I am seeing more of these than normal it seems. Maybe it is just a function of the busy market at the moment.

I had three calls today that I could not help because I am already booked full for the week. On the last one I offered Saturday, she said that would work. Then I asked how long her option period was. She said 7 days and they had executed yesterday. So I told her she needed to call someone else because getting my report the day before her option ran out was not the best plan.

I always tell people to get the longest period they can - 10 or 14 days, since time goes by really fast on options. By the time you schedule an inspector, etc and then maybe have to schedule a specialist or two to come out and follow up, you can be out of time fast.

Are listing agents pushing shorter options because there are multiple offers or what?

My wife and I recently got a contract on a house. We offered on a Thursday with a 10 day option. Sellers countered with a 7 day option on the following Saturday. We were lucky enough to have a realtor with great connections in town and had our general, HVAC, and pest inspections done the following Tuesday.

Our realtor said that she had seen this a lot for the sellers agent and agency in general. When she asked the sellers agent why they countered on the option period, the agent gave some BS answer about putting it back on the market.....

Yeah.

7-10 days is the norm here in BCS. You can get everything scheduled with the people you want generally within 2 days, but sometimes it takes 3. But we are a much smaller market here than there, and I think that speaks volumes to your professionalism and how you conduct your business for you to have that many people wanting to use you.

Lots of multiple offer situations in D/FW right now...if home is in a hot area and in good shape, it's really tough to get 10 days...have one under contract right now that we offered first day on market...they had 7 showings that day. We asked for 10 days, they countered at 5, we settled at 7.

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not to derail, but a question about option period. As a seller, what happens after option period is up, and you have not heard from buyer? More specifically, inspection was done, and buyer simply doesn't contact you, and then the last day of option period comes and goes. Is it assumed they took the option, and are out of contract, so seller can move on to backup offer?

Pretty much. If you don't hear from buyer or receive termination, assume buyer is buying as is.

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so seller can move on to backup offer?

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No. Not yet. Now the buyer is out of the option period there are couple of things that can happen. 1) Buyer goes ahead and buys the property. 2) Buyer decides to back out and is out the option fee, earnest money, and inspection fees. And it should be noted that the inspection fees should not come out of the earnest money if the seller is the one getting the earnest money.

Has the sellers agent contacted the buyers agent? No response there or is it that the buyers agent can't here back from the buyer? How far away from closing are we talking about?

/option period ends may 1. closing june 18th. inspection done 4/22, report delivered to buyer (and he forwarded to my agent) on 4/23. Newish house, so nothing major, but lots of little things.

Basically, our signed back offer is $4K more, so I'm hoping this guy walks, or if he asks for repair money, we will stand firm on $0, because back up buyers have seen the report and already said they don't want repair money and won't do an additional inspection, so we have nothing to lose.

So I'm just curious if at anytime, me, the seller, can move on to other buyers legally. I know I have a few more days for option to end, but I'm just curious what happens. buyer has a cosigner living in CA, so I think that's why decisions have taken a bit longer than normal.

I'm really hoping I get to go to our other buyer.

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Pretty much. If you don't hear from buyer or receive termination, assume buyer is buying as is.

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You've confused me.. I said "Is it assumed buyer took the option, and are out of contract, so seller can move on to backup offer?"

you answered with assume buyer is buying as is.. so which is it? Is it assumed they took the option and walked, or that they took home as is?

[This message has been edited by 62strat (edited 4/26/2012 10:06a).]

Unless the buyer terminates or the buyer and seller agree to extend, the option will end and the contract will move forward. The seller cannot back out during the option period unless the buyer tries to renegotiate the contract.

What Diggity said. I'm sorry - I thought your option had already expired.

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The seller cannot back out during the option period unless the buyer tries to renegotiate the contract.

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So is him asking for repair money or seller contribution considered 'renegotiating the contract'? EX: If he asks for $1000 for repairs, can we say no and back out because he's wanting something we haven't agreed to? Or do we say no but have to wait and see what he does?


Another random question, what are the repercussions if we did just move on to the other buyers? First buyers have just been slow the whole time, his cosigner lives in CA.. We have other buyers who are ready to go to closing, and offered us more money anyway.. Kind of curious what exactly would happen if we just moved on..

We just went through the option period at the beginning of the month. It started at 7 days (Sunday to Sunday), but it was Easter weekend so we had the option extended to 10 days for another $100. Luckily we did this because our A/C guy ended up giving a drastically different evaluation and saved us a lot of money.

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The seller cannot back out during the option period unless the buyer tries to renegotiate the contract.

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So is him asking for repair money or seller contribution considered 'renegotiating the contract'? EX: If he asks for $1000 for repairs, can we say no and back out because he's wanting something we haven't agreed to? Or do we say no but have to wait and see what he does?


Another random question, what are the repercussions if we did just move on to the other buyers? First buyers have just been slow the whole time, his cosigner lives in CA.. We have other buyers who are ready to go to closing, and offered us more money anyway.. Kind of curious what exactly would happen if we just moved on..

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They have to actually terminate for you to move on.

If you don't adhere to the conditions of the contract, they could always sue you for specific performance.

What do you mean by "slow"? They have every right to use the entire 10 day option period if they choose to do so.

You should feel fortunate that you're in this position. You have all of the power in negotiating repairs.

[This message has been edited by Diggity (edited 4/26/2012 1:09p).]

You can only move on if they send you a document saying they are exercising their option.

You can only hope at this point that they want repairs and you refuse this forcing them to make a choice of do we want this property as is for this price. If the answer is no they should excercise the option and walk. That would allow you to accept another offer.

But just because they "are slow" doesn't give you the right to terminate. You could terminate if you want, but then they can sue and make you sell them the house for they original contract amount. That would be one hell of a headache.

Well I just mean they've been slow from the get-go. For countering and stuff. We've gone over our numbers a 100 times since the beginning.. I don't need several days to figure it out and decide. I guess I assumed a buyer would be the same. They got inspection report done on first day in option.. impressive, but then they took 5 days to make a repair list.. I guess we're just anxious to either have them continue or walk. We did just get their repair list an hour ago. They don't want money, but they have a laundry list of stuff to do.

We got in writing that our back up buyers want house as is, so we're replying to first buyer with a letter saying we aren't doing anything on their list, the house is as-is, take it or leave it. Like someone said, nice to be in the offense position. Buyer is a young 20s asian.. I hope he's not a do it yourselfer hah, then he may walk, and gives us another couple grand.

Either way, I just want it done! I realize everyone is different. We're just not very indecisive I guess.

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Either way, I just want it done! I realize everyone is different.

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Why give him a 10 day option period then?
You signed a contract that lays out a specific timeline, and now you upset that it is following that timeline?

actually I was unaware you could do another length. I found out a few days later 10 is not the only option length. First time home seller here. And we bought a new house so didn't have option period.

I know that 7 - 10 is pretty typical. Guess I have just been getting a run of 7s. No complaints though, April will end being my best month of all time.

One thing I would advise for buyers from an Inspectors standpoint in this busy market. Since finding an inspector is one of the things that you have to do that is sort of outside of the process that is handled for you, I advise you to call around and find someone you like before you actually get your contract. If you think you are going to see a house you may be making an offer, call and see what the schedule looks like, maybe get penciled in. I imagine that most of the good inspection companies are pretty busy right now and unfortunately, someone that can fit you in whenever in this market, may not be the best choice.

I just started the contract on my new home and we paid $100 for a 10 day option period.