verbal negotiations & respond on paper

[TexasHorseLady]

However, if the seller doesn't agree with that being written into the contract (in states where there is not such a clause), the seller ISN'T bound by it until the offer becomes a contract agreed to and signed by both parties. So, the seller could strike that clause and respond in the affirmative to the rest.

Far safer to put the requested in a cover letter, and be prepared to rescind the offer in writing if you feel it's taking too long. Before the offer is accepted as written, such a document rescinding the offer is plenty of protection. A little extra work for the buyer's agent in terms of getting the one page document printed out and signed, true, but if this is a real issue, you can and should do that at the time you get the offer signed.

[palmcoasting]

So, the seller could strike that clause and respond in the affirmative to the rest.

Which would mean you don't have an executed contract unless the offerer accepts and initials that change. What would be the point?

Far safer to put the requested in a cover letter

A cover letter is part of nothing... an addendum, ok...a cover letter is nadda. Again, what would be the point?

You and I disagree, obviously. For some reason you have chosen to take a time frame as an insult. That's the part I don't understand. Why would YOU personally be insulted or bothered by a buyer letting your client know what the time frame for acceptance is? That's the part I'm not understanding and I'm just asking so I might understand a little better. You see it as a negative..manipulation. I see it as a positive..information.

[TexasHorseLady]

Which would mean you don't have an executed contract unless the offerer accepts and initials that change. What would be the point?

Precisely! You get my point! Just as writing the demand for a response into the contract itself is meaningless - even MORE meaningless, because it's a clause that can't be enforced at all, it can simply be ignored.

I don't take a timeframe as an insult, by the way. As I've said above, a timeframe (as long as it's reasonable, and noon on the next day is NOT reasonable, especially as in such cases the contract is almost never delivered before 5 on the previous day) in a cover letter or email doesn't bother me one whit. It's when it's written into the contract that it's more a pointer (in a state that doesn't have a clause in the contract for such) to how cognizant the buyer's agent is of what constitutes a contract. Until the seller signs the contract, they're not bound by the timeframe insisting they respond prior to a specific date, just as they aren't bound by anything else in the contract, so they don't have to, legally. Given that in our state there is a process already established for rescinding a contract if you want to get out of it before the seller has responded, there's no need for it.

Now, an expiration clause that says that the offer itself is rescinded (not MAY be rescinded, IS rescinded) by such and such a time if not executed by both parties as a contract would be valid. But I've never seen one written in that fashion.

The cover letter binds no one, true. But neither does messing up the contract with a demand that is meaningless when written into the contract form. And, frankly, we're not allowed to practice law with our contracts; what we can legally write, as agents, in Special Provisions is limited. This teeters on that line (as a legal assistant, I wouldn't have done it, the attorney would have had to do so).