Email Elizabethresidential purchase agreement
How to Count the Days in a Purchase Contract
You count the days in a purchase contract starting with zero for date of acceptance.
Do you know how to count the days in a a purchase contract? Well, you’ve come to the right place to find out. A performance issue came up this morning regarding the escrow timeline we use in California and how to count the days in a purchase contract for performance and contingency release due dates. The questioning agent was a 15-year broker in Sacramento who did not know how to count the days. She had taken a webinar online regarding the revised Residential Purchase Agreement — which is consistently being revised — and did not recall the “change.” I assured her that many real estate agents in Sacramento do not know how to count the days in a purchase contract. She is not alone, even though she works alone.
I tell you, if I ran a one-person brokerage company, which I do not, I would probably be networking like no tomorrow, attending every single S.A.R. meeting, hanging out with real estate lawyers, buying Starbucks gift cards to give away at closings; it’s tough to stay on top of what’s going on when you don’t have a designated broker doing that on your behalf. There are only so many hours in the day . . . but the secrets to my success are my alignment with the largest independently owned brokerage in Sacramento, Lyon Real Estate, and to hire a transaction coordinator who takes care of that stuff for me.
You don’t have to be an expert in everything if you surround yourself with experts.
Sure, I pay so much in TC fees every year that a person could probably live quite well on just the TC fees that my business alone generates. Some agents try to save those fees by doing all the paperwork themselves, and it takes so much time out of your day that you don’t have time to work on new business or monitor your own escrows. Penny wise and pound foolish in my book but to each their own . . ..
However, dull as it may seem to some, I do read the Residential Purchase Agreement. It’s like Yoda! It holds all of the answers to life’s secrets in Sacramento real estate. And, if you’re hung in here thus far, below is the answer about how to count the days.
How to Count the Days for Purchase Contract Performance Issues in California
The way you count the days in a purchase contract for contingency due dates is to first review paragraph 30, Item F, of the Residential Purchase Agreement. “Days” means calendar days. However, after acceptance, the last Day for performance of any act required by this Agreement (including close of escrow) shall not include any Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday and shall instead be the next Day.
This means if you’re looking for the date to release the home inspections contingency, which by default is 17 days after offer acceptance, you would first count the first day, which is the day after contract acceptance, not the date of acceptance itself. If the final date falls on Saturday, that final date rolls to Monday. If Monday is a holiday, that final date rolls to Tuesday. I hope you have learned something new today about how to count the days for purchase contract performances.
If you’re looking for a top producer Sacramento Realtor, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
50 Shades of Grey and the Real Estate Purchase Contract
Our California residential purchase agreement is not an iron-clad purchase contract.
Sacramento real estate agents primarily use purchase contracts developed by C.A.R. as agreements to buy a home in Sacramento. It seems that with every new case law, generally originated by some disgruntled buyer, the contracts are revised. There are also obvious revisions because the language is often confusing. In an attempt to be clear and speak with a human voice, lawyers can sometimes royally mess up legal contracts because they lose sight of their audience and get all hung up on courts and judges.
For this reason, no purchase contract is typically not without a way to sue somebody over something. There is no black-and-white language in a purchase contract, regardless of what a person might be led to believe. A person can read one paragraph that defines a situation, seems to set the boundaries, and then a second paragraph can bring that first paragraph into question. By the time you reach paragraph 27, the 14th paragraph might appear ambiguous. It’s one of the reasons we have an 8-page California Residential Purchase Agreement and Joint Escrow Instructions (revised April 2013), coupled with its sister, the two-page Buyer’s Inspection Advisory (revised October 2002).
I look at that and I think what? C.A.R. could not come up with one single revision for the Buyer’s Inspection Advisory over the past 12 years? Here, C.A.R., have another glass of grappa. Also, when I started in real estate (you kids get offa my lawn), we had a choice between a one-page or a two-page contract. In fact, at one point, I created my own purchase contracts and professionally printed printed my brokerage’s purchase contracts in 3-part NCR — which at that time seemed like a brilliant move but was probably one of the dumber things I have done in my life. Hey, I was in my early 20s, so I had an excuse for my ignorance, not to mention, the 1970s was like one long LSD adventure.
I am astonished that buyers today sign this paperwork without engaging in a minor heart attack. It would almost be better in some ways if an agent just put blinders over a buyer’s eyes, stuck a pen in her hand and directed her to draw squiggles as her signature. Don’t read, just sign, would be the message. Yet, we encourage our buyers to read the real estate purchase contract and they don’t understand a darn thing in it.
Don’t even get me started on ZIPforms and why there is no field for the ZIP Code, of all things. I have brought this matter up to ZIPforms, but it has not been changed. Nobody else probably cares but I realize it’s a problem because of short sales. The bank negotiators do not like the fact there are no ZIP codes carried forth from page to page. Why don’t the C.A.R. lawyers spend time looking at this situation and fixing it? They should also fix the listing agreement fields so subsequent addendums match.
Bottom line, if a buyer or seller wants to challenge a portion of the purchase contract, a smart lawyer will find a way to do it. There is nothing black-and-white about our legal system. It’s more like 50 Shades of Grey . . . in more ways than one. But don’t ask your Sacramento real estate agent to define the real estate purchase contract because we don’t practice law.
