Irrevocable time. What is it?
Tick Tock, Tick Tock… We often hear about irrevocable time. But what is it exactly? In simple terms, it is the time until which an offer is considered valid. Still confused? I can’t blame you. Maybe an example will make things so much clearer.
Let’s say we have an irrevocable of July 10th, 2021 at 6pm. If you are putting an offer on a property, it essentially means that your offer will be valid until that time. It also means (and this is usually where people get confused) that in that time period, you can not retract your offer or decide to place one on another property. It sounds complicated but think of it this way. If there was no irrevocable, you could place many offers on multiple properties. What happens if they all accept? You’d essentially have to purchase all of them. Now if you have more money than Mr Amazon, I’d say you can forget about what I just said and go wild, but if you’re an average Joe, this is pretty crucial.
From the standpoint of the person who receives the offer, the irrevocable means that they have until that time to accept the offer. At this point, they’ll have 3 options.
Reject - Counter - Accept
Let’s say we are using the same irrevocable as above. If the seller received an amazing offer from a buyer and decided to accept it as is (which rarely happens), the seller would have until 6pm on July 10th to sign everything and send it back to the buyer for the offer to be valid. If the seller was to counter the offer, they would now be the person writing the offer, so the ones picking the new irrevocable to give the buyer until a specific time to make a decision. This would once again have to be done before the irrevocable expires. Now if the seller wasn’t interested in the offer, they technically don’t have to let the other party know, though it is great practice to, and could simply let the irrevocable expire, which means that at 6:01pm on July 10th, the buyer is now free to put an offer on any other property.
Real estate can be pretty challenging and that’s why you need a professional in your corner to help and protect you. After all, buying or selling a house is one of the most important moments in life.
The clock is ticking… What are you waiting for?
Sorry, I couldn’t help it ;)
