Real Estate
Buying or selling a house or condo is a major transaction for people to undertake. From the buyer's perspective, there are many issues to consider and deal with. One question is what to buy - whether a house (known as a “single family dwelling”), a duplex unit, or a condominium. A second issue is financing - if you need to borrow to complete the purchase, you will need to secure a lender to provide you with a mortgage loan. If you are planning on using funds from the sale of your existing home, you will also likely need to arrange for interim financing, as those funds will likely not be available in time for when they will be needed for your purchase. You also may be concerned about having a building inspection performed on a house that you have made an offer on. When submitting an offer on a property, purchasers then need to decide what conditions, if any, they wish to put on their purchase - such as “subject to financing”, or “subject to home inspection”.
From the seller's perspective, the major question is usually whether to list your home with a realtor, and let the realtor look after the marketing, and sale documents (paying the applicable commission for the realtor's services), or to try to sell it privately on your own, in order to save the expense of the commission. A seller may also be needing to purchase another residence at the same time to move to, and thus often faces the questions that a buyer has simultaneously. It can be a hectic time!
In today's market, many sellers are deciding to try to sell their homes themselves. This is known as a “private sale”. The seller will need to have a form that purchasers can fill out and submit with the terms of their purchase offer. This form is known as a Real Estate Purchase Contract. A sample Purchase Contract can be viewed by clicking on the link below.