Sale - Subject to… your decision

Here’s your conundrum: you’ve been presented with two hot offers on your property.

Offer A is stellar – it’s a full $10,000 more than offer B and looks very tempting. There’s a catch, however: offer A is subject to both a building inspection and a finance clause – a period of 14 days has been requested by the purchaser to settle these matters - in addition to settlement of 60 days. Offer B is completely unconditional and settles in 30 days. Which offer should you consider?

It’s natural to want to take the higher offer – after all, there’s a lot you can do with $10,000. There are some risks inherent to accepting a ‘subject to’ offer on your property – namely, should the purchaser be unable to procure finance or find fault with your asset, they can walk away from the sale leaving you with a house unsold and a marketing campaign potentially burned.

Offer B – the unconditional offer – is the more confident bid and arguably the stronger. Excepting any cooling off periods that apply, offer B is the ‘surer bet’ by the more determined and prepared buyer – so refer to listing your agent and think about whether ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’.