Does a Purchase Offer on a House Obligate You to Buy the Home?
Posted on: 6 August 2019
When you write a purchase offer for a house, you might be wondering if this will obligate you to purchase the home. In most cases, the answer o this is no, a purchase offer will not obligate you to buy a home, but you might lose out on your deposit if you back out of the deal for a reason that is not legal or valid. Here are several things to know about the obligations you have after putting in a purchase offer for a house.
Does your offer say that you are serious about the purchase?
Writing an offer on a house is not something you should do unless you are serious about buying the house. In other words, if you are not quite sure if you really want the house, do not write an offer for it. To make sure that you are serious with an offer, you will be required to put earnest money down with the offer. This means that you are making a deposit or down payment towards the house, and this is required simply to prevent people from writing offers when they are not completely serious about going through with the purchases of the offers they write.
Does backing out for a legal reason have any consequences for you?
After you write the offer and find out that the seller agreed to accept it, you will be obligated to follow through with buying it; however, there are valid reasons that allow you to back out of buying the house without facing any consequences of any kind. For example, you can back out legally if you cannot get a loan for the purchase. You can also back out if you discover the house is full of mold. If there is a valid reason, you will get your deposit back if you choose not to go through with the purchase.
Does backing out for a non-valid reason has consequences?
If, on the other hand, you simply decide that writing an offer for this house was a mistake and that you no longer want the house, you cannot back out of the deal without facing consequences. The main consequence of this decision would be a loss of your earnest money.
If you want to buy a house, make sure you are certain that you found the right home before you make an offer. To learn more about writing an offer for a residential property, talk to a real estate agent.
Share