What Is Subject To Sale?

‘Subject to sale’, is a way by which a buyer makes an offer on a particular property he or she is willing to purchase, which is dependent on his or her success in first selling a property. A time allotment of 60 days is usually included in the condition to allow the seller to have some flexibility.

Currently there is an additional clause; it allows the seller to continue offering the property to qualified prospects even after the acceptance of an Offer to purchase. The clause is known as a 72 hour clause, if the seller receives an offer, before meeting the ‘subject to sale ‘ suspensive condition in the offer to purchase, the seller can call upon the 72 hour clause. Practically the buyer will have 72 hours from the time it is formally communicated to close the sale of his property.

Using the suspensive clause of ‘subject to sale’ in the offer to purchase could be a frustration to either party. On the part of the seller it could mean that he or she will have to wait for the transaction to be fulfilled. But with the inclusion of the 72 hour clause, the seller is allowed to continue looking for qualified prospects while the buyer is processing the suspensive conditions on the offer to purchase.

Given the present condition that the properties outnumber the buyers in the market, it is best to keep all possible options open. Example, if you are in a hurry to sell a property for an urgent cause, you may get lucky to find buyers with capacities to offer unconditional purchases, if you have the luxury of time, there may be buyers that can afford to pay higher. We can never tell for sure.

Should you be the buyer for instance and in a weaker position than that of the sellers, it is imperative that you make the ‘offer to purchase’ stronger than the ‘subject to sale’ clause; otherwise you will be given or subjected to a 72 hour deadline or worse the cancellation of your offer to the property. Consequently all efforts on your part would be deemed useless.

If you are one of those buyers who need to sell properties so you could purchase new ones, it is best to sell your property first before looking for a new one. This way you will not be constrained from deciding or choosing the property you may want to buy, aside from that you won’t be pressured or be placed at the mercy of a seller.

One of the disadvantage though is it may take a long time before you could find a property that would suit your needs which will be readily available outright and at the price within range of your capacity. If this happens you will be forced to buy what your money could afford, there will be a constraint as to the capacity that you will have in selecting a property to buy. Still the bottom line is your purchasing power.