Vendor yet to sign contract- how long do I wait?

B

Barndog

I have signed the contract on potential PPOR yesterday (friday) at 5 pm. My initial offer was countered with a $10k increase - I went back with a $5k increase, that's when the agent requested I sign. She never said that amount was acceptable, in fact at one stage she said 'if you do end up getting this....' I understand it's not a done deal until vendor has signed but I feel that my contract is, or is going to be used as leverage against other possible interested parties, there are opens advertised for today and tomorrow.

Property was passed in at auction three weeks ago. They want 90 day settlement, they've bought elsewhere.

Lots of good info here about putting a sunset clause on offers etc but what about a signed contract? Agent did say that because of vendor's occupation he might be hard to meet with until this morning (though I doubt this). I know everyone's situation is different, but I'd think it was unreasonable if they sit on a contract for more than 24hrs. Thoughts?

Thanks!
 
If the ofi are still held, then the offer is yet to be accepted/conveyed to the owner.

Yes, some owners can be difficult to contact eg night shifts or working in remote areas .
 
A good agent will continue to market the property to try to get a back up contract. I've seen this happen with our own sales, and other family members.

So an OFI doesn't mean your offer will not be accepted, however, if you haven't had the call to say it is accepted, then I would be worried that your contract will indeed be used to coax those attending the OFI today to "get in quick as there is another offer".

I can understand that the vendor probably wants to see whether something better comes along today, but you don't have to play the game.

Can you call the agent and tell him that you require the vendor to sign the altered contract and/or countersign at what they are prepared to accept OR you will be attending the open and you would like him to bring the contract with him so that you can rip it up. Tell him you believe he will (with or without the consent of the vendor) be using your signed contract as bait and you want it accepted or ripped up (and make sure you see it done).
 
I got a call this morning saying vendor has verbally accepted offer and has been emailed the contract. Agent said she wasn't sure exactly when they would have it confirmed but they would let me know. I asked if that would be today, she said yes.

On one hand I think they're a fairly reputable agency on the other I think they're REAs after all. OFI (thanks Scott) is in half an hour, might try getting a mate to call past and see what's going on.

I'm a bit reticent to play hard ball with deadline as they're sticking to his occupation makes it hard to get in contact, probably legit.
 
Barndog said:
I got a call this morning saying vendor has verbally accepted offer and has been emailed the contract. Agent said she wasn't sure exactly when they would have it confirmed but they would let me know. I asked if that would be today, she said yes.

On one hand I think they're a fairly reputable agency on the other I think they're REAs after all. OFI (thanks Scott) is in half an hour, might try getting a mate to call past and see what's going on.

I'm a bit reticent to play hard ball with deadline as they're sticking to his occupation makes it hard to get in contact, probably legit.
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter how reputable the agency is. The only thing that means you have a contract with the vendor is their signature on the contract. Until that time they can sell to anyone else.
 
It was a month from acceptance to exchange recently for me. Vendor was a ditherer, mine was the only offer in 3 months, eventually accepted but with 4 owners was a painful process. Vendor owned 97% + 3 x 1% owners. One of the 1% owners objected to the sale price, which even if there was a l,ot of price increase, they would only make $100 more total.

Eventually went through, agent had to pay the S149 themselves since teh vendor saw no reason why he should have to pay for any of the legals or searches until settlement.

They were facepalm worthy.
 
Well the OFI finished so I rang the agent to inquire - apparently vendor was meant to leave the signed contract at the house, of course no signed contract. Agent meant to ring me straight back, waiting.........hmmm
 
Ring and let the agent know that you are withdrawing the offer effective immediately.

Tell them you are going to inspect another property tomorrow and that it is apparently a motivated vendor and the property sounds like it will suit you a bit better and you want to be in a position to make an offer on that one. Give no more details.

It is not as if the recalcitrant vendor has any better offers on the table and there are plenty of other properties out there if perchance they do end up selling to someone else.

On Tue ring the agent and let them know you are wish to put forward another offer on the property.

Make the offer at the price you have just agreed or are comfortable with and put an expiry date of 4.59pm on Friday on it - so you are free to look at other properties next weekend.
 
As it turns out they updated me on what was going on just in time, I was about to pull the contract. Essentially the vendor had issues with my finance clause, it seems the agent had to convince him it was very common these days and he signed.

Happy with the result but wrote off 24 hrs consumed with trying to guess what they were up to. Appreciate all the advice!
 
Hi all,

I was going to ask this earlier but I thought I'd wait until the OP's problem is resolved first before I hijack his/her thread :). Congratulations by the way Barndog on the purchase.

What I was wondering was, is it common to give verbal offer and negotiate that way before signing the written contract? And is it not common to put the time lapse clause in the written offer / contract? It seems quite different to how I did it when I got my PPOR (about 5-6 years ago). Also, is the cooling off period something relatively new? I wasn't aware of it either then.

Thanks.
 
melb

i would say it is very common to negotiate and then at the end sign the contracts. i have bought and sold many properties in several states and have always done it this way.

in nsw at least the cooling off period has been around a while
 
I see. I probably didn't do enough research about the cooling off period, which makes the time lapse clause not as important. Thanks Terryw.
 
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