Buying a home is a major investment, so you'll want to make sure the purchase is a good idea. Contingencies are designed to let you know if the property is worth the price you're willing to pay for it, and to make sure the home doesn't come with any unpleasant surprises.

To a seller, however, contingencies can sometimes feel burdensome. When a buyer is willing to waive certain contingencies, it can strengthen their offer considerably.

The seller may even be willing to accept a lower offer or forgo a higher bid from another buyer for the convenience of speeding up the transaction. Buyers, meanwhile, can save money they otherwise would have paid to complete these checks on the home.

Of course, waiving contingencies is not without risk. By forgoing some steps in the home purchasing process, you may find yourself in a financial crunch or discover after the fact that the home needs substantial repairs. Before agreeing to drop any contingencies, you should know about any risks in doing so.

Getting a home inspection is a common part of any home purchase. The inspector will examine the property to determine its condition and suggest what repairs will be necessary. Using this report, a buyer can ask for the seller to complete the repairs or lower the asking price to account for the cost of the needed work. If the home is in particularly bad shape, the buyer may decide to walk away altogether.

Forgoing the home inspection can be particularly appealing to the seller. Agreeing to purchase the property without taking a closer look at its condition means that the seller won't have to lower their asking price or delay the sale to complete some repairs. Waiving this contingency can be particularly attractive to a seller if you are in a competitive market and competing against multiple offers.

The risk the buyer runs in dropping the inspection contingency is that they might have to pay for expensive repairs out of their own pocket. Even if the home looks OK to your untrained eye, there may be hidden problems that should be fixed. Rachel Stults, writing for the National Association of Realtors, says you won't have any opportunity to back out of the deal, ask for repair work, or request a discount once you waive the inspection contingency.

There are some options that blunt the inspection contingency, but still give the buyer some reassurances. You might ask for a general inspection contingency, which gives you the option of withdrawing your offer if you feel the home is in significant disrepair.

The seller may also be amenable to letting you do a pre-inspection. Leslie White, writing for the real estate site Redfin, says that in this process the buyer has the property inspected before making their offer. In this way, they'll have the necessary information on the home's condition and can waive the inspection contingency if they feel comfortable making an offer. But the cost of pre-inspections can quickly add up if you decide not to make an offer or find that the seller has accepted another buyer's offer.

The seller may have completed their own inspection of the property and have that report available for any potential buyers. This report may make you confident enough about the home's property to waive the inspection contingency. However, you'll have to decide if you're comfortable trusting the seller's report or if you'd rather get a second opinion.

In most cases, buyers will make their offer contingent on financing. Unless you have enough money to purchase the home outright, you'll need to borrow the some of the funds necessary to purchase the property from a lending institution. Stults says this condition will give you the option of backing out of the purchase if you can't finance it. This contingency can be a useful safeguard in the event of unexpected hardships, such as the loss of a job.

Waiving the financing contingency carries substantial risk. If you don't have this contingency in place, you'll be obligated to accept the available financing while still committing to the purchase. These conditions may unexpectedly lock you into a higher interest rate, a lower loan amount, or other situations where you will struggle to make the purchase and meet your monthly payments.

The Seattle company WIN Home Inspection says you might be able to back out of a purchase if your financing falls through, but only after you forfeit your earnest money deposit. Alternatively, the seller may decide to sue you for breaching the contract.

Stults says it may be worth waiving this contingency if you are in a good financial situation, such as having a high credit score, stable job, and enough money for a 20 percent down payment. You can also waive the financing contingency if you are paying cash and do not need to take out a mortgage to make the purchase.

The financing contingency is typically done in conjunction with the appraisal contingency. In this process, the lender will have an appraiser determine the value of the property and see if it is worth at least as much as the agreed upon price. White says that if the appraisal comes in lower than expected, the lender will approve a lower amount for the home loan.

For example, the seller may accept a $300,000 offer on their property, with the buyer making a 20 percent down payment of $60,000. The lender would set up a loan for the remaining 80 percent, or $240,000. But if the appraisal only comes to $280,000, the lender would only approve a loan for 80 percent of this amount, or $224,000.

With the appraisal contingency, the buyer can negotiate for a lower asking price to match the appraised value. Bob Hunt, writing for Realty Times, says waiving the appraisal contingency obligates the buyer to make up any difference. In the above scenario, the amount approved by the lender would be $16,000 short of the buyer's expectation and the buyer would have to make up that difference.

You may be willing to waive this contingency if you are confident in the home's value or comfortable with shelling out some extra money to cover any difference. It may also be possible to strike an agreement where you will only pay up to a certain amount of the difference between the expected loan and the approved loan.

Buyers can also set other contingencies to make the process of moving into the new home a little easier. For example, they may make the purchase contingent on the sale of their current residence or ask the seller for an early move-in date.

Both cases can weaken the offer because they present greater difficulties to the seller. Stults says the seller will be in a better negotiating position if you move in before the offer is completed. But both the buyer and seller have to accept the risk that the offer will fall through, at which point the buyer will need to move out.

Making the purchase contingent on a home sale can slow down the process considerably, since it may take a long time for you to find a buyer and complete the transaction. Leaving this contingency out can help strengthen your offer and avoid a potential roadblock.