It happened to me. The offer first in line was a slam dunk, so I was told. They failed to perform at the close of escrow, feeling uncertain about the economy at that time. We walked in and closed the deal. Good luck to you.

If the house is as unique in your area as you say, I wouldn't count on becoming the primary offer. People(the buyers) will forgive a lot in inspections for a unique house. The buyers also might become aware of the back-up offer and ask for nothing on inspection. Your best hope is that the financing falls through.

It isn't going to hurt putting in the backup offer, but I wouldn't count on the first falling through.

Each situation is different. Your agent needs to do some homework on the listing to see what the existing contract contingencies are and the likelihood of the contract closing. Some backup contracts move into primary place because the original primary buyer simply changed their mind or due to having a contingency or financing or inspection.

IME the properties that are most likely to have the primary fall out is when they are contingent on the sale of the first buyers home and that contract falls through or their buyers financing falls through. You don't know unless your agent gets in touch with the listing agent of the home in which you are interested to find out how strong the current contract is and if there are contingencies. I've had several backup contracts end up buying the property where I was the buyers agent. One of them was a cash purchase and the buyer simply changed her mind during the due diligence period.

Note: If the primary buyer is getting financing through a big box bank, the odds of the primary contract falling through due to financing increase tremendously, particularly if it is a self employed borrower (85% rate of mortgage denial after pre-approval) or even a conventional or government mortgage loan (over 40% rate of fall out after pre-approval). This doesn't hold true for non-bank lenders but for those big box lenders (Wells Fargo, Chase, BOA etc) you have a much greater chance that the primary buyers loan is denied IME. This is not necessarily due to the buyers actual qualifications but due to the banks overlays and their poor mortgage processing.

Another possibility for a 1st offer falling through is if they find out something about the property that makes their plan infeasible. For example, we were the 2nd offer (that got accepted) when the 1st offer folks found out they could not build a new double garage because the lot size was too small.

Bruce

We were the backup offer on the house we are currently in. When we first saw the house we instantly knew it would be perfect for us. We put in a backup offer and lost it. Fast forward 5 years and the people who bought the house were ready to sell. They contacted us (got our name from a neighbor that was a friend of ours), we toured the house again, liked the updates, agreed on a price and it was ours. Been here since 1984.

Thank you all for your insights and experience. We are trying to be realistic and believe that if it’s meant to be then it’ll happen for us. The inspection was this week and our agent is staying connected with the listing agent. It’s hard to be in this waiting game but appreciate the candid responses from you all!

@maddielee did you buy the house from @Brown Dog!

See comment from Brown Dog a few lines above yours.

^^^^funny! I had not read his post. I don’t think so, unless Brown Dog lived outside Tampa.

My current home had two contingent offers prior to my successfully buying it. Both offers were contingent on the sale of both buyers homes. Neither buyer had a contract on their home. In the agent's estimation none would be forthcoming in the next week or two.

I had a cash sale on home that had already been through the inspection and contingency process. I was renting my original home for an extra month in order to find a home to purchase.

I made a cash offer on the home with contingent contracts with a short closing after the inspection period. The seller recognized that my offer was superior in terms of ability to perform immediately. In order to do this, the seller had to demand that the contingent buyers perform the sale within three days. Neither could and I assumed the primary offer role.

That's how I did it. I was fortunate to have a very good agent who knew how to get through the process effectively. It can be done. It does tend to be unusual.

Your agent is correct to stay in touch with seller's agent. Houses do fall out of contingency status. It doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with the house. It's just circumstances. Meanwhile, you should continue to look. The odds are against you.

@homechef59: The contingent contracts ahead of you in the purchase you describe above would have had to have a "kick out clause" in them which is the right way to have a contingent contract on the sale of buyers property (and some other contingencies too). That kick out clause only comes into effect when the backup offer is actually presented to the sellers - so OP your agent needs to find out if a kick out clause is included in the current primary contract.

Good point Denita. Hannah L, ask your agent to find out if the current contingent offers have what is known as a "kick out clause". This will let you know whether the house is worth pursuing.

Thanks for the info! It sound like the primary buyer did not include a contingency for selling their home so a kick out clause is not included. Today is the deadline for them to back out due to inspection. If they continue with the purchase, then we can only wait to see if their financing goes through. We do not know if the primary buyer knows that there is a back up offer. Thank you all for your feedback.

My current house was purchased as the backup contract. The original buyers contract was contingent on them selling their house, mine wasn't since my house had sold. They had 48 hours to release their contingency or give up the house. Thankfully, they hadn't even put their house on the market yet, so they gave up the house and I bought it. So you just never know!

It's rare. Very rare around here. But it does happen. We own a house purchased at auction - but not by us! Spouse is more risk-averse, so I stopped short of the final bid. I just couldn't let it go though. I actually told spouse that if anyone calls us back about this house, we must buy it.

Top bidder was a neighbor who reconsidered his purchase the next day. Turns out his spouse is risk-averse too. We quickly prepared an Assumption of the Purchase Agreement and stepped right in, and got it closed in 3 weeks.

It really depends on the state. In NY, the seller can take an offer from any buyer at any time before contracts are signed. (even after a buyer pays for an inspection) Deals fall thru all the time for various reasons and the backup offer moves in to place, but I also think it depends on the price point of the house. First time homes tend to fall thru more than more expensive homes because financing is a little more solid, people arent as nervous, parents dont come in and kill the deal etc.