The offer to purchase real estate form comes in various forms in New York, and can vary based on the brokerage firm. Furthermore, it’s quite uncommon to see offer to purchase forms used in the first place, especially in NYC. In practice, most offers are typically simply submitted by buyers and buyer’s agents via email to the listing agent or seller.
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In New York City, buyers typically make an offer to purchase real estate through their real estate agent, commonly referred to as the buyer’s agent. The buyer’s agent typically submits an offer on behalf of the customer via an email to the listing agent, or seller’s agent.
Even though serious offers are typically only made in writing and via email, it’s actually quite uncommon for any type of real estate offer form or submit offer form to be used. Instead, buyer’s agents typically simply email the listing agent and include the basic terms of the offer inline in the email, along with a mortgage pre-approval letter and a REBNY Financial Statement attached.
Although some listing agents or brokerages may ask for a custom offer submission form to be filled out, most listing agents won’t force the issue.
What constitutes a complete offer submission?
A thorough offer submission typically includes the following items:
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Full legal name of the buyer(s)
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Full address of the target property
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The amount being offered to purchase the property
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The anticipated amount of the buyer’s down payment
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Home buyer contingencies to be negotiated into the contract, if any
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Any specific inclusions or exclusions of furniture, fixtures, etc.
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Preferred closing date, if any
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Short home buyer biography or professional profile
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REBNY Financial Statement (attached)
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Loan pre-approval letter (attached), if financing
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Buyer’s attorney contact information
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Buyer’s debt to income ratio and anticipated post-closing liquidity, if purchasing a co-op
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There is not a standard real estate offer form in New York, and even less so in NYC. Most buyer’s agents will submit an offer on behalf of a buyer client by email, without ever bothering to fill out any sort of submit offer form.
Even though some brokerages will have a variant of a submit offer offer that they might try to ask buyers to fill out, most listing agents won’t press the point and will accept an offer by email. Of course, any offer by email will still need to have pertinent details and the necessary attachments as we discussed in the previous section.
If a listing agent tries to force you to fill out a submit offer form, just remember to never sign anything because real estate offers are not binding in NYC.
Sample offer submission email by a buyer’s agent
Dear Loretta Daniels,
We’re pleased to submit the following offer of $10,000,000 for your listing at 111 Fifth Avenue, Penthouse A, New York, NY 10024 on behalf of our client James Rogers. Our client intends on putting down 25% as a down payment, and this offer is contingent on financing. We’ve attached a REBNY Financial Statement and a mortgage pre-approval letter from New York Bank for your review. Please confirm receipt and let us know if we can do a deal. Thank you!
Inclusions: Curtains, blinds and shades
Exclusions: The kitchen crystal chandelier light fixture
Preferred closing date: ASAP
Debt to Income Ratio: ~20%
Post-Closing Liquidity: ~4 years
Buyer Biography
James is an astronaut with NASA and was the first person to land on Mars and also the first person to make it back to Earth. On Earth, James loves to cook and have small intimate dinners at home with his friends and family. James is passionate about all things related to space and interstellar travel, as well as travelling to exotic locations both at home and afar. Before joining NASA, James was a fighter pilot with the US Air Force for 14 years, and retired in 2020 with a rank of Colonel.
Buyer’s Attorney Contact Information
Daniel Rollins, Esq.
Partner, Rollins & Rollins PLLC
250 Fifth Avenue, Fifth Floor
New York, NY 10045
Tel: (888) 494-8258
Fax: (212) 222-2450
Email: daniel@rollins.com
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No, just as it’s unnecessary to use any sort of submit offer form for your initial offer submission, it’s even less necessary to fill out some sort of an offer submission form again for every counter-offer you make.
It is exceedingly rare to find a listing agent who will be so difficult as to require an offer submission form to be filled out every time a counter is made. Not only will this waste a lot of time, but it might discourage finicky buyers in a buyer’s market and devastate a seller’s chances of selling their property.
Counter-offers in real estate are typically made by email in often one line sentences in reply to the buyer agent’s initial offer submission email.
Sample counter-offer from a listing agent
Thank you for your offer submission! I’ve discussed your offer with my client, the seller, and in light of the fact that our listing has only just been listed and the strong interest we’ve already received, we’ve decided to counter at $10,975,000 (a $25,000 price reduction from the original listing price of $11,000,000) as a show of goodwill. We expect to be able to sell at or near our original listing price, and already have several interested parties. Please let us know if we can do a deal. Thank you.
Sample counter-offer from a buyer’s agent
Thank you for the counter-offer and for so quickly getting back to us! Our client is very actively looking and highly financially qualified as you can see from his financials, and he is intent on buying something within the next 6 months. We’ve seen close to 20 properties over the past month, and have 5 showings already lined up for this weekend. With that said, I spoke with my client, the buyer, at length and have managed to get him to come up to $10,500,000. I hope your seller will seriously consider this counter-offer, especially in light of the difficult real estate market in NYC as of late. Thank you.
Please note that counter-offer emails often aren’t this long, and can often be as short as one sentence. For example, a buyer’s agent may simply say, “my client can meet you in the middle at $10,500,000 so please let me know if we have a deal.”
As we’ve previously discussed, you might encounter variations of the below sample offer to purchase real estate template, depending on the brokerage firm. We’ve included a sample offer to purchase form you might see in Brooklyn, New York.
Keep in mind that you should always refuse to sign anything at the offer negotiation stage, and that you should only agree to sign the official purchase contract when you are good and ready, upon the advice of your attorney.
Disclosure: Commissions are not set by law or any Realtor® association or MLS and are fully negotiable. No representation, guarantee or warranty of any kind is made regarding the completeness or accuracy of information provided. Square footage numbers are only estimates and should be independently verified. No legal, tax, financial or accounting advice provided.
What’s interesting is I’ve seen a deal sheet for an apartment in the Bronx that had two checkbox options at the top: either “Offer to Purchase” or “Memo of Sale.” The latter was checked in this case. It also had fine print that said “this is a fact sheet not a legal document.”
Additional fine print that I hadn’t seen before on a deal sheet or offer to purchase form: If this dwelling was built prior to 1978, Seller will provide the Buyer with either a 10 day opportunity from the date of accepted offer or mutually agreed upon period within which to conduct an inspection or risk assessment for the presence of lead-based paint and/or lead based hazard(s).