20180926 (Wed)
When a potential tenant offers to rent and having paid his booking fee (earnest deposit) to the agent, how soon should the agent confirm the acceptance of the landlord?
There is no specific time. But, it should be a reasonable time. You cannot ask the potential tenant to wait for a year before the answer is given. It cannot be a month – too long to wait. But, how about a week? Is a week too long?
In the normal procedure, when an offer is made by the potential tenant or purchaser, a sum of booking fee is paid into the client’s account. The offer is made known to the principal (landlord or owner). The landlord or owner would have some time to think about the offers which came in. There could be a few offers received about the same time. A landlord wants to wait for the best offer, of course. So, here comes the issue of how long!?
In my practice, I would recommend 3 days (72 hours), or for purchase of property – a week. It is not too long like two weeks. It is also not too short like a day. Most people can still remember what has happened in the last 3-5 days, especially significant thing like selling or renting a property.
Within this period of time, a decision can be made earlier than the deadline if there is no more offers. That means between current offer and the next NEW offer. Indeed, it is sufficient in 3 days to get a new offer – tomorrow you put a new advertisement, then, 1-5 days for people to come and see, and give you a new offer, if any.
What do you think?