Unfortunately many first time home buyers believe that if a house is offered for sale with a specified offer date, they have to make their offer on that date, or perhaps later if it isn’t sold. There are no laws that prevent home sellers from accepting a purchase offer before the date they already publicized.

Perhaps you have found two homes, that you like, with closely spaced offer dates. You don’t want to lose out on any chance to purchase either one because of the similar offer dates. One option is to judge if you can make a preemptive offer to purchase one of the homes. If you make an offer with a short expiration period, you will have time to make an offer on the second house if the first seller rejects your offer.

Another frequent issue is that you have extra costs if you don’t complete your purchase within a certain time period. Getting a quick acceptance or rejection to your preemptive offer lets you proceed with your next choice.

Whether you are buying or selling a home you should understand and be prepared for preemptive offers before you are faced with one. Learn more about preemptive offers.