Should You Accept A Contingent Offer?

All things being equal? No. I knew that many agents didn't bother looking at Contingent, or Bumpable, Listings so I asked RMLS a few months ago to put up a poll asking agents if they actually looked for contingent listings in their client searches. Here are the results from 3700 agents,

• 36% always search Bumpable Listings
• 11% frequently searched
• 13% sometimes searched
• 23% rarely searched
• 16% never searched

So you are only guaranteed that 36% will be looking at your listing if you are waiting on someone else to sell their house so that they can buy yours. Those aren't good odds. When we had a low inventory, contingencies were fine because people were looking anywhere to find a house, that is no longer the case and Portland has one of the lowest inventories in the country. I heard Florida has 4 years worth of condos.

Many agents and buyers feel that they would be stepping on others toes or that it would be too much work to bother. Most contingencies have a 48-72 hour wait for the other buyer to respond. So accept a contingent offer but understand that it is not the same as being fully active on the market.