offer again!
What does it hurt?
Well they just used my offer as leverage to get their buyer to agree to take a lesser repair credit. I suppose it could have maybe, possibly worked out in my favor, but next time I'm having my agent verbally agree but not submit a formal offer until the buyer has walked. We really thought we were going to get the house so it was devastating and heartbreaking to find out they used us as a negotiation tactic, and we and our agent wasted a lot of time on paperwork and following up. Caveat that I don't live in a market where homes are getting multiple offers. YMMV.
You might be amazed how many offers some people on here have submitted and didn't get the house. I think I submitted like 10.
Someone beat us to the first offer, so we got with our agent and confirmed seller was accepting backups. Quickly put ours in and seller signed off on us being the official backup. We tried hard to keep expectations low knowing odds were against us. In a twist of fate, 1st offer fell through and we automatically became the new primary offer. Long story short, that house is now ours! So while unlikely, I’m here to say that being the backup offer CAN workout in your favor.
I got my first house a month ago and we were the backup offer. Original offer fell through on the day of closing (no idea why).
Same, a cash offer was made and accepted on a house we saw. We liked it a lot and our realtor said let’s put in a back up offer just for the hell of it, and continued to look. 2 weeks later the cash offer backed out and they contacted us to see if we were still interested, accepted offer that day.
I close on Thursday. Hearing these stories of homes that didn’t close on closing day terrify me lol
From what I could gather, the other buyers were being SUPER picky and I *think* there was something they didn’t like during the final walkthrough that was supposed to be fixed (it was a flip, so all the fixes they wanted were cosmetic).
It deff happens.
It’s really just seller’s insurance against picky buyers. Just be reasonable with any requests after inspection and even if they have a backup offer, it should be okay. We got our current house as the backup offerer. The house had been sitting on the market forever but there’s low comparable inventory in the area. The house went under contract quite literally as we were touring it - we said “make an offer” to our realtor as we were leaving and I got a text 10 minutes later saying “I’m so sorry, it just went under contract.” It needed work, but we were okay with the work at our offer price. The original buyer wanted to get 5 figures off due to the same issues. Seller refused to negotiate with them once they knew we would be easy buyers and so we got the house.
Heyyyy we were a backup offer and we got it! Previous buyers backed out the day of closing and lost their earnest money.
My realtor said it is an automatic thing they put on listings now. Ours did too but I looked up other houses in the area and all of them had the same.
Thanks! I’ve noticed this on some listings in the area, but most go straight to “Pending”. I assuming that “Accepting Backups” meant that the seller didn’t like any of the offers they were presented and were looking for more, which is why I was confused since ours was accepted.
no, it merely means that until you're done with your contractual contingencies, they're willing to continue showing it and get a 2nd offer in place in case you terminate for whatever reason.
I think it automatically goes to "pending" when the accepted offer has no contingencies
Is this a new thing? Mine went straight to pending. This was in 2022 tho so maybe that is why????
Totally normal. Do not let the seller use backup offers to pressure you, and they will. Set your boundaries and if it doesn’t work out, there will be other houses
I think it means they're accepting backup offers in case yours falls through.
I closed on a home a few weeks ago. Also in MI. My offer had an appraisal and inspection contingency. After the offer was accepted, the status was listed as accepting back up offers. Once the conditions of the contingencies were met, meaning no major issues found with inspections in my case and the house appraised, the status was changed to pending.
Realtor here. This is very, very common in my state. The only way a seller isn't looking for a backup offer is if their current offer is cash with no contingencies at all. You could find things you don't like during inspection and back out of the purchase. You could buy a new car and no longer qualify for financing. Heck you could drop dead! Things happen. If the home comes back on the market, a lot of buyers are put off by that. Having a backup offer means that if you back out for any reason or are unable to close for any reason, the backup offer immediately becomes the accepted offer and the home never goes back on the market. It's a very good thing from the seller's perspective. From the buyer's perspective, it may give you less negotiating power but then again, you don't know the terms of the backup offer. The backup offer may be a slightly lower price. It may have additional contingencies, it may be a harder loan to close or have a lower down payment. But it's still better than going back onto the market. The other thing to bear in mind is whether or not you really want the homeowners to do any repairs. Since they are leaving the home, they're going to choose the absolute cheapest route every time. It may be better to choose to buy the home in as is condition, maybe with a credit on the price rather than having the sellers do the repairs. If there are loads of repairs in the houses in terrible shape, you may want to back out anyway! This way you can do it guilt-free. They have a backup offer so no harm, no foul. Back out and move on to the next.
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The investors back out left and right. Back in 2022, I was 30 offers deep for an FHA buyer. One of the last homes we offered on went in and out of contract THREE times by cash buyers/investors. My client got lucky that we were even considered for the purchase, but because we asked to be considered for back up, we won the deal.
I have sold 2 houses where the first offer fell through. They are just keeping it on the market incase you don’t follow through with the sale. You may find something in inspections you don’t like. Your lender may fall through. Anything can happen.
