We are happy about the recent price drop for what we started calling “our two-flat” and submitted a new offer for the $60,000 asking price. This time around, things happened at the speed of light. Not only did we get the usual verbal confirmation of the offer acceptance, we actually got the sellers counter offer and addendum within days!
Seller’s counter offer and addendum
What is a seller’s counter offer and addendum? We initially submitted with the help of Michael (our Realtor) a standard Chicago Real Estate contract with a preapproval letter from a lender and a copy of our earnest money check. That package is basically our offer. If the seller accepts our offer, they issue their own contract, comprised of a counter offer and an addendum. Most people think of a counter offer as being related to the price of the property, but this negotiation has nothing to do with the price, which is set. The counter offer has to do with the seller’s contract, which absolutely supersedes our original contract, except for those terms that are not inconsistent with the sellers counter offer and addendum. Got it? To figure out what supersedes what, some careful reading is required.
Response to counter offer and addendum
That is exactly what we did and identified a number of items that were inconsistent, did not make sense, or that we disagreed with. Our attorney, Joe Ziccardi, summarized those items in a response to the seller, basically requesting changes to the counter offer and addendum.
Ratified and executed agreement
Only a couple of days later (yes – things suddenly started to move fast!) we got the fully ratified and executed agreement. This basically means that our response or request for changes to the counter offer and addendum were accepted and all parties are in agreement on the terms. It was almost too good to be true… except that it the “fully ratified and executed agreement” had no reference to our response and request for a few changes to the counter offer, and did not even acknowledge receipt of our request.
The reference finally arrived a few days later from the seller’s attorney, with six out of our seven request for changes declined. Initially, we were not sure what to make of it, but began to realize that these items could be resolved through negotiation or a request of clarification. The problem is that like with the seller’s agent, the seller’s attorney was not very responsive. Thanks to the persistence of our attorney, he finally reached a warm body picking up the phone and worked his way to the person who dealt with our case. Not only that, but Joe was able to get clarification on all the questions and disagreements we had. A few more days of nail biting and we were finally in possession of a truly ratified and executed agreement – hooray!
We now were also finally able to secure the building by boarding up the back porch windows. You have no idea how much weight this took of our shoulders! (Especially after we got down off the ladder after holding ¾” sheets of plywood up there in the rain while we secured them.)
