contract stage

they keep showing till contract is signed. not enough space here to cover all the possibilities of what can happen. most common these days is that buyer gets cold feet.

buyer gets cold feet, buyer suddenly does better financial diligence and realizes they can't get financing, buyer has put in two offers and has two contracts on her desk and can only sign one -- there are a zillion reasons. I'd say in this market you only have about a 50% chance of getting from a contract out to a signed contract.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

charming situation....tell someone you have a deal...but....

You don't have a deal until both parties have signed. Period. Both are free to do whatever they want until then. Otherwise, seller can miss an open house weekend while contract sits with buyer and on Monday buyer's lawyer calls and explains terms x,y,and z are unacceptable, etc. Agreeing on price is PART of the deal. Terms are the other part. And until both parties sign, there is no deal. There is only a preliminary agreement to the main term(s).

so when i shake your hand, and say we have a deal...it means nothing

no wonder, we all hate each other.

I agree with Ali R. Also, many contracts are financing contingent now. If you have a contingent contract, no reason not to show.

columbiacounty, I think kylewest put it very well. The "handshake" means that you've agreed on price. Not on anything else.

i guess you've never had the pleasure...i don't recommend it...my experience is that you haven't agreed on anything.

actually columbia we sold our beach house last year -- and violated (and therefore voided) the terms of the signed contract by not getting our tenants out fast enough.

the seller worked with us even though we'd blown his deadlines, and we worked with him to make sure his financing was still appropriate since he'd run through his rate lock. We had a successful closing and we were invited back to spend a weekend at the beach this summer.

So even though technically a handshake is no protection, and a contract is not complete protection, if you have the right parties and the right agreement the handshake will hold.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

When I sold my last pad -- I had three offers -- at the ask. I did not go into a bidding war -- I took them in order of acceptence. 3 weeks later, the third couple went to contract -- after couple 1 and 2 --both shook myhand--gavemybrokerlawyerinfo--andthey both continued to shopandhadmore thanoneacceptedofferawaitingcontract.Some time people just suck.