The $8,000 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit will end April 30th. By “end”, I mean Friday April 30 is the last day to write a contract that qualifies. The transaction must also close by June 30th, which should be plenty of time.
But an interesting thing will start happening May 1st, 2010. Buyers who miss the April 30th deadline to be under contract might wonder if the purchase contract can just be back-dated for April 30th, 2010, thus allowing them to still claim the $8,000 tax credit. In Texas, the “Effective Date” of the contract is written in by the agent after that last signature or initial has been placed on the contract. That’s the official contract date, and the date from which all time related matters are counted. It reflects the date the transaction becomes a “done deal”.
So, here is a potential scenario, just for discussion purposes.
Let’s say on Saturday May 1, 2010, we receive an offer for one of our listings. It’s a full price offer, clean, ready for the seller to sign, and is accompanied by a pre-approval letter. And let’s say this hypothetical offer includes a note from the Buyer Agent stating, “Meant to get this to you last night. I assume the seller will sign as-is so I went ahead and filled in the Effective Date April 30th, 2010 so the buyer won’t miss out on his tax credit”.
Can we do this?