Buyer and Seller Contingency Timeframes for a South Bay Escrow
If you’re new to the home buying or selling process we hope that our home buyer and seller tips can help. In this article we wanted to help give you some idea of what the typical contingency (time buyers and sellers have to get certain tasks completed) periods are.
The charts below show the standard contingency periods for both buyer and seller based on the default language of the CAR (California
Association of Realtors) Residential Purchase Agreement (RPA) which most people refer to as the offer or purchase contract.
Keep in mind that these are the default timeframes in the offer but all of these terms and timeframes are negotiable and in the current “seller’s market” many of these items will be either reduced or even eliminated if the seller has multiple offers. Contact realtor and Three Sixty specialist Keith Kyle with questions about the process.
Contingency Timeline for Buyer
| Contract Item | Default Timeline | Notes |
| Initial deposit | Delivered to escrow company within 3 business days after acceptance. | Usually wire transferred |
| Verification of down payment and closing cost | Completed within 3 calendar days after acceptance. | Standard to have this included with offer |
| Loan application | Completed within 3 calendar days after acceptance. | Standard to include preapproval with offer |
| All buyer investigations | Completed within 17 calendar days after acceptance. | This includes physical inspections, HOA, neighborhood, etc. |
| Appraisal contingency removal | Completed within 17 calendar days after acceptance. | |
| Loan contingency | Completed within 21 calendar days after acceptance. | The goal by this date is to have formal loan/underwriter approval |
Contingency Timeline for Seller
| Contract Item | Default Timeline | Notes |
| Disclosure of HOA | Completed within 7 calendar days after acceptance. | Most, but not all, of the time it will be fairly obvious that the home is in an HOA or planned unit development |
| Request HOA docs | Completed within 3 calendar days after acceptance. | HOA documents can take a while so seller or escrow needs to order early in the process |
| Deliver all reports and disclosures to the buyer | Completed within 7 calendar days after acceptance. | Most actual reports will be ordered by escrow or agent, but seller to provide seller disclosures within 7 days of acceptance |
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