REAL ESTATE OFFERS AND CONTRACTS

You are about to buy a house or a condominium. You have looked over the building and the grounds, and it is just what you want. You sign an offer to purchase the property. The offer form may be as short as one page.

The seller accepts your offer, and then you come to see us and ask us to prepare the "long form" purchase and sale agreement. At that point, we suggest to you that it may be too late.

If an offer form contains enough elements - price being the principal one - and unless it is made clear that it is conditional on a suitable long form purchase and sale agreement being signed, the offer form may be binding and may constitute the contract.

You may wish to make your obligation to purchase or to sell a property subject to certain conditions, such as:

The sale of your property, or

The obtaining of a mortgage in a particular amount and with a particular interest rate, or

The property's passing an inspection by a home inspector, or

The septic system being certified as operational, or

Town approval to add to or change the building on the property.

Brokers naturally wish to cement the connection between the buyer and the seller as soon as possible. Thus, there is concern on the part of the broker to have an offer presented and accepted as quickly as possible.

If you do sign a purchase offer, either as seller or buyer, and you do want contingencies in the transaction, you should make sure that either the contingencies are set forth in the purchase offer, or that the purchase offer is conditional upon the signing the long form purchase and sale agreement. We are very familiar with these transactions and we can meet with you and prepare a long form purchase and sale agreement on very short notice, so that there will be no question as to your liability to sell or to buy.