The Contract Process

The Purchase and Sale Agreement does not contain a preprinted appraisal contingency. However, there are some lenders who will decline to offer the buyer a loan if the property does not appraise for the contract price. The buyer and seller may choose to renegotiate to the lesser appraised value. Where a buyer has added an appraisal contingency to the special stipulations, the disposition of the contract will follow the terms of contingency.

A binding contract is created when one party presents a signed written offer to purchase or sell property to a second party and that party accepts the same offer in writing and delivers written acceptance back to the offering party before the time limit in the offer expires. In the GAR (Georgia Association of Realtors®) Purchase and Sale Agreement, the date the parties reach mutual agreement is referred to as the acceptance date and the date the written notice of acceptance is received by the offering party is referred to as the binding agreement date. It is the responsibility of the party receiving the written notice of acceptance to notify the other party of the binding agreement date. Once the binding agreement date is established, all time restricted obligations begin the following day.

The Purchase and Sale Agreement provides that the closing shall be on a specific date or such earlier date as agreed to in writing by both parties. It also states that both parties agree that should the loan be unable to be closed on the proposed date or that the seller fails to satisfy title either party, upon written notice provided before the agreed upon closing date, can extend the contract closing date up to 7 days. The parties agree that the buyer will allow the seller to retain possession through closing, through X number of hours after closing, or within X number of days after closing.