Offer acceptance and another open house?

[crystal_listserv]

We made an offer on a property and the offer was accepted. No timeframe for going into to contract was stated but we signed the sales agreement offer on Sept 9. Our lawyer received the contract this week (Sept 27) and we are expecting to sign it next week.

In the meantime, the seller has decided they want to have an open house over the weekend. We learned about it by accident. Is the seller allowed to do this even as we are expecting to sign the contract next week? We love the house but are willing to walk away if the seller truly feels he can find a better offer or go back and negotiate a lower price.

[AaronSOLD]

First of all we would need to know what state you are in. In my state, you can still advertise a home for sale and show it to prospective buyers until all contingencies are removed, unless otherwise noted in the purchase agreement. If your lawyer's review is considered a contingency, then I could see why the sellers may continue to show the home.

Since you have an attorney, I really recommend you discuss it with them.

[crystal_listserv]

We are in New York.

[ResaleBroker]

What did your attorney say?

[Fort Lauderdale]

Crystal:
You need to look at if from a sellers point of view.... if for any reason you do not continue with the sale, for any number of reasons, mortgage, inspections, etc., the seller cannot take the house off the market all that time and lose potential back-up buyers. Until all conditions have been satisfied, the seller has every right to continue to market the house for sale (unless prohibited, but I could not imagine that being so). I too would be interested in what your attorney had to say.

[crystal_listserv]

We haven't had a chance to talk to our attorney as we just found out that there was going to be an open house on the mls website. It would seem to me though that an accepted offer is a binding agreement on both parties. Then it would seem that they are having an open house just in case the deal somehow falls apart. I can live with that. At first I wanted to say that if you have an open house this weekend and don't get any better offers then we're going to lower our offer price but I don't think we can really do that.

[skipfactor]

>>We haven't had a chance to talk to our attorney

I would go on with the open house as well. A back-&-forth with an attorney on a contract could stretch into several weeks real fast and might not produce a signed K.

If I really wanted the house, I'd get them the signed contract today.

[crystal_listserv]

We will talk to the attorney today. The negotiations between the attorneys is over and we have an appointment to sign on Wednesday. We'll let everyone know what the lawyer says.

[AaronSOLD]

In Minnesota, we typically sign a Purchase Agreement without attorney approval and typically subject only to inspection and financing. If there's no inspection, then the home comes off the market right away.

I don't really understand what an attorney provides in value-added service under most circumstances.

[judyo]

From another thread I just learned that New York does things differently than in IL. When a buyer makes an offer here, it is a signed contract. Any changes are just made on the original contract & the parties initial the accepted changes. There is an attorney's review period built into the contract for after the acceptance (where an attorney can still make changes even if both parties accepted terms).

So we can actually get a listing off the market in a day if things work out well. If the deal falls through because of attorney review or inspection we just relist it. That should only take a week at the most (some inspections could add a few days).

I can't imagine having a seller wait over two weeks just to find out whether the property is sold or not. In this case, I don't blame the seller for having an open house.