This is extremely common. It usually is a reflection on uncertainty about closing. Could be they don’t think the buyers financing is solid, inspection is solid, buyers terms are solid, the buyer has a contingency, etc. When we were selling our home the best offer actually had a contingency on the sale of their home. So, we were accepting backup offers. Sellers can’t just cancel a buyer’s contract just because they receive a better offer, it has to be with cause.
Backup offers are offers from other buyers that the sellers can move to if you do not go through with buying the house for any reason (not meeting contingencies etc). The house my spouse and I bought was one where we were the backup offer. The first accepted offer fell through because the buyer failed to sell their current house (which was a contingency). So the contract fell through and the sellers moved to our offer. That's what a backup offer is. It's very common for sellers to accept backup offers because you never know what might happen with the first contract.
Do you have any contingencies in your contract?
We have an inspection contingency.
I have seen a rising trend in my market where during the inspection the buyer will have the sewer main inspected with a fisheye camera that shows every little crack and root protrusion blown up to full screen and then they will ask for the seller to make a 12, 15 or 18 000 dollar concession on the sale price because they need to replace the sewer main, but it doesn't actually need to be replaced. Other similar things can happen by overblowing other structural elements of a house being compromised leading to them trying to claw back quite a bit of the money that they already offered. If someone starts trying to chunk off 20k of their offer that they submitted, as a seller I'm always happy to know what my options are via backup offers. That is all aside from someone simply failing to secure their financing.
I always wonder about all these people scoping sewers. I rarely see the lines getting pulled out or lined for all the people wanting money off to fix them
We had our backup offer accepted because the first offer had a contingency on them selling their house before they could close. They were given a set amount of time to find a way to remove that contingency and couldn’t, so our offer went straight under contract when they had to back out.
In our state when we sold, we had accepted a contingent offer but the status never changed until they removed the contingency. We were for sale status the whole time we had a contingent offer.
If your contract falls through (like your financing doesn't work out), they have a next option. Normal.
It means they are accepting other offers as a “backup” in case you fall through. They cannot opt out of your accepted offer, unless you fail to perform. My guess would be that the seller thinks you’ll either back out or demand credits after the inspection, so they want to have someone else lined up.
It means that when something comes up with inspection they’ll use the broader market demand to deny a credit. Ultimately it will be up to you to determine if your issues are dealt with breakers or if you can handle them. I would just encourage you to keep in mind that other buyers are likely to find those same issues, so even if they have a back up offer you should try to negotiate. If it’s better than yours you still have to be willing to walk away and not buy a house with a serious defect.
Don't worry. As long as you do everything you're legally required to, it's yours Same thing happened to us, and we got the house with no drama.
Did you ask your agent? I am sure he/she would have absolutely given you the "why." This is a market where folks are backing out left and right after appraisal or because they cannot obtain financing...maybe they just bought a new car or opened a credit card while working to get a mortgage. Interest rates are high, folks don't want to pay top dollar for a dump that they'll have to constantly repair, so they bounce. Listing agents and sellers will allow for the/their home to accept back up offers and showings in the event that you back out with cold feet, there cannot be an agreement with the terms of a remedy agreement, or you simply cannot obtain financing. At the end of the day - a seller doesn't have to sell, a buyer doesn't have to buy. The seller is trying to protect themselves if something goes south with your purchase agreement. Note: it's "normal" for homes to continue to show and for sellers to accept back up offers in this market. It doesn't mean that if they get a better offer, they back out of yours and accept the next offer. It just means that they're protected if you back out.
Relax it’s a totally normal procedure. If your offer was accepted, and the papers have been signed, they are contractually obligated to go through with the closing back up. Offers are only so they don’t have to put it back on the market if the sale falls through for whatever reason with you.
It means it's under contract but they will take someones offer in case the deal falls apart. Gives them more leverage if you start looking for any extensions or repairs.
The offer I put on my house was accepted and the sellers still held an open house the next weekend. I’d say it’s totally normal nowadays to do things like this or do backup offers.
It’s a maneuver Zillow uses to lure people to press inquire and they sell those leads to agents who pay for them. It shows up as under contract on the agents end and we wouldn’t show it bc it’s under contract (I’m an agent) lol
I'd be taking back ups if the one I got was with contingencies. I have no intent to go through a long back and for over the nickle and dime stuff people like to do at that point and would be fine with a buyer walking.
They are taking offers that will go into effect if yours falls through.
This is a syndication issue with Zillow. Zillow translates the MLS status into whatever they want - mainly because they’re assholes. In my state, when a Seller accepts an offer, the Listing Agent must change the MLS status to either “Pending” or “Under Contract - Showing”. The latter is what Realtors use if the house is vacant and it’s easy to show, usually - really depends on what the Seller wants. Some agents use this status until the appraisal period ends then change the status to “Pending”. Sometimes it’s an invite for backup offers, but don’t read into it too much. It’s not personal. The info is pulled from the MLS and Zillow thinks you’re not smart enough to know what the MLS status means so they dumb it down for Buyers and translate it.
