Alright, let’s talk about this whole backup offer situation in real estate. People wonder if it’s just a waste of time, right? Does anyone actually get a house that way? Well, I went through it myself, so let me walk you through how it played out for me.
A while back, my family and I were deep in the house hunting trenches. Found a place we absolutely loved. It checked all the boxes, felt like home the moment we walked in. We got our finances sorted, put together what we thought was a strong offer, and sent it over, feeling hopeful.
Turns out, someone else loved it just as much, maybe a little more, or at least their wallet did. Our offer got beat out. Yeah, it stung. You start picturing your life in a place, and then bam, door slammed. We were pretty down about it for a day or two.
Our real estate agent, who was pretty sharp, brought up the idea of submitting a backup offer. My first thought was, “Seriously? What are the chances?” It felt like settling for second place in a race that was already finished. I figured the winning bidders had it locked down.
But, we talked it over. We really, really liked that house. And the agent explained it didn’t cost us anything extra to put in a backup offer. It just meant if the first deal somehow collapsed – maybe their loan didn’t get approved, or the inspection turned up something scary – then our offer would automatically step in. We wouldn’t have to fight other buyers again if it came back on the market. So, we thought, why not? We signed the forms and officially became the backup plan.
Then, nothing. We had to kind of mentally move on. You can’t just sit around waiting for someone else’s deal to fail. That’s just bad juju, and also impractical. We started looking at other houses again, trying to get excited about something else. But honestly? Nothing quite measured up. That first house was stuck in our heads.
Maybe ten days, two weeks later? I don’t recall exactly. Felt like ages. We were looking at another potential house, not really feeling it, when the phone rang. It was our agent.
The Call We Didn’t Expect
He told us the first deal fell apart. Apparently, the home inspection revealed some plumbing issues that the initial buyers weren’t prepared to handle. They decided to walk away.
And just like that, our backup offer was live. We were suddenly in first position.
It was a bit surreal. We went from being out of the running to being the primary buyers overnight. We had to quickly get our own ducks in a row, review the inspection report ourselves (the plumbing issue was something we felt we could manage), and make sure our financing was absolutely solid and ready to go.
The process moved fast after that. Because we were the accepted backup, the sellers were keen to close the deal and not put the house back on the market. We did our final checks, signed the mountain of paperwork, and got the keys.
So, reflecting on it, how often do backup offers get accepted? From my personal experience, it happened exactly once! But that one time was all it took for us. I’ve heard stories from agents and friends since then; it’s definitely not the most common way deals happen, but it’s far from impossible. Deals fall through more often than you might think.
- Financing issues pop up.
- Inspections uncover problems.
- Sometimes buyers just get cold feet.
My takeaway? Putting in that backup offer was low effort and ultimately paid off massively for us. If you’re serious about a property and lose out initially, becoming the backup might just be your second chance. It worked for me.
