Educating Buyers and Sellers about the new North Carolina Offer To Purchase effective 1/1/11 is important for successful contracts that benefit ALL of us. There have been many agent update courses available over the past few months to review the numerous changes to the Offer To Purchase that begin 1/1/11. Agents will want to review the new contract with their buyers and sellers as soon as possible to help them be prepared for the many changes BEFORE they make or receive an offer.
The new Offer To Purchase Contract introduces a "Due Diligence Fee" and a "Due Diligence Period". The buyers may perform their due diligence before the deadline. This due diligence would include inspections, appraisal, loan approval, surveys, reviewing restrictive covenants, zoning, and anything they feel is important. If they wish to terminate the contract prior to the due diligence deadline they may do so for any reason or no reason. The sellers will retain the due diligence fee and the buyers will have the earnest money deposit returned. Once the due diligence deadline passes the buyers are obligated to purchase the home per the contact and the only way out would be breach of contract. This would include loss of earnest money and due diligence fee. However, if the buyers move forward to closing both the earnest money and the due diligence fee are applied to the purchase. Successful negotiation of these dates and fees by buyers and sellers will require them to view the situation and requirements from both sides of the fence.
That is a brief summary of a FEW of the changes to the NC contract, but it would certainly benefit buyers and sellers to have advance notice to prepare and understand these changes. Buyers may wish to review as much as possible about a home, even before writing an offer and be sure their lender is aware of all of these changes. In the long term this new Offer To Purchase will bring improvements, but change is never easy in the beginning! Many states have been using similar Offer To Purchase Contracts successfully for years.
If you have any questions on the new North Carolina Offer To Purchase I am happy to help you! If you already have an agent, please ask them to meet with you to discuss this.
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