One of the important documents when buying a property through a real estate agent is the reservation contract. By signing this contract, the buyer confirms a serious interest in the property. The reservation contract contains, for example, detailed information about the property to be purchased, the agreed purchase price and the dates of the individual steps.
Content of the booking contract
The reservation contract describes the terms and conditions of the purchase of the property and is a binding starting document of the real estate transaction. The reservation contract contains identification data of both the buyer and the seller (name, surname, residence, etc.), the seller’s commitment not to offer the property to other interested parties for the agreed period of time, the amount of the reservation fee including a description of the method and time for its payment, the amount of any contractual penalties and, last but not least, the date of conclusion of the future contract or the purchase contract directly.
Two types of booking contracts
In practice, there are two types of reservation contracts – bilateral and trilateral. In the former, the parties to the real estate transaction are only the buyer and the real estate agency. In this case, make sure that the real estate agency has also signed a brokerage contract with the property owner, which entitles it to offer the property for sale. The contract also describes the penalties in case the property owner unexpectedly withdraws from the sale. A three-party contract is more advantageous to the buyer and should be preferred to a two-party contract. This binding document involves not only the buyer and the real estate agent responsible for the sale of the property, but also the property owner.