What is a contingent offer in real estate?

Answer 1

Yes a "contingent offer" in reference to the status of a property for sale means that the offer received requires additional action to be fully accepted. The purchase contract can be contingent for a number of reasons. Commonly, an offer is contingent because a buyer needs to sell his or her house to buy a new house. Other reasons for a contingent offer are financing or inspections.

Note: These sale contingencies are usually not possible with short sales and foreclosures. There may be the rare exception. You almost always have the right to inspection and financing contingencies, even in a short sale or REO purchase.

Recently the verbiage of 'contingent' came into question between West coast and East Coast realtors since we use the term differently. Many states in the west consider 'contingent' upon the short sale, foreclosure or REO being accepted by the sellers bank. Something on the East coast we have usually stated waiting for approval. So terminology can be different based upon the state you live in.