What is an effective date?

According to the Florida Realtors/Florida BAR contract the “effective date” is the last date that the buyer and seller has initialed or signed the contract and returned the contract back to the offeror.

Now, how is this date determined?

Let’s say that the buyer wrote an offer on the 5th and sent it to the seller. The seller signed the offer on the 7th and returned the offer to the buyer on the 10th. The 10th is now the effective date. But where does it say that on the contract? You know that date is important because many of the provisions, for instance inspections, use that date as a starting date.

You see, it’s up to the buyer, in my example, to write an e-mail to the seller’s associate and designate the 10th as the effective date. Nowhere on the contract is the date the 10th written, so an e-mail establishing the date is important! Make sure you do this to avoid any confusion regarding other dates in the contract.

If you would like more information contact me.

I’m Ric Giumenta. You can have a good day or a bad day. It’s your choice. Make good choices.