What contingencies do you normally put in your offers?

[Stephen N.]

do you pay someone to inspect the property before you make an offer or do you make the offer subject to inspection?

same thing for termites. do you pay someone to check for termites before you make an offer?

[J Scott]

It often depends on who the seller is. If the seller is desperate, and you're pretty sure they want your offer, go ahead and put a "due diligence" contingency into the contract. This will give you a fixed amount of time to do your inspections (including termite inspection) and then back out of the contract for any reason, should you not be happy with the results.

Other contingencies you might consider are for financing (you can back out if you don't get your preferred financing) and appraisal (if the house doesn't appraise for the purchase value, the seller must drop the price to the appraised value).

Keep in mind that every contingency you stipulate makes your offer weaker, especially with less motivated sellers. So, don't put them in there just for the fun of it.

Lastly, if you're dealing with banks (REO properties), due diligence contingencies are pretty standard, but financing and appraisal contingencies will make your offer much weaker.