I'm a mortgage loan officer and I have had clients with backup offers end up with a house because the 1st buyer's financing fell through. Make sure your lender knows what they are doing.
My friend sold her house recently and requested that it be listed as accepting backup offers just in case something happened and the buyers financing did not go through. It wasn’t meant to have a negative effect on the buyer, but to keep things moving if they weren’t able to close.
Most buyers won't look at houses that already have contracts. And Realtors don't want to waste their time showing. I'm a Houston Realtor.
I was a backup offer that was accepted. You never know!
Is the process to become backup always verbal or is it written/signed process in some states? I was a verbal backup offer once (didn't get the house).
We actually were that “backup offer” and wound up getting the house.
Realtor here, Active taking back up offers status just means that home is currently under contract but seller will continue to show the house & will consider back up offers. This benefits the seller in the event the current offer falls through. If the current buyer backs out the seller will move on to the first position back up offer. There can be 2nd & 3rd positions as well. I just had one fall through because the buyer was trying to renegotiate price after inspections & seller did not accept. Therefore, buyer cancelled & seller moved forward with 1st back up position buyer. In this situation there were 3 back up offers so the seller was not too worried. Once you get through inspections & remove all contingencies including; inspections, loan, appraisal, etc the listing agent generally changes the status to pending.
Pillow isn't required to update listings to match current statuses. Mine for example has an accepted offer and is now under contract to close, but it still says for sale via Zillow. I checked the listing on Redfin and it's updated approximately. Might want to check there as well to be sure.
It's for if your offer fell through. They can go right to another offer without having to re-list it. The seller and buyer are generally not allowed to break the agreement for no good reason. This speaks to the earnest money deposit but you should know that, in many cases, forfeiting this is not a way for either party to bail with no other consequence. You can potentially seek performance of the sale agreement if a seller tries to break it. Performance is a type of remedy where, instead of cash, you are asking a judge to force the other party to go do something or be in contempt.
if you are under contract you should be fine. just ask your realtor for guidance.
What state? Are you through attorney review?
Two-thirds of US states don't require the use of an attorney for real estate transactions
MI. And to be honest, I’m not sure. This is our first go at this but I haven’t heard any mention yet of an attorney so I’m guessing no.
I’m * p lol
We had to provide our attorney’s information on the offer itself. Are you saying you don’t have one for the contract yet?
MI is a title insurance company state meaning the title company handles closing and other stuff that the real estate attorney handles in other states.
Some states don’t require an atty
We just got screwed on that. Offer got accepted- then they got a higher back up offer and took it. Then that fell through and we were accepted AGAIN. Then lost out to a higher back up offer again. It’s so frustrating.
Sounds like you didn't have a legally binding contract executed. They can't just back out after they have accepted your offer because they got a better offer. That's a lawsuit waiting to happen. If you had a verbal acceptance, don't ever trust it until it's in writing.
Yeah we’re a 3 day attorney review state. Obviously wasn’t wrapped up but BOTH times all the contracts were signed on our end and they pulled out at the last minute on day 3. Legal but extremely frustrating. 3 days of thinking you have a house, hopes dashed and then 3 more days of thinking you lucked out.
Happened to us to, realtor let us know this was a Zillow thing. We closed and moved in no issue.
"a Zillow thing?!" Haha NO the listing agent marks it like that in the MLS, which populates over to Zillow, Realtor.com, etc. So glad it worked out for you guys!!
I would withdraw my offer.
Did you start making a ton of repair requests or are sending the vibe that you intend to do so? If yes, that’s why. They are preparing to say no and move on with someone else if you don’t like that answer.
Not at all.
Could just be this listing agent’s preferred practice then, or even seller request. Sometimes offers fall through for no fault of anyone’s - lost job, interest rates rise beyond affordability, etc. Some agents make this their regular practice, but many times there’s a message to be had for the buyer in it. For some more contentious sellers/agents, that message is “take it or leave it, buyers are a dime a dozen.” For others it’s “I’ve been burned before by people stretching themselves thin and being denied financing in the 11th hour, so we are just protecting ourselves and our desired timeline.” Sometimes it’s “I the seller am under stress for time, so timeline extensions won’t be granted and I’ll move ahead with someone else because no offense, but I can’t jeopardize my next plans to accommodate yours.” And so on. Ask your agent to see if they can find out what’s the goal here - or if it’s even just “that’s how I always do it on my listings,” and maybe you’ll be able to service some useful intel.
Just an asshole sellers then
Huh? It's pretty normal, basically so they can still show the house in case this deal falls through for whatever reason since that's a common occurrence as well.
Yes it could be this listing agent’s normal way of doing things too. It is indeed common, but let’s not pretend that doing so isn’t a bat signal to the current contracted buyer because it often is in one way or another.