If you are the buyer, you
will have met with your agent to establish the conditions. The
agent will call for a presentation appoint and will leave you biting
your nails.
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When someone wishes to make an offer on
your home
the listing agent calls you with the news and sets up a time to
present it. Nervous yet?
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Most often, both the
listing agent and agent representing the buyer are present. They go
over the terms and conditions and provided clarification for the
unusual issues such as financing terms, things included and excluded,
and the closing date.
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Normally the listing agent will ask the selling agent leave the room
or go sit in their car so the seller can talk freely about the offer. The other agent
is likely working for the interest of the purchaser and anything said say
will be reported back.
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Offers are on normally on standard
forms created by the Ontario Real Estate Association. The
small print is, for the most part, not a concern as the conditions
have met the approval of countless lawyers. Ask about the
small print anyway.
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The offer will identify who is
purchasing and who is selling,
the price, what items the purchaser
wants included in the sale and any fixtures to be excluded (like the
chandelier you indicated in the listing agreement).
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An irrevocable
date will be shown and if the offer is not accepted by that time the offer
is dead.
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Now comes the hard part.
The seller may either accept
the offer as is, reject it, or make changes and send it back to the
purchaser. Its a gamble to send it back because they may just
walk away. Usually, if your changes are reasonable, the
purchaser may
sign it or come back with a counter-offer. This "dance" continues
until either a deal is reached or negotiations terminate.
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Your agent's role during this back and
forth is to clearly communicate your position. The agent has the
responsibility of being frank with you, of telling you what you need
to hear rather than what you may want to hear.
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The purchaser's
deposit with the accepted offer which is usually is held in the
broker's trust account
to be applied to the purchase price on the closing date.
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When the agreement made and any conditions are waived,
the offer is considered "firm and binding on the
parties." The various documents are given to your lawyer
to prepare for closing the transaction.
