Right to Withdraw Offer if Multiples
Multiple Offers in the current real estate market are extremely common. Not every Buyer wants to participate.
What it really means is that in order for your Offer to be selected you likely had to have a firm Offer. That meant “no conditions”. So, financing and home inspection just got eliminated.
Let’s presume that Bob is looking to purchase a property in a specific area. He submits an Offer on Sam’s property with his two conditions: 1) financing and 2) inspection. His Offer is open for acceptance until 10:00 pm.
Bob’s agent receives a telephone call from Sam’s agent:
“thanks for your Offer, another Offer has been received, would you like to improve your Offer?”
This type of communication occurs frequently. Bob is annoyed and doesn’t wish to proceed.
What can Bob do:
- Withdraw his Offer in its entirety,
- Resubmit the Offer, this time with a $1.00 purchase price?
What can Sam do:
- Accept Bob’s first Offer anyways,
- Ignore the attempted price reduction,
- Leave it in the pool of other Offers, so that it will be included in the count?
In most situations an Offer may be withdrawn prior to acceptance since there is no consideration for the irrevocable period. That applies in normal contract negotiations. However, this is a real estate transaction and I will assume that the standard OREA Form was used. That means that it contained a “seal” and by reason of that fact, the irrevocable period is enforceable without consideration. All that is required is the seal.
This means that Bob is stuck with his Offer until 10:00 pm
When Bob sent in his second Offer at $1.00, that doesn’t change the fact that his first Offer was open for acceptance at the price stated until 10:00 pm.
Bob did have some earlier choices that might have helped him. What do you think Bob should have done? What legal choices were available to him?
Brian Madigan LL. B., Broker
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