This is the fifth in a series of blogs about New York State real estate forms and contracts.

You have found the perfect home- The next step is to make an offer to purchase.

The offer will come in the form of an agreement or "binder". This will be part of the negotiating stage of the purchase in which the objective will be to come to a "meeting of the minds" between the buyer and seller. It will lay out the terms in which the buyer agrees to buy and the seller agrees to sell.

The buyer's agent prepares a document that will indentify the parties and the legal address of the property. The legal description of the property is the mailing address, the name of the town and the tax map number. The terms and conditions of the offer are laid out. The offering price is stated. The amount of earnest money, the money down at contract (these are held in escrow by the seller's attorney) and the amount of the mortgage and the cash due at closing. The conditions of sale can be subject to any number of terms such as attorney approval, satisfactory engineer's inspection, sale of the buyer's current home or anything the buyer needs to have before purchasing. These are the contingencies of the sale. The non real estate items that are included in the sale are listed.

In New York State there are several ways to handle the "offer".  I some cases a binder, earnest money, is collected at the time of the offer.

This offer is signed by the prospective buyer and submitted to the listing agent along with the preapproval letter from the lender and the agency disclosure. Once this document is received the seller is notified of the offer and negotiations begin. If the seller accepts the offer as presented this offer is submitted to the attorney's for contract to be prepared.

If the seller counteroffers or refuses the offer this offer is null and void and the buyer is no longer bound to the original offer.

This is the fifth in a series about forms and contracts relating to New York State Real Estate- If you missed the prior to go to;

New York State Property Condition Disclosure

 New York State Agency Disclosure

 New York State Lead Disclosure

New York State Listing Agreements

Barbara Carter and Becky Cook

Mother/Daughter Team Realtors

Exit Realty Services

10 Main Street

New Paltz NY 12561

Office: 845 255 HOME Barbara 845 505 3160 Becky 845 853 4210

Visit us on the Web www.UlsterNYHomes.com

Or email UlsterHomes@yahoo.com