Changes to the North Carolina Offer to Purchase
The revised North Carolina offer to purchase is out in a sample form. The new contract will come into play on January 1st 2011. The contract has gone from 8 to 9 pages but is meant to be much easier for all parties involved in the transaction.
Changes to the Offer to Purchase
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There is no longer an alternative 1. (before there were two options for the buyer. Alternative 1 was the most popular option. It set certain dates that the buyers' obligations had to be performed on or before...these include applying for a loan, dates to receive loan approval, setting a date to complete inspections and request repairs, and dates for appraisals if it was a cash offer) The new contract looks more like what we have now as an alternative 2. The buyer will buy a "due diligence period" for a negotiable amount of money and time. During this time the buyer must complete all inspections, repair negotiations, loan conditions, surveys, appraisals etc. During this due diligence period, the buyer has the option of walking out of the contract for any or no reason as long as he/she give the seller or seller's agent written notice prior to the end of the due diligence period. If the buyer decides to stay in the contract, the money used to buy the due diligence period will be credited towards the purchase price at closing. WHAT WILL BE AN ACCEPTABLE AMOUNT TO PAY FOR THE DUE DILIGENCE PERIOD???
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Range/Oven/Stove has been added to the fixtures section. No longer will agents need to write in the personal property paragraph that the stove/range/oven is included in the price. The words "at no value" have been added to the personal property paragraph so that the agents will no longer be required by mortgage lenders to write this phrase.
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Other changes are pretty minor. They include adding a section that explains the difference between a settlement and a closing. A section to disclose if the property is the owners primary residence and if they have lived at the home for longer than a year. The new contract also makes it more clear about what will happen when one party decides to delay a closing.
Overall I think the changes are good. It will take some time to get familiar with the idea of buying an option period but a lot of states have used this same type of contract for years.
How has it worked for agents in states where this has been the norm for some time?
