Real estate question - what happens when a closing gets delayed?

It's our first house sale here in the US so while I'm vaguely familiar with the process, but I'm trying to get a less mumbly answer to a question than the one I'm getting from our slightly hard of hearing realtor.

Basically, we received what we consider a good offer on our house, but the closing date it is conditional on the buyers closing their house sale on a specific date. The proposed closing date is much sooner than we originally wanted, so we'd end up having to temporarily rent a place out here before completing the move eastwards. The offer is good enough for us to consider that, but the big question is - if the buyers delay the closing because their house sale didn't close on time, what happens to the additional cost that we incur to accommodate their proposed closing date? Ie, cost for a rushed rental, movers and all that jazz? Are we just going to get stuck with it or is that something that's usually negotiated into a sales contract?

Given todays market, I wouldn't accept any offer with contingencies.  That said, unless you have it written into the contract that the buyer will pay any of your costs if the closing is delayed, you pay, not them...

Thanks, that's pretty much what I expected.

So it looks like the counteroffer will have to include a clause regarding costs incurred from a delayed closing.

docwyte said:

Given todays market, I wouldn't accept any offer with contingencies.  That said, unless you have it written into the contract that the buyer will pay any of your costs if the closing is delayed, you pay, not them...

100% agree

What about asking them to move their date instead of asking for additional money. That way if they close early it is on them to find interim housing. I would think unless their house is already under agreement they will not be closing very quickly. Delicate dance if you haven't had many offers.  If you have just listed wait for a better offer.

First offer, seven days after listing.

Right now, we're waiting to hear back from them if they'd agree to move the closing date out by a couple of weeks, which hopefully should alleviate the problem. Their house is already under contract with a closing date a few days before they want to close on our place, but I'm rather uncomfortable with the two closing dates being within 3-4 days of each other.

I would pass.

I had a builder building me a new home and he said no to sell/buy dual closings on the same day.  So I scheduled my sale/buy dual closings for the same day.

Our first home closing lawyer "forgot" to calculate property taxes so I whipped out my checkbook to cover it - no problem I told everyone.  

Nope - cashiers or certified checks only - we will give you 30 minutes to get one or we will delay the closing.  

In reply to BoxheadTim :

So your sale is contingent on the strength of their buyer?

(I’d probably take the deal too, but be aware)

You can put whatever you want in the counter offer. How about a per diem if they fail to close?

We've gone the easy-ish route of just delaying the closing. They weren't going for a dual closing anyway, but originally offered only four days between the closing of their sale. With a little more negotiating we bumped that up to several weeks and everybody is much happier now.

Glad you worked out a solution. 

This is a bit different because I never lived in it, but I once bought a new house at 10am and sold it at 2:30pm on the same day. The builder got kinda flaky a couple days before and I was spooked but it worked out fine.