My client wants me to write an offer on a home that they haven't seen, contingent on them seeing it & liking it.

I admit "I'm new!" but this seems kinda crazy. Please educate me on this! Is this a common practice?

It's actually the 2nd time I've been asked to do this but the first time blew over & the client changed their minds before I had to figure out what to do.

The home is about 40 miles away & they can't go see it until Sunday & they are afraid it will sell before then.

Give the listing agent a call and state that you have some clients that have expressed a great amount of interest in the property. Ask if the sellers will "hold off" on offer presentation until you can submit your offer for your clients.

You can state that your clients are getting some additional facts prior to writing their offer.

Also, be wary of submitting offers for clients when you haven't seen the property. I have a friend that had his commission taken away when he was new. The clients visited an open house, returned home and asked the agent - my friend - to write the offer. Offer was accepted, escrow closed and the listing agent appealed to the board stating that she was the procuring cause and was granted the FULL commission.

YUCK#$%^^!!!!

The moral of this story is never write an offer before you have seen the propery. Tell your clients you'd like to do a quick walk through to "give them your opinion."

This is not as unusual as you might think.

You need to write the offer contingent on the buyers inspection within a certain period of time.

I don't disagree that the agent should view the property ahead of time. Perhaps get the offer written and go view the house with it in hand. Then you call the selling agent and arrange a time to present the offer to the seller. In addition to this, I would get a buyer/broker agreement signed at the same time you get the offer signed.

The problem with calling the agent and asking them to wait is that they may not be able to. If another offer comes in, it may allow a limited time frame to reply to the offer. If that is the case, then your folks could miss it.

You need to use your professional knowledge of the area here. This concern about the property selling before Sunday may be unwarranted given the current market. If it is still a sellers market there, then just calling the listing agent might give you the time you need since they can dictate how and when offers are considered.


R

This is especially common with investors. They have to act fast sometimes, and even waiting until later in the day to view it and write an offer could mean that they miss out. And what if the other agent does request a longer amount of time to respond to other offers? If you're competing against other offers your buyers could end up paying more for the property than if you got an offer accepted now- bafore the weekend traffic comes through.

I agree with RB. And I would call the agent prior to submitting the offer so that he/she wont be surprised by it.

I've certainly written offers like this. THey've already got ten days to change their mind based on inspection results in the offers I write, so adding that the offer is contingent on physical inspection of the home by the buyer before x date is not at all unusual.
--A

I bought my last rehab this way. I made an offer subject-to an inspection. We hadn't seen anything but the tax assessor's info. The listing agent told us what she "thought" needed to be upgraded, and we ran the numbers. The offer was based on our agreeing with what we'd been told. We closed last week. Renovation starts Monday.

In Texas the buyer purchases an option period of normally 7 to 14 days duration in order to inspect the house and consider an opt out. The option money gives them an unrestricted right to opt out of the contract.

i did a rental for my buddy once.. worked out fine...but gotta be careful for sure.

I have done bunch of rental that way...and done only one home where I was listing agent and selling home wrote the contract and got buyers to sign without seeing the home as they were internation and housing market was hot. It was clean contract with no contigencies. They came back in couple weeks and still loved the house everything went well. They selling agent had send teh virtual tour I had and plus she took tons of pictures of the home and emailed them on the day it got listed.

Good Luck

How did everything work out? Did you see the house? Did you end up writing the offer prior to buyers seeing the home?

I don't think writing an offer contingent upon buyer's inspection is a bad idea at all. The only thing I would be worried about is how much to ask the seller to pay for when it comes to any inspection repairs! The house might need $5000 for repairs after insections, but in your contract you might have only put $1000. I know that the buyer could back out after viewing the home, but I wonder if anything else can be changed, like the repair money. I would try and view the home beforehand also, but if you can't, then it's not a big deal. There are a few listing agents here ask that buyers write the offers contingent upon viewing the home because the tenant living there might not be very cooperative.

Thanks to everyone for posting! They decided to wait on the offer until they could go see it. Turns out the houes looked great but the neighborhood wasn't what they were looking for at all.

Thanks again!

It never is! :rolleyes:

I had some buyers who put in offers on several properties without having seen them. They are "investors" and were just putting out bids to see who would bite. We did get a counteroffer on one place and it turned out to be new construction, rather than existing. Property was about 80% complete. So buyer thought they were getting a great deal on a completed house. Seller thought he'd be able to get out of the property before construction was complete and re-direct his money to other projects. I know your situation has been resolved, but if I had this to do over again, I would make sure either my buyer or I (obviously prefer both together) had seen the property first.