Making an offer

One day is my experience.

With the caveat that I haven't actually submitted an offer, the advice I've received from multiple people was to include an expiration date. As in, this offer is good for three days or thirty days or whatever deadline you as a buyer want to set.

I've made a few offers at different condo developments in recent months. It never took more than 1 business day for the sponsor to counter.

@ evnyc: I've seen some people put expiration dates on their offers, but the whole idea is that if your offer is good they won't *need* days to think about it. One of the offers I received with an expiration date was below a higher offer I had... which the new buyers knew. If you were to put an expiration on an offer, it should be 3 days max unless there is some situation which you are addressing with the expiration date. I digress...

To get back to ParkSloper, if you are dealing with a developer/sponsor, you should hear back within 24 hours during business days. I would personally not put an expiration date on the offer.

evnyc, I've heard the same advice as you were given. I always include an expiration date (14 days is the longest that I've done on a final offer).

Why bother about an expiration date? an offer isn't binding anyway.

I never put in expiration dates unless I want to force a seller to take my offer because
they've taken too long to say yes.

rb345 - has that worked?

Also, consider either putting "FLMAOZ" in your offer, or signing out as Seacrest. http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/1321-hotel-condo

ph41:

Yes, but it's a gamble. You can piss people off. That's always a risk when negotiating - some people will
say no out of spite or pride. That is especially true in negative or pressured markets like the one we've
been in for years: sellers nerves can get rubbed raw.

In recent years I made deadline offers 2x, on cheap REOs. In eachinstance I lowered my offer by 10% and got
my deals. But I did so at the end of 2007 when sub-prime problems were at their peak and most other buyers
were too scared or cash-poor to bid.

As a rule, I wont allow an offer to stay live for more than a few days or a week because I dont want to become
someone's fallback. That's enought time to consider the offer and say yes but no enough to shop extensively
for better offers.

Another useful tactic is to put in an offer but casually mention that you're looking at something else that
really excites you and waiting to learn more or hear back from the seller. If true, it means that you might
withdraw your offer or sign another contract, which puts pressure on a seller to say yes quickly/

Maly, I haven't actually made any offers: the logic as has been explained to me is that you want to be able to move on with your search if it isn't accepted. If the seller takes two months to come to his/her senses and by then you're in contract on a property you don't like as much, well, you can't exactly back out. It's supposed to provide a clean end date.

MRussell, I doubt there is any way for a buyer to know whether they are the "best" offer out there unless they are willing to significantly overpay.

Offers are not legally binding. So an expiration date means nothing in legal terms. Everyone knows that and surely treats it as such, not binding.

I was not making any sort of argument that an offer is legally binding.

The other argument I've heard for using an expiration date is that you don't want to give the seller time to use it as a tool to solicit higher offers. Such as telling another potential buyer, "Well, we already have an offer so if you are interested in the apartment you'd better make an offer soon." I certainly have had this pressure tactic used against me as a buyer. I will note that those apartments are still on the market.

I think it's OK to expect a response within 2 days, and communicate that you are moving on, on the third day without an answer. Putting an expiration day on the offer seems needlessly confrontational. Game-playing can be pointless at best, but can also backfire if the other party is childish.

I agrtee with maly. I have made many offers, and none were tied to an expiration date. Usually the seller will get back to you within a day or two. It is unnecessary.

oops..agree not artee.