signing a contract

remember, a contract is not officially completed until -

1. The attorneys fo rboth sides review the contract and make any changes/amendations required.
2. YOU sign the contract and your lawyer delivers it with your deposit check to the seller's attorney.
3. The SELLERS sign it an return it back to YOUR attorney.
4. When YOUR attorney has recieved back the contract signed boy BOTH parties, then, and ONLY then, is the contract executed.

Until that point, the sellers can pull out at any time, for any reason, with no explanation or penalty.

After that point, assuming a co-op, and that you have a board meeting, the only thing that could truly derail the proceedings is if the co-op board rejected you, or if you yourself decided to walk away from the contract and forfiet the 10% deposit.

Also add that you should make sure to get a good lawyer who had experience dealing with NYC real estate procedures (incl coops). If it's a coop and you get rejected you should get your deposit back - make sure your contract provides for this.

Also, if it is a coop, you may want to look into having a condition that the board cannot delay review of your package. There was a previous post on this site about a situation where the coop board took months to review an applicant's package; although that's a rare case, addressing this upfront may help you expediate the process (i.e. condition that the board must review your package within a certiain pd of time). Discuss with your lawyer.