By Ashley Webber
You found a home you love, wrote an offer, negotiated the details…and your offer was accepted!
By Ashley Webber
It’s an exciting time, but if your offer has conditions, you’re not quite at the finish line yet.
The time between having your offer accepted and Condition Deadline Day is an important part of the home-buying process. This is when you get the opportunity to complete your due diligence and make sure you’re comfortable moving forward with the purchase.
So, what exactly happens during this time?
🤔 First: What Is Condition Deadline Day?
Most offers we write for buyers include one or more conditions that need to be satisfied before the sale becomes firm.
Some of the most common are:
Your offer will include a deadline for completing these conditions. We often refer to this as the Condition Deadline Day.
Until the conditions are removed, the property is generally considered pending, rather than officially sold.
📊 BY THE NUMBERS: How Long Does This Usually Take?
Condition periods typically run about 7–14 days — the teal bars mark the sweet spot where most deals land.
Source: C.Moore Realty
🗺️ Your Journey to Condition Deadline Day
1💰 Step 1: Pay Your Deposit
Once your offer is accepted, one of the first things you’ll need to do is submit your deposit.
The amount and deadline will be written directly into your purchase contract, so it’s important to make sure the funds are available and ready to go. Your realtor will provide you with the instructions from the listing brokerage on how to pay the deposit.
A common misconception is that the deposit is an extra cost on top of your down payment. It isn’t! Assuming the transaction closes as planned, your deposit forms part of the money you’re putting toward the purchase of the home.
2🏦 Step 2: Finalize Your Financing
Even if you were pre-approved for a mortgage before you started house hunting—which you should be!—your lender still needs to approve the specific property you’re purchasing.
Once your offer is accepted, we’ll send the purchase contract and property information to your mortgage broker or lender.
They’ll review the deal and work on getting your final financing approval.
This is why having a pre-approval doesn’t necessarily mean you should skip a financing condition. Your lender still needs to be comfortable lending on the property itself.
3🔍 Step 3: Complete Your Home Inspection
If your offer is conditional on a home inspection, we’ll get that booked as soon as possible.
A home inspector will go through the property and look at the major components of the home, including things like the roof, foundation, electrical, plumbing, furnace, hot water tank, attic and more.
No home is perfect, and almost every inspection will uncover something. The purpose isn’t necessarily to create a giant list of everything that’s wrong with the house.
We’re looking for information that could affect your decision to purchase the property—particularly major defects, safety concerns or expensive repairs you weren’t expecting.
Once we receive the inspection report, we’ll go through the findings together and discuss whether anything needs to be addressed before moving forward.
📊 BY THE NUMBERS: What Inspectors Tend to Find
86% of home inspections turn up something worth talking about — here’s where it usually shows up:
4📋 Step 4: Complete Any Other Due Diligence
Depending on the property, there may be a few other things we want to investigate during the condition period.
For example, we may recommend:
Every property is different, so the due diligence we recommend will depend on the home you’re purchasing.
😬 What If We Find a Problem?
This is one of the biggest reasons we include conditions in an offer.
If something concerning comes up during the inspection, financing process or other due diligence, we look at the options available to you.
Depending on the situation, we may ask the seller to complete a repair, negotiate a price reduction or other solution, or determine if you’re comfortable proceeding as-is.
And if we uncover something significant enough that you no longer feel comfortable purchasing the home, your conditions may give you the ability to walk away from the purchase rather than being obligated to proceed.
🎊 Then Comes Condition Deadline Day!
Once we’ve completed all of your due diligence and you’re comfortable moving forward, it’s time to remove your conditions.
Once all conditions are satisfied or waived, the sale becomes firm.
🎉 Congratulations—your new home is officially SOLD!
From there, things usually get a little quieter. Your mortgage and legal paperwork will continue behind the scenes, and we’ll start preparing for the next big milestone: possession day.
And before you get the keys, we’ll typically complete one more important step—the pre-possession walkthrough.
If you’re wondering what that involves (and whether it’s really necessary), check out my other blog post: “What Is a Pre-Possession Walkthrough and Is It Really Necessary?”
🏁 The Bottom Line
Getting an offer accepted is exciting, but there’s still important work to do before popping the champagne!
The condition period gives you time to make sure your financing is in place, understand the condition of the property and complete the appropriate due diligence before fully committing to the purchase.
Our job as your real estate team is to help coordinate all of these moving pieces, keep track of your deadlines, help you understand the information you’re receiving and guide you through any decisions that come up along the way.
Once those conditions come off?
Then we can really celebrate. 🏡🥂
Thinking About Selling, Too?
If you’re ready to list your own home — or just want to talk through what your next move could look like — we’d love to help.
Book an Appointment →calvinrealty.ca/contact