Giving your offer a deadline

I snapped up a 2 bedder in Sydney's inner west with this tactic recently. I didn't place a specific deadline, rather, I truthfully mentioned I had my eye on a few other places and would want to hear back soon. The agent said I'd know that afternoon. A few hours later contracts were exchanged.

It went down like this:

- Apartment listed online late tuesday evening, set to go to auction 5 weeks later
- Immediately emailed agent with Qs, and requested a contract
- Did my due diligence before the weekend -- no problems
- Got a section 66W (relinquishing my right to a cooling off period)
- Turned up at first open with a contract, S66 and blank cheque
- Inspected
- Was satisfied
- Grabbed agent at end of open
- Signed contract
- Whipped out S66W
- Wrote cheque for 10%
- Told agent I had my eye on other apartments, would like to hear back soon
- Heard back from him as soon as he'd talked to the vendors (after finishing his other opens for the day)
- Exchanged that arvo

I had thought about making a time specific deadline but in a hot market with plenty of good stock available, I believed the vendor and agent would realise I was being honest in mentioning my interest in other properties and they've get back to me soon enough. After all, an unconditional offer on a property that's headed to auction can create some certainty and be tempting.

Won't pan out every time, but worked out well for that one.
 
I reckon he would have paid more at auction too. Top job on securing beforehand!

I was looking a property for my brother in law. The agent finally agreed on a price to take it off the market prior to auction (auction was scheduled for that saturday).

I said no, property ended up going for $39k more at auction.
 
Cargs said:
A question for those that have employed this strategy before, how did you word the clause?
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It won't end up in the contract, so generally any plain but clear language will be acceptable. e.g. "My offer expires at 5pm tomorrow, the 5th".
 
I gave the REIV a call in relation to our offer not being presented. They said REA can't accept an offer without a 32.(our last purchase was presented and verbally accepted before 32 was ready) So the REA is well and truly playing games. Almost 2 weeks later there is still no 32.
 
I used an expiry last week unsuccessfully and again this week with what would be considered quite a low offer that worked

The agent came back to me saying you're close and you should add 10k more. I said my offer is the still the same as I've offered elsewhere as well (which was true) and they accepted it 5 minutes later

I use it to ensure a decent response from the vendors and cut through the agents disagreement with the offer (especially low ones)
I figured there's no point dreaming about a place if the numbers don't stack up due to the sale price so i might as well find out what it really is

I agree that it depends on the motivation of the vendor, i find some agents let too much slip and others won't divulge any info that can be used against them.
 
Received an update today. They have been unable to get the 32 signed by the vendor and they have no idea when that is likely to happen. It is all the vendors fault and the REA is being hassled by several buyers but their hands are tied.

Like someone here said a good property comes along every other week ...
 
It's a perfectly acceptable and useful strategy if there's an element of urgency.
eg There an open on Saturday am and you put in an offer on the Wednesday.
You add a sunset clause to the effect that the offer will expire 5pm Fri.
In that case you want the vendor to reveal their intentions to you before the possibility of fresh buyers seeing the house.
I have used the strategy when I thought it was necessary.
You need to avail yourself of all tools and this is simply one of many.

Cheers,

Dwight
 
Years ago a friend put in an offer for a house that reduced by a few $k each day the vendor delayed their decision. They took about a week. He knew they had to sell so he waited them out.

Do you feel lucky, Punk?
 
I recently put an offer in on a unit with an expiry date for Thursday at 6pm. The agent got back to me at 11am and stated it looked good and was sending the contract over to the seller to sign off on. It's now 8am on the Friday and I've heard nothing. I believe the vendors are trying to hold out for the open home tomorrow before deciding as I have offered less than asking price.

As my offer has expired I'm free to pursue other properties, what's to say they come back and say 'offer excepted' say in a days time? I'd still like purchase the property but can't wait around for them to accept/reject my offer.
 
ems said:
I recently put an offer in on a unit with an expiry date for Thursday at 6pm. The agent got back to me at 11am and stated it looked good and was sending the contract over to the seller to sign off on. It's now 8am on the Friday and I've heard nothing. I believe the vendors are trying to hold out for the open home tomorrow before deciding as I have offered less than asking price.

As my offer has expired I'm free to pursue other properties, what's to say they come back and say 'offer excepted' say in a days time? I'd still like purchase the property but can't wait around for them to accept/reject my offer.
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Was your expiry in writing, or did you just tell them verbally?

If it was verbal, I'd send a quick fax saying that consistent with your verbal instructions, you didn't receive notification of acceptance by 6pm yesterday and thus your offer has lapsed and you wish to confirm that the offer no longer stands. (You can revoke your offer at any time prior to being notified of their acceptance, irrespective of whether you put in a time condition or not.)
 
Perp said:
Was your expiry in writing, or did you just tell them verbally?

If it was verbal, I'd send a quick fax saying that consistent with your verbal instructions, you didn't receive notification of acceptance by 6pm yesterday and thus your offer has lapsed and you wish to confirm that the offer no longer stands. (You can revoke your offer at any time prior to being notified of their acceptance, irrespective of whether you put in a time condition or not.)
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Yes in writing.

I've emailed the agent and have stated if I don't hear by COB today I will be withdrawing my offer.
 
I always put an expiry time. I have watched to many agents hold off on presenting offers in a timely manner and then use the offer in hand to get better offers from others. I refuse to be used as a bargaining tool for the agent. In modern world it would be very unusual for someone not to be uncontactable for more than 24 hours so that is the time frame i allow.
I cant see why anyone wouldn't use a short expiry date.
 
ems said:
I've emailed the agent and have stated if I don't hear by COB today I will be withdrawing my offer.
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Hey, ems, you haven't answered my query, but a couple of things about this concern me, so I'll let you know what they are in the hope that you read this:

1) By not sticking firmly to your 6pm Thursday deadline and suggesting the offer is still open today, you have cancelled the time limit that you wrote into the offer; you've over-ridden it with new instructions. So you can no longer rely on that time limit to limit the duration of your offer.

2) If you said "if I don't hear by COB today I will be withdrawing my offer" rather than "My offer is only valid until 5pm today", then that's not a new time limit, it's simply a statement that you intend to withdraw your offer but has no legal effect. It needs to be followed up with something actually withdrawing the offer.
 
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