Back in the 1980s, I can remember that we usually wrote contracts stating "14 days from opening escrow", or "21 days from opening escrow". Then somewhere along the line, the California Association of Realtors changed the phrasing in the standard contract to read "___ days from acceptance of offer"
Often two or three days can pass between the acceptance of the offer, and the opening of escrow.
Recently, we had a selller - a long time, experienced, real estate broker selling his own property - opt for the old fashioned way, counting time periods from "opening of escrow". And you know what? It made for a more sensible, less pressured transaction. Those two or three extra days can make a big difference to the loan agents, title officers, escrow officers, and all the other folks that have to get on the same page in order for an escrow to close. If anyone asked me, I would most certainly vote for a return to the "old ways".
Agents: If you are in a "escrow state", does your standard form say ... "from date of acceptance" or "from date of opening escrow"?
Escrow officers: Let's say an offer is accepted on a Friday late afternoon. The agents bring you the escrow first thing Monday morning. It's a 30 day escrow. But because our contracts state that the time period is figured from "date of acceptance", you now only have 28 days to do your job.
Does anyone else think this is not such a good thing?
Different states do things different ways. In Florida we usually go from date of effective contract. Either way, the important thing is to make sure the time frame is reasonable and doable.