Hi,
I have my written offer with conditions I am about to provide to the estate agent for a small unit I’ve found. I have made the offer valid for 4 days, in other words, my offer expires after 4 days. Do you think this is a fair amount of time? to long? or to short?
Rhett,
I’ve hear about this “offer expires” thing… but I don’t know about its validity. To a seller, I imaine it means nothing. You can expire your offer, but i doubt the seller will feel pressured by it. They will either accept your offer because they think it is reasonable, or won’t accept it because they think it sucks.
kay henry
I think it is a good idea to set a date of expiry for offers. If you sign the contract of sale and attach a cheque for the deposit as part of your offer, the vendor can sit on it for as long as they like if you don’t set an expiry date. Exchange takes place once the vendor and purchaser sign the contract. You may end up with a property you don’t want thinking the vendor did not accept.
I would word it so the date of expiry included notification being ‘RECEIVED’ of acceptance by your solicitor on the date you choose.
Robert Bou-Hamdan
Mortgage Advisera written offer to purchase can be withdrawn verbally at any time up until communication of acceptance to the buyer has occurred. Sellers should not be smugly sitting on offers as the buyer may have 4 or 5 written offers sitting out there and only want to buy 1.
http://www.megainvestments.com.auExtensive list of ‘Off The Plan’ property available for sale in Perth.
John – 0419 198 856
it varies from deal to deal, but when im in a fast or rapid negotiation, the offer would normally be a contract or verbal communication, between both the vendor and real estate agent and that my offer is only valid till 5pm that day…
i think 4 days is too long, if its an investment, same day or 24 hours should be enough, cause if someone is serious about selling, and have to think about why they are selling or the offers that are coming in, why are they then selling the property…
.. lol… thats just something i dont get…
Cheers,
sisBe wary of making offers. If they accept your offer you could be entering into a binding contract.
Terryw
Discover Home Loans
Mortgage Broker
North Sydney
[email protected]Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
It can only become binding if the contract of sale is signed.
Robert Bou-Hamdan
Mortgage AdviserHi Rhett
Seems to me there are two considerations
1) the legal impact eg are you bound if you dont put an expiry, and your offer eventually gets accepted- maybe when you have moved on and don’t want to buy anymore: and2) the negotiating impact.
I would say for 1) you should obtain a proper legal opinion and get them to draft the clause: and for 2) I can’t do any better than the advice SIS and Steve offer except maybe to add Do YOU need a quick answer or are you happy to wait the time- different circumstances will give you different answers but 4 days by itself isn’t necessarily excessive.
CheersHi Robert!
In Victoria that is exactly what it says in the Instruments Act. But there was reently a case that went through the courts where they ruled otherwise. After negotiations an agreement was reached and the details jotted down on a bit of paper. Then the seller (If I remember corectly) decided to back out as they realised they could get more fpr the property. The purchaser pursued it and they won – the court ruled that they had in effect made an agreement.
My point is: If you make a witten offer with no expiry then, in theory, the vendor can come back to you at any time and accept. Too bad if in the mean time you have purchased elsewhere. You are leaving yourself exposed.
I always include an expiry and I give a reason for it (ie I am looking at another property and if I don’t receive a response in 48 hours then I will submit an offer on that property).
It is basically a reversal of the RE agents game of ‘oh, we just received another offer on that house and while I can’t tell you how much it is, I can tell you it is more than your offer. And, just because I want to do the right thing by you – I thought I’d call and see if you wanted to submit another offer…’
Hope this helps,
GregI should have chosen my words better… I mean that there is no contract regarding property dealings unless it is evidenced in writing. I guess the court considered the scrap bit of paper as sufficient evidence in writing.
Robert Bou-Hamdan
Mortgage AdviserA Binding contract could be established if it has an offer, consideration and acceptance. There is no requirement for a contract to be in writing-except for land.
So if you sign a piece of paper with a price, the adress and the vendor listed, it could be argued that this is a contact of sale. All the other party has to do is accept and it may be a binding contract.
Terryw
Discover Home Loans
Mortgage Broker
North Sydney
[email protected]Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
thanks everyone for the opinions. I think I might reduce the expiry to 2 days as I’m not interested in playing games with the estate agent, and after a quick result. This also covers me that the offer is off the table after this period. I can always make another offer later on.
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