Has anyone ever done a "subject to sale" agreement, when buying a home?

[CoffeeCat]

I'm wondering about the positives and negatives of signing a "subject to sale" agreement, when purchasing a home.

We weren't planning on moving, but we found a house we love.

It will take a couple of weeks before we can put our house on the market.

The real estate agent didn't push the StS agreement, but mentioned it as an option.

Anyone care to weigh in on whether or not StS is a good/bad idea?

[xray s]

1. You may leave yourself open to losing the house, or paying more

If you have that contingency in the contract, the buyer will probably want to keep showing the house, and may want the option to accept a higher offer is one comes in before your contingency expires. That is only fair, since it might take weeks or months to sell your house.

You may want to talk to an attorney to see what your options are.

[Lex]

2. You may have to pay for both your current home and

the new home for a few months if you don't put the Subject to Sale clause in.

Or you may have to sell your current house for much less than you might want, just to get it to sell quickly.

If either of those scenarios are okay with you, then leave out the Subject to Sale clause.

[luckypunch]

3. Do you have to sell your house to buy?

If you have to sell you your house, then you'll have to put STS in the contract, otherwise you could end up losing your deposit if you can't perform in time. If you do put STS in the contract expect the seller to insist on a bump out clause, which means if someone else comes along and makes a clean offer you have 48 hrs to remove the contingency or your contract is void.
You can talk to your mortgage broker and find out what your options are.

[CoffeeCat]

4. Thanks for the info everyone...

...We're meeting with the mortgage broker tomorrow.

Of course, the bank is all too willing to talk people into precarious positions, if that means you'll borrow some bucks.

We're just trying to be uber-caution while we're freaking out over this house. It's not anything opulent...it's a modest house that has a nice feel to it and suits our little family very well.

Again, thanks for all info... :)