Line 154. TIME OF ESSENCE: Time is of the essence in this Purchase Agreement.
The statement above can be found on page 4 of the standard Minnesota purchase agreement, which is the most common contract used in these parts to purchase a home.
I could go on a rant here but I won’t. The idea is to keep the process moving along. After the buyer signs the purchase agreement and it is presented to the seller, or more often than not simply faxed to the listing agent, the sellers should respond in a short period of time.
Sometimes sellers need a little time to make a decision, that is understandable, but don’t take too long. I have spent many weekends calling anxious buyers just to let them know that I don’t know anything because the seller’s agent has not gotten back to me.
Time is of the essence applies to buyers too. I received an offer on one of my listings, on a Friday at about 3:00 PM. The agent who faxed the offer to me, headed up North for the weekend as soon as I received the fax. Her buyers did the same. My seller countered the offer, but the buyers and their agent could not be reached, for two days. They must have missed line 154.
The buyers said they were on a tight time frame. While they were gone another offer was made on the home. No one pays much attention to line 154 on the purchase agreement, if they did real estate transactions would go more smoothly.
None of these rules seem to apply to banks, even though they do use the same contracts, but I’ll save that for another post.
