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Michigan
Litigation Blog.
The seasoned lawyers and litigators at The Rubinstein Law Firm are here to share their insights with you.

Common residential real estate contingencies and how they work

The Michigan home-buying process often involves many moving parts. Sometimes, you need certain elements to come to be before you may move forward with buying a home you have your eye on. In real estate, contingent offers are offers you make on a home that hinge upon other specified circumstances coming to be first.

Per NerdWallet, when you make a contingent offer on a property, you are essentially making an “if-then” proposition. Common contingencies used in real estate are as follows.

Home sale contingencies

If you are like many homebuyers, you may not have enough money available to you to buy a new home until you sell your current home first. In this scenario, you could make an offer that is contingent upon your own house selling within a particular timeframe.

Home inspection contingencies

A home inspection is an important part of the home-buying process and helps you avoid purchasing a property with major defects. A home inspection contingency asserts that you are going to buy a home as long as the inspection does not reveal significant issues with it.

Mortgage contingencies

You may need to use a mortgage contingency when you make an offer on a home dictating that you are going to buy it as long as you receive a loan that allows you to do so. You may need to make a mortgage-contingent offer on a property even if a bank or mortgage lender has already pre-approved you for a loan.

These are some of the most common contingencies used in residential real estate. However, this is not a complete list of all contingency types you may need to consider or utilize.