Between active and pending, there is the bumpable buyer. If a buyer has to write an offer subject to the sale of another property and the offer is accepted, the buyer is considered “bumpable.” The seller may still actively market their property and if they get another offer that they consider acceptable, they must go back to the bumpable buyer and give them the opportunity to remove the contingency and proceed with the sale or walk away from the transaction. The bumpable buyer usually has 24-72 hours to make a decision.
The contingency is usually removed by one of the following ways: the buyer has an accepted offer on their property or the buyer is able to make the purchase of the new home without the sale of their existing home (often through a bridge loan). Once the contingency is removed, the transaction becomes “pending.”
14 Comments on “What Does Bumpable Mean?”
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Thanks for clearing that up. I just came across this term this week when we made a contingent offer an a house. We saw that the status on RMLS was “bmp” and weren’t quite sure what it meant, but assumed it had to do with the contingency.
We just put ours on the market so hopefully we can remove the bumpable status quickly
I am amazed you got your offer accepted as a FSBO. That is pretty unique. Most sellers would want the buyer’s property listed with an agent.
I wrote the following on contingent offers last year:
https://www.portlandrealestateblog.com/realestate/2005/03/contingent_offe.html
Interesting, I wouldn’t think most care, as they can still accept offers with a bumpable buyer in place, right? It doesn’t really cost them anything. I do agree that working out the logistics once all the contingencies are wrapped up is going to be a tough one. Thanks for the link to your post on that.
In our case, the sellers didn’t seem to mind. They’re leaving town, but aren’t in a big rush, so they priced it pretty high originally and it’s been sitting for a few months. They dropped the price a bit recently and that’s what triggered us to make the offer. But, since they’re still not in a big rush, they don’t mind the FSBO.
Once a house is changed to bumpable (BMP) showings drop way off. The new buyer is competing for the property since there is already an acceptable (but not perfect) accepted offer.
Rather than writing an offer with a minimal amount of time for the seller to respond, you have to give time for the seller to go back to the bumpable buyer. That could result in an additional 24-72hrs of waiting to find out if you get the house.
If the buyer sees multiple properties and can choose between a bumpable and an active listing, the active listing makes more sense. They could easily lose out on both properties. Write an offer on the bumpable, wait for a response and in that time, the other house sells… back to the drawing board.
The potential cost to the seller is that your house sits on the market and the better offer is the one they never saw.
Everyone has their own motivations for buying or selling. Putting the two together is what matters.
That is a good point. I guess that’s why you’re the real estate blogger here ;-). There is much to learn about phsychology of both parties, isn’t there?
How is your sale going?
How would a buyer write up an offer that could compete with a bumpable offer – especially if the original buyers JUST sold their house? Is it even possible? (Of course you always find the house of your dreams right after someone else made an offer on the home of your dreams.)
If the bumpable buyer has sold their house and that was the reason they were bumpable, they just need to clear the contingency with the paperwork to become “pending.” The bumpable buyer has the right to remove the contingency and move forward if another offer, no matter how much better, comes in.
Hey Mark;
This is kind of urgent, so sending to your blog as well as email.
From your first entry on 1/12/06:
“they must go back to the bumpable buyer and give them the opportunity to remove the contingency and proceed with the sale or walk away from the transaction.”
Is this as per the terms of “our” original agreement? We just got word that the seller has accepted another offer (presumably $10k better than our bumpable), and we have begun the process of clearing the contingency. Our agent’s principle is telling her (and us) that the seller can accept this new / higher offer over our contingent / bumpable (he agreed to carry the contract for 5 years; we have a strong feeling he has received a full $ offer, and wants out of our initial agreement). We are under the impression that the 72 hours is our chance to either forge forward with our original / mutually agreed upon offer, and not have to attempt to beat this new offer. Our broker is saying that he can accept the new offer over our original, even if we clear the contingency (which again, we received and processed the paperwork yesterday).
And thus this blog of yours from 3/26/07:
“If the bumpable buyer has sold their house and that was the reason they were bumpable, they just need to clear the contingency with the paperwork to become “pending.” The bumpable buyer has the right to remove the contingency and move forward if another offer, no matter how much better, comes in.”
So, regardless of “how much better” the other offer is, our original offer still stands????
In a nutshell: The seller is trying to get out of our original agreement; our broker thinks he can by not acknowledging the removal of our contingency and / or not recognizing our original offer; we are trying to clear the contingency and carry-through with the original agreement…all within this closing 72 hour window.
Thank you for any insight you can provide.
By the way, did a Google search for this topic, your blog was #1; coincidentally this is in Oregon too! Up near Mt. Hood.
Thank you,
Rick
I can’t comment because you are under contract with another agent.
So without adding anything else to the post, I stand by what I said above…
“they must go back to the bumpable buyer and give them the opportunity to remove the contingency and proceed with the sale or walk away from the transaction.”
“If the bumpable buyer has sold their house and that was the reason they were bumpable, they just need to clear the contingency with the paperwork to become “pending.” The bumpable buyer has the right to remove the contingency and move forward if another offer, no matter how much better, comes in.”
I enjoyed reading this blog as we are trying to bump an offer for an upgrade house. The house of interest has been in market since March 2007 and dropped 55k in price. It accepted an offer one month ago with the contigency that the buyer has to sell their house first, which is tough in the current market.
There is a gap between seller’s counteroffer and our’s offer (no contigency and within 3 weeks closing). We may give a limited counteroffer and walk away if unaccepted. I find the whole process very fanscinating. However, we are not in a rush to purchase or move.
I bookmarked this page and will continue reading your new blogs. 🙂
Echo
I think it’s time for a good real estate joke: Did you hear about Robin Hood’s house? It has a little John.
In your original post it says the buyers just has to have an accepted offer on their property. Even that offer could fall through. They don’t have to close on their property have it actually sold to satisfy the contingency?
Buyer wants to buy 123 Main Street. They own 456 Banana St.
Buyer gets an accepted, bumpable offer on 123 Main St. It is bumpable because they have a contingency to sell 456 Banana St.
123 Main St. will be changed to BMP status in RMLS. Everyone waits for an offer on Banana St.
Seller of 123 Main St. gets and offer that they want to go with if buyer cannot remove the contingency to sell Banana St. Buyer either cannot remove the contingency and is “bumped” off of 123 Main St. or removes contingency and can close on 123 Main St. without selling Banana St.