Your house is in tip-top condition. You keep it clean and tidy so it looks its best when prospective buyers tromp through with their critical eye.
Then one day you get an offer. This is very exciting, and very stressful. You're holding the contract in your hands. You have decisions to make. You can do one of three things.
1) Accept the offer exactly as it's presented without making any changes at all. Just date and sign.
2) Make some changes to the offer to make it more in line with what you were hoping would happen. Maybe it's a closing date you want to change, you want to keep the light fixture in the living room or the curtains in the bedroom or, inconceivably, the price offered is just too low.
3) Just do nothing. Ignoring an offer is an option too.
If you accept the offer exactly as it's presented, within the time limit contained within the offer, the people making the offer are bound by it, and you have a firm contract. Provided there are no conditions contained in the contract, your house is sold. If there are conditions they will have to be satisfied within the time set out in the offer before your house is sold.
If you make any changes at all to the contract that contains the offer, even the smallest change, the people making the offer are no longer bound by it. What you now have is a counter-offer. This counter-offer will have to be accepted by the other party before it's a binding contract. If they accept your changes but then make their own changes it is, once again, not binding on you. You have to sign off on those changes before it's a firm contract. Even if everyone says they agree, that agreement is not binding and can be revoked until the contract is signed by all parties involved. There's a saying out there to the effect that a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
If you make any changes at all to the contract that contains the offer, even the smallest change, the people making the offer are no longer bound by it. What you now have is a counter-offer. This counter-offer will have to be accepted by the other party before it's a binding contract. If they accept your changes but then make their own changes it is, once again, not binding on you. You have to sign off on those changes before it's a firm contract. Even if everyone says they agree, that agreement is not binding and can be revoked until the contract is signed by all parties involved. There's a saying out there to the effect that a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
The "do nothing" option seems to be self explanatory, but I find it doesn't serve any useful purpose. A counter-offer let's the prospective buyer know where you stand better than dead air ever could.
If you want to give the owners of the above home or any other home these difficult decision to make, just give me a call.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment