A seller who receives an offer can accept, reject, counter or do nothing. A seller with multiple offers is not required to consider them in any particular order, or treat all of the offers “fairly.”
An offer must include an expiration date. Not including an expiration date creates a risk for your buyer that the seller could simply sign it 1 month later and your buyer would be under contract.
An offer to purchase real estate cannot be accepted orally. An acceptance requires a signature and delivery of the signed acceptance. Even if you are advised via telephone that your offer is the one that has been accepted by the seller, you do not have a binding contract until the written acceptance is delivered to you.
Be specific in the writing of your purchase agreement appliances/solar panels etc… Not just ‘stove’ but Viking Model 11203 Stove. Etc…
Delivery of acceptance can be to the buyer or to the buyer’s agent. Whether delivery of the seller’s acceptance to the cooperating agent is sufficient depends on who that cooperating agent represents.
While offers and acceptances relating to the purchase of real estate must be in writing, an offer can be revoked orally.
Generally, an offer or counteroffer can be revoked at any time before it is accepted. This is true even if the offer contains a stated expiration date. An exception to this rule is if consideration is given as with an option contract.
A buyer cannot simultaneously accept and materially change a seller’s counteroffer. Any alteration which changes the obligations of a party in any respect is “material.” If, for example, you “accept” the seller’s counteroffer, but add a provision whereby the sellers are required to throw in their pool table, you have in fact “countered” the seller’s counteroffer.
Once an offer is countered, it has been rejected. A seller who has countered a buyer’s offer cannot go back and “accept” the buyer’s offer as originally proposed. So, in the above example, if the sellers do not agree to throw in their pool table, you cannot go back and “accept” the seller’s original counteroffer.
The fact that the buyer proposes an amendment to a binding purchase contract does not free seller of his obligations under the existing contract.
In the case of a conflict between the preprinted provisions of a purchase agreement and the handwritten provisions, the handwritten provisions govern.
Almost all of these general contract principles can be changed by the agreement of the parties via the written terms of the contract itself.
A seller is not required to accept a full price and terms offer. A list price is not an “offer” that can be accepted by the buyer.
Non-refundable EMD: If the purchase agreement simply states the EMD is nonrefundable, the assumption is that the EMD is nonrefundable in all instances which is not true. If a buyer does not intend that the deposit be non-refundable in all instances than that needs to be spelled out in the PA. Courts tend to enforce time deadlines strictly when nonrefundable EMD’s are offered. So a seller could try to declare the PA terminated and EMD forfeited if the lender is delayed or some other delay extends the closing date beyond whats spelled out in the PA.
