Offers with expiration date.

[Chinmay J.]

Staying true to my 2017 GOALS of 2 flips, I analyzed several properties (first online and then visiting them), I narrowed it down to couple of properties that I wanted to write offers on. One went under contract almost right away, but ended up making offers yesterday on two properties.  

I may hear back from the listing agent in next ten minutes, or after a week, or even after a month.. or NEVER !!!  That leads me to my question. What stops investors from writing offers with expiration dates? The forms that we use in NVAR forms are open ended. By default there is no expiration date on the offer.  This can create a very tricky situation. If an investor writes 20-30 offers in next few months, he/she might end up with a situation where seller accepts an offer that was made a few months ago. Depending on individual situation an investor may or may not be in position move forward.

Wouldn't an expiration date of some kind save me from being in default on ratified contract? 

The verbiage would look something like this This offer is valid for 7 calendar days from the date of offer. If not ratified the offer expire.

Now, I am pretty sure I am not a genius, and no one thought of this before me, which begs the question, is there a good reason why this is not the norm.   

[Russell Brazil]

Chinmay you are correct. What Christopher is saying may be customary or legal I  his jurisdiction, but that is not how it works in the DMV. Most of the rest of the country uses binding letters of intent, or offers. Here we use contracts. In much of the rest of the country the contract is drawn  up after an offer by an attorney, but we do not do that. We as agents here write the contracts and they are binding.