Selling a Co-op in NYC: The Verbal Offer and the Acceptance- Not a Legal Binding Contract!
Real Estate Attorney NYC
If you are reading this most likely your Real Estate Broker may have informed you that you have what is commonly known as an accepted “offer” verbally (maybe via email). The Purchaser has agreed to your purchase price. You are rightfully excited. You have a deal! But Stop: More needs to be done. The Real Estate Broker involved in the transaction is now asking you for your Attorney’s information. The reason for this is that your attorney will be the entity that commences the entire legal process by issuing and sending out a contract of sale to the purchaser’s attorney. Many people at the stage of having an accepted offer should have an Attorney already on board and ready to go. Hopefully the Attorney is very well versed in New York Cooperative law as really at this point the legal process has only just begun. Do not worry or be concerned, as you should know two things. First, you do not {should not} yet have a formal binding contract and second, that all involved know or should know that this is really just the very beginning of the sale of your Cooperative. This is where Kishner Miller Himes will be assisting/guiding the process for you. As such, please immediately call us so we may start helping you to ensure there is a smooth transaction. To sign a Contract without engaging an attorney in negotiation is gambling. Too much is at risk and Kishner Miller Himes wants to ensure that your interests are protected in the sale of your Unit.
Until such time that a contract of sale is fully signed by both the seller and the purchaser and the contract deposit is delivered to the sellers attorney as escrow agent, there is generally no formal and binding deal between the parties. As such, even though a purchaser has submitted an offer, and you as the seller has accepted it, you do not have yet a formal binding transaction. The purchaser at this point may simply walk away and, for that matter, so may you. This means that purchasers may go around submitting many offers on different properties and you may be accepting an offer from a purchaser which purchaser has just submitted and had accepted offers from other sellers. As such, an experienced real estate attorney like Kishner and Miller is absolutely necessary so that in appropriate contract of sale may be immediately disseminated to the purchaser’s attorney. Almost on all transactions in New York City, times is of the essence in regard to issuing out a contract of sale by the sellers attorney. Kishner and Miller prides itself in its ability to immediately get out a contract of sale so that you may have a formal binding contract.