Recently I’ve had a few buyers ask me about the deadline for the federal government’s Homebuyer Tax Credit that expires 4/30/2010. Specifically my buyers were interested in knowing whether it was enough to have an accepted offer on record by the the 30th, or whether they’d need to have a signed purchase and sale (P&S) by the end of the month.
Their questions recognize that Massachusetts’ home buying process is a bit different than the rest of the country where a single step buying process is the norm. (In Massachusetts we have both an “offer to buy” as well as a “P&S” stage ahead of a closing.)
I sought out professional advice and response I got back is that while room exists for interpretation on which of the two steps satisfies the tax credit’s guidelines, to be safe you should have a signed P&S by the end of the month in order to qualify.
