All About Dates and Deadlines

Happy Friday Red Rock Agents,

The rain has been welcome, and we surely need more. I love this time of year when the Monsoon Rains come. Lighting and thunder light up the sky and roll through the heavens as if to warn us of impending storm. Thank you very much Mother Nature you’re still in control.

All of you great agents have made this week somewhat uneventful. I do have a few items to go over with you. I have seen a few contracts that have filled in the dates of section 24 with “Days after acceptance”. I have had more than a few issues with Deadline Dates being filled out this way. For example, when will you start to count the days? Is the day it’s accepted day1? If you don’t know the answer to the question, then that is the issue. Just for the record day 1 is the day after whatever the event was that triggered the count. For example, Earnest Money collection after the contract is accepted is 4 days. So, if the contract was accepted on the 10th, then the time limit for getting the earnest money would be the 14th not the 13th. The issue is, not all agents understand how days are counted, and often they miss Due Diligence or Finance and Appraisal by one day. I understand that if you’re in backup or other types of agreements that “Days After Acceptance” would be appropriate. Those are rare and not used that often. If you have questions, please call.  

I have seen agents fill in the Settlement Deadline on the REPC or in an addendum that reads like this “On or before XXXX date” Please be aware that the only part that counts is the Date. On or before means nothing as per Section 21 of the REPC “Time is of the essence” all dates in the contract are firm. I had this in one of my buyer contracts years ago that read the same way. The buyer was able to close early, and we told the seller's agent. Seller came back and said I’ll go to the settlement on the date stated and not one day before. I whined about it to my broker at the time and was schooled about deadline dates. Dates are the dates there are no on or before. You can write it like that, but if you settle before that date, you really should have an addendum stating the date of settlement clearly if it’s moved up. Call with questions.

Please have a great weekend, and be safe out there,