What Are Contingencies in Real Estate?

When you’re searching for a new place to live in Charlotte, whether you’re looking at a specific house for sale in Stonebridge at Mint Hill or you’re looking at all the homes for sale in Uptown Charlotte, you’re probably going to encounter the term contingency.

But what are contingencies in real estate, and how will they affect your ability to buy a home?

What Are Contingencies in Real Estate?

A contingency essentially means, “If you do this, I’ll do that.” In real estate, this translates to one party in the transaction needing to do something in order for the transaction to work; that can mean you put an offer on a home contingent upon a good inspection, mortgage approval, or a reasonable appraisal.

Common Real Estate Contingencies

The most common contingencies in real estate involve inspections or the financial aspects of the sale, such as appraisals or mortgage approval.

Home Inspection Contingencies

If you have a home inspection contingency built into your purchase offer, it gives you the right to have the home professionally inspected—and to duck out of the offer if something is wrong with the house that the seller won’t fix.

Mortgage Approval Contingencies

You definitely don’t want to be on the hook for a home you can’t buy due to a lending issue, so a mortgage contingency protects both parties in the transaction—the buyer and the seller—in the event that financing falls through. (It’s always better to get preapproval before you start searching for homes to be on the safe side, though.)

Appraisal Contingencies

The lender is most likely going to require an appraisal when you buy a home, and having an appraisal contingency built into your purchase offer is pretty important. If the appraisal comes back below the asking price, you need to have the right to back out of the deal; if you don’t, you could be required to come up with a much larger down payment because the lender won’t want to pay more than the house is worth.

Are You Buying a Home in Charlotte?

If you’re thinking about buying a home in Charlotte or the surrounding communities, we’d love to help you.

Call us at 704-608-2794 or get in touch with a Charlotte Realtor online today. In the meantime, take a few minutes to browse:

• All Charlotte, NC real estate listings
• Luxury homes for sale in Charlotte
• New construction for sale in Charlotte

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