How Long Can A Buyer Tie Up Property?

June 29th, 2007 categories: Tampa Real Estate, Tips for Sellers

The title of this post was a question someone used in a search engine that ultimately got them to this site. So I figured, let’s answer the question.

The simple answer is “as long as both seller and buyer agree to”. That’s the easy way way out however. In reality, this is one of the biggest terms that is negotiated on a real estate contract for purchase. And in this market, sellers have to be careful that they are protected from buyers looking to “tie it up”.

What does “Tie Up” mean? It basically means to get a property under contract so that in effect it is taken off the market so that it is not available to other buyers. For instance, let’s say you’re a home buyer and you’ve found what you think is your dream home, but you’re just not sure. You don’t want to risk having someone else come along and take your dream home so you decide to make an offer and get the home under contract. In doing so you ask for terms that are favorable to you. Let’s say that you ask the seller for a period of 1 month to inspect the home, and you also ask for the right to cancel the contract for any reason within a few days after your inspection period. You could then take the next month to shop frantically to make sure you’re not missing a better deal. If you find a better option, you exercise your right to cancel the deal.

So in effect you “tied the home up” so no one else could buy it. Buyers are commonly looking for easy outs and sellers are looking to minimize a buyer’s easy outs and protect themselves accordingly.

So both home buyers and home sellers are each looking for the most favorable terms for themselves. Price is just one small part of negotiating a real estate contract. So the answer to the question really depends on all the factors that affect the transaction. In this strong buyers’ market some sellers will let a buyer tie a property up if other terms of the offer are favorable. But with so few buyers in the market currently, sellers would be well advised to seek ways to protect themselves should they face a buyer looking to tie the property up. Time off of the market is very costly currently.

So whether you’re a seller or buyer, having professional representation can make a big difference. As Realtors we are in the business of negotiating real estate contracts. We see contracts fall apart quite often for one reason or another. We know the tactics buyers and sellers will use to try to tip the hat in their favor.

See: Earnest Money Deposit

This entry was posted on Friday, June 29th, 2007 at 10:17 am and is filed under Tampa Real Estate, Tips for Sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Enter your email address to get these updates via e-mail:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Leave a Reply

Name

Mail (will not be published)

Website

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Receive an email if someone else comments on this post?

Subscribe without commenting.

Also Noteworthy

How's The Market In Your Neighborhood?