Prepare to offer

Understand every moving part of an Alberta offer before there's a deadline attached to one.

The idea

Do this week before you need it. An offer gets written under time pressure, often the same day, sometimes against other offers, and the worst moment to learn what a condition is, is while someone is waiting for your answer.

Price is one of six variables. Buyers fixate on price because it's the number they've been staring at for two months. Sellers weigh the whole package. The six:

Price. Obvious, and not always decisive. Deposit. Size and timing signal seriousness. Possession date. Sometimes worth more to a seller than money — someone who has already bought their next home has a date they need. Conditions. Fewer and shorter is more attractive to a seller and riskier for you. Goods included. Appliances, window coverings, the shed, the garage heater. How long the seller has to respond. A short window applies pressure; too short can read as aggressive.

In a competitive situation, the non-price terms often decide it. That's good news — they're where a well-prepared buyer can compete without simply paying more.

A deposit is not a down payment. The most common confusion in first-time buying. The deposit is money you hand over after your offer is accepted to show you are serious. It isn't an extra cost — it forms part of the purchase price. But it is cash you need early, weeks before the rest of the down payment, so know where it is coming from before you write an offer.

The Residential Purchase Contract sets out what happens to it, and the terms are worth reading rather than assuming. You and the seller appoint a trustee to hold the money — in Edmonton that is usually the seller's brokerage — and the contract's deposit clauses are the terms of trust between you. The seller does not hold your deposit. The trustee must place it in a trust account within three Business Days of receiving it, and no interest is paid to either of you.

Where it ends up is spelled out too, and the part that matters most to a first-time buyer is this: while your conditions are still live, the deposit is fully refundable. If a condition isn't satisfied or waived by its condition day, the deal ends and the money comes back to you in full. It also comes back if the seller fails to provide a Dower Consent and Acknowledgement where one is required, or if the seller fails to perform.

It goes to the seller in one situation: the contract is accepted, every condition has been satisfied or waived, and then you fail to perform. That is the line to sit with. Removing your conditions is the moment the deposit stops being refundable and starts being what you are risking — which is why a condition day is a real date and not a formality.

One more clause worth knowing: if you miss a deposit deadline, the seller can void the contract — but only until they accept the deposit, even late. Paying late does not cure the risk; it just ends the seller's option once they take the money.

Conditions are your protection, and each one costs you something. A condition lets you withdraw without losing your deposit if a specified thing isn't satisfied by a specified date.

Financing. Your pre-approval is not final approval, and the lender still has to approve the property. This is the one to think hardest about waiving. Inspection. The right to have the home professionally examined and to walk, or renegotiate, based on what's found. Condo document review. If it's a condo or townhouse, the right to read the building's financial and legal documents and withdraw if they're alarming. Week 10 explains why this matters as much as it does. Sale of an existing home. Rare for a first purchase; weak in a competitive situation.

Every condition makes your offer less attractive to a seller and safer for you. That tension is the whole negotiation. There's no correct answer — but going in without understanding what each one protects you from is how people end up owning a problem.

Competing offers. They happen in Edmonton, particularly on well-priced homes in desirable areas in spring. What's worth knowing now: you generally won't be told the contents of another offer, you may be asked for your best terms without a chance to revise, and the emotional pressure is significant and entirely predictable.

Which is why the worksheet won't let you finish without a walk-away number — the price above which this home is no longer the right decision. Write it now, while you're sitting at a kitchen table with a calculator. Not later, in a car, with your phone ringing.

"As-is" and "no conditions" mean what they say. They mean you own the problem, whatever it turns out to be, with no recourse. There are situations where an experienced buyer takes that risk knowingly. There are very few where a first-time buyer should.

Edmonton specifics

The contract is a standard form. Residential purchases in Alberta are generally written on the Residential Purchase Contract, published by the Alberta Real Estate Association for its members, and real estate professionals here are regulated by the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA). It is six pages and it is the same six pages for almost every home you will look at, which is the useful part: the document is learnable in advance. Week 9 walks through it section by section, so what you sign won't be unfamiliar.

Deposit norms. In Edmonton a contract deposit typically runs 1% to 2% of the purchase price. The important part is what it is not: it isn't an extra cost stacked on top of your down payment, it's the first piece of it. On a $400,000 home a 5% down payment is $20,000, and a 1.5% deposit is $6,000 of that $20,000 — not $6,000 on top. You can offer more than the norm if you want the offer to read as serious, and in a competitive situation some buyers do.

What that really changes is when you need the money. The rest of your down payment is due at closing, weeks away. The deposit is due on the date written into the contract — the amount and the date are both blanks the two sides negotiate — and that date usually falls within days of your offer being accepted. Have the cash somewhere you can move it quickly, not in something that takes a week to sell.

Possession timing. The contract says the purchase price is paid and vacant possession given at 12 noon on the Completion Day. Treat that as the contract's clock rather than a promise about when keys land in your hand — money has to move between two lawyers and the transfer has to register first. Week 12 covers what that means for booking a moving truck.

Goods included and excluded is where Edmonton disputes cluster: the garage heater, the shed, appliances, window coverings, and anything mounted to a wall. If you want it, name it in the offer. "It was there when I looked at it" is not a term of the contract.

The worksheet

Offer readiness. Fill this in for your top-ranked home before you're anywhere near writing an offer. It takes twenty minutes and it's the difference between deciding and reacting.

- property — Which home? Pick from your Week 7 shortlist; the numbers come with it. - list_price — Automatic. - offer_price — What would you offer? - walk_away_price — Above what price does this stop being the right decision? Required. The worksheet doesn't complete without it, and that's deliberate. - deposit_amount — How much, and where is it coming from? It needs to be available quickly. - possession_date / possession_flexible — When would you want possession, and how flexible are you? Flexibility here is a negotiating asset — use it knowingly. - conditions — Which conditions do you want? Financing, inspection, condo documents, sale of your home, other. - condition_days — How many days for each? Long enough to actually do the thing. Booking an inspector takes days, and condo documents take longer than people expect. - goods_included — What do you expect to stay? Appliances, window coverings, shed, garage heater, mounted TVs, anything else. Be specific — this list comes back in Week 12 as your final walkthrough checklist. - financing_confirmed — Is your pre-approval current and in hand? - lawyer_chosen — Have you chosen a lawyer? Choose one this week, not at 4pm on a Friday with an accepted offer. - inspector_lined_up — Do you know who you'd call? Good inspectors book out. - competing_plan — If there are three other offers, what do you do? Write the answer now.

Before you finish, the worksheet re-checks your offer price against your comfort ceiling from Week 2 — using the real total monthly cost from Week 7, not the listing estimate — and flags anything missing.

What this unlocks

A completed plan for a specific home, ready to hand to your agent, and a walk-away number that exists in writing rather than in your head.

Month 2 complete. You've searched with a system, seen homes properly, compared them honestly, and you know exactly how you'd make an offer. The last thirty days are about protecting yourself while it all happens quickly.

Talk to a professional

Two people to line up this week, before you need either.

A real estate lawyer. In Alberta you'll need one to close, and choosing under pressure is how people end up with whoever answered the phone. Ask about their fee, what it includes, and their availability around your target possession date.

A home inspector. Ask what the inspection covers, what it doesn't, how long it takes, whether you can attend, and how quickly you'd get the report — a report that arrives after your condition deadline is worthless.

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🎉 Month 2 complete

The information in this course is general education, not financial, mortgage, legal, tax, insurance or real estate advice. Rules, costs and eligibility change and vary by situation. Talk to a qualified professional about your own circumstances.