The Offer/Contract - Part 7 in the Series: Are You a First Time Home Seller?

Previous Posts in this series:

Part 1 – Contacting a Real Estate Agent

Part 2 – The Initial Visit

Part 3 – The Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)

Part 4 – List Day – The Listing Agreement and The SUD List

Part 5 – Photo Shoot Day

Part 6 - The Showing

Offers, through our office, to purchase your home will come in the form of a written offer.

When we are asked to commit an offer to writing, we use the standard forms developed by the Oklahoma Real Estate Commisison.

Negotiations on the sale of your home begin when I present the offer to you. You may accept the offer, reject the offer with no counter, or make a counteroffer.

When you and the buyer have agreed to all terms in writing and the document has been delivered to both you and the buyer (or their authorized broker), the offer becomes a contract.

When the buyer makes an offer, they may withdraw that offer up until the time it has been accepted by the seller. Likewise, you may, as seller, withdraw any counteroffer that you’ve made if that counteroffer has not been accepted, signed by the buyer and delivered back.

The standard form referenced above and any related addendums make up the contract.

"Some" (not all) of the items contained in the contract form are listed below. For a more thorough discussion of the form: information pamphlet on line:

• A list of addendums that are included in the contract such as a financing contingency.

• Legal Description and Address of the Property.

• Contract Price and amount of earnest money.

• A date that closing is to take place on if not before that date.

• Acceptable forms of payment for money due at closing.

• When possession will transfer.

• A list of items that will remain with the property.

• The Time Reference Date (the date from which time periods are counted for inspections, invesigations, and reviews, etc.)

• Reference to the Property Condition Disclosure (you filled this form out when I listed your property. It must be given to the buyer BEFORE you can accept an offer from them.)

• Treatments, Repairs, Replacements or Reviews provision along with a repair cap clause. Time frames involved in this process of doing the inspections, getting the estimates, or cancelling the contract, etc.

• Inspection of those repairs and a final walk-through prior to closing.

• Title evidence paragraphs has to do with abstracts, attorney opinions, possible title defects, and time frames for those items to take place.

• Reference to hazard insurance. You, as the seller, will want to keep hazard insurance on the property until closing with it being the buyers responsibility to have insurance on the day of closing.

• Mortgage Certificates and Pin Stake Surveys.

• Taxes, Assessments, and Pro-rations.

• Residential Service Agreement.

• Additional Provisions - Blank lines where the items can be addressed that are not already addressed in the Contract.

• The contract also talks about mediation and breach and failure to close.

• The date that the offer will terminate.
  

This is a simplistic discussion of the standard contract.. when one is written on your property, we will go over every part of it. This is not meant to cover every detail, just the majority of the major components.

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Life in Southeast Oklahoma is GREAT! If you're looking for a home or land in my part of the country, give me a call: Judi Barrett, broker, Integrity Real Estate Services, 580-212-5946

Or visit one of our websites:

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Judi Barrett

Broker - Integrity Real Estate Services
Our Name Says It All.
Real Estate Services You Can Trust.
580-212-5946