A straight answer
My offer keeps losing because it’s contingent. What can I do?
The direct answer
You can write the next offer with no home sale contingency and no financing contingency, through a bridge program I place, when your equity and the two homes fit the program.
You are not stuck. I help people in exactly this spot. Losing house after house to buyers whose money happens to be liquid this month is exhausting, and it is not a judgment on whether you can afford the home. I'm Zach von der Linden (NMLS 1652805), a mortgage broker with West Capital Lending, based in San Clemente. The difference is where the money sits. A short-term loan secured by your current home and the new one funds the purchase, so you stay where you are until the new home closes, you move once, and then your old home goes on the market.
Here is what happens next. You text me the two addresses, I ask about the equity in the home you own and how your street is moving, and I tell you honestly whether a non-contingent offer is realistic on your file. No credit pull happens from a conversation. I work with homeowners in California, Utah, Oregon and Arizona, and eligibility depends on the property, your credit and your income.
Zach von der Linden, mortgage broker and Branch Manager, West Capital Lending · NMLS 1652805
Wholesale pricing · California, Utah, Oregon and Arizona
5.0 across 66 reviews on Experience.com (read on 2026-09-24) · Text reaches Zach directly · Last updated 2026-10-26
No credit pull happens from a conversation. Texts go to Zach's cell.
What has to be true
You have meaningful equity in the home you own now. The bridge loan is secured against that equity and the new home, and how much you have is the first thing that gets looked at.
You intend to sell the current home. The loan is short-term debt with a planned exit, and the exit is the sale.
Your old home is genuinely sellable once you are out of it, at a price you would accept.
You can carry the timeline. Owning two homes for a stretch is the whole structure.
You are the buyer of record the whole way through. Under the program I place, you buy the new home in your own name, and no company buys it and resells it to you. The cash offer page walks through the sequence.
What the lender checks
The equity in your current home, using the lender’s own valuation.
The new home. Property type, occupancy, condition and location all matter, and the program sets its own limits on each.
Your income and credit. A non-contingent offer is not a shortcut around underwriting. It is a loan, with an application and a full credit report.
Whether the program reaches your two addresses. It is not offered everywhere, and that is confirmed for your addresses before you rely on it.
Limits
It is a loan. Interest accrues until the loan is paid off, and the program charges its own fees, all disclosed in your loan terms before you commit to anything. Nothing on this page states a rate, a payment or a fee.
You sell inside the program’s published window, a matter of months from the day the new home closes, and the longer it takes the more the bridge costs you. The program’s published terms include a backup arrangement for the departing home if it has not sold inside that window. It has its own fee and its own terms, and it is not a promise that your house sells or a price guarantee.
What the seller gets is a contract with no home sale contingency and no financing contingency. What the seller does not get is a pile of cash. The purchase is funded by a loan, and a loan has to close. I do not buy your home and I do not buy the one you want.
Thin equity, a street where listings sit, or a budget with no room if the sale takes an extra two months each change my answer. When one of those is true I tell you to sell first, and I have told people that.
Why Zach
I am a broker. I put the financing together: I place this program and arrange the rest of the financing.
I have clients using this program right now. That is my own statement about my pipeline, not a promise about anyone’s file.
The two comparison pages lay the choices side by side in words: a contingent offer against a cash offer made through the program, and a plain bridge loan against the cash-offer program. If you are moving within San Clemente, the sell and buy in San Clemente page is written for you.
Questions people ask next
Why do contingent offers lose?
Two offers land on a seller at the same price. One waits on somebody else’s house selling and one does not, and the second one wins. The seller is choosing certainty, not judging you.
Is the offer I write through the program really a cash offer?
The seller gets a contract with no home sale contingency and no financing contingency, and a closing that does not depend on your house selling. That is what almost every seller means by the phrase. The purchase is still funded by a loan that has to close, and I never describe it as literal cash.
Do I have to sell or move out first?
No. You stay in your current home until the new one closes, you move once, and then the old home goes on the market empty.
What if my house takes a long time to sell?
You hold from inside the home you already moved into, and the bridge loan’s interest keeps accruing until it is paid off. The program’s published terms set a window of months to sell and include a backup arrangement for the departing home if it has not sold inside that window, with its own fee and terms. If I think your street is slow, I say so before you write an offer.
Can I keep my own agent?
Yes. You keep your agent on the purchase and on the sale. I am the mortgage side of the transaction, not the real estate side.
What should I text you to start?
The address of the home you want and the address of the home you own, roughly what you owe on it, and whether it is listed yet. That is enough for me to tell you whether a non-contingent offer is realistic.
What clients say
Zach was so easy to work with. He made a stressful situation into a very positive experience for us and did push us one way or another. He listened to what we hoped we could accomplish and made it happen.
Word for word from Experience.com. Read all reviews.
Which page is this?
Cash offer, no sale first. In a competitive market a contingent offer loses to cash. A bridge program Zach places lets you write the non-contingent kind, stay in your home until the new one closes, and sell afterward.
How do I buy a house before selling mine with a cash offer?
That page has the worked example with the numbers, the tradeoffs, and the same next step: a text to Zach.
Sources and checked dates
Sources: Partner lender’s published program page (name withheld on public pages by site rule; URL in the internal research file dated 2026-09-12) (checked 2026-09-12) · Zach, September 12, 2026 (checked 2026-09-12) · Confirmed by Zach, Sept 2026 (checked 2026-09-26).
Show each claim on this page, what it depends on, and the date it was checked (6)
| What we say, and what it depends on | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Under the bridge program Zach places, the borrower buys the new home in their own name, funded by a short-term loan secured against the current home and the new one. No company buys the home and resells it to the borrower. | Partner lender’s published program page (name withheld on public pages by site rule; URL in the internal research file dated 2026-09-12) | 2026-09-12 |
| Because the purchase is funded by that loan rather than by the sale of the departing home, the offer can be written without a home sale contingency and without a financing contingency. | Partner lender’s published program page (name withheld on public pages by site rule; URL in the internal research file dated 2026-09-12) | 2026-09-12 |
| The program’s published terms give the borrower a set window of months from the closing on the new home to sell the departing home, and include a backup arrangement covering that home if it has not sold inside that window. | Partner lender’s published program page (name withheld on public pages by site rule; URL in the internal research file dated 2026-09-12) | 2026-09-12 |
| The bridge loan is interest-bearing debt. Interest accrues until the loan is paid off, and the program charges its own fees, all of which are disclosed in the loan terms before the borrower commits. | Partner lender’s published program page (name withheld on public pages by site rule; URL in the internal research file dated 2026-09-12) | 2026-09-12 |
| Zach says he has clients using this bridge program right now. | Zach, September 12, 2026 | 2026-09-12 |
| Zach places bridge loans for homeowners buying the next home before selling the current one. | Confirmed by Zach, Sept 2026 | 2026-09-26 |
Written for and accountable to: Zach von der Linden, Mortgage broker and Branch Manager, West Capital Lending.
Last updated 2026-10-26.
Verify him: NMLS Consumer Access, ID 1652805 · 66 reviews on Experience.com.
Sources for product claims are listed on this page, with the date each was checked.
Buying a home? Let's talk through your next step.
Tell me what you're buying and where you are in the process. I'll help you understand what needs to be reviewed before you move forward.
No credit pull happens from a conversation. Texts go to Zach's cell.