Your offer was accepted. Here is what happens over the next seven to fourteen days — and the deadlines that end your deal if you miss them.
When a seller accepts your offer in Alberta, you have a binding contract — but one that still contains escape hatches written specifically for you. Those escape hatches are the conditions. Until you remove them, you can walk away and get your deposit back. Once you remove them, you are buying the house.
That is the whole architecture of the condition period: a short, defined window in which you verify that the home, the financing, and the paperwork are what you believed they were when you wrote the offer. It is not a cooling-off period and it is not a chance to change your mind about the colour of the kitchen. It is due diligence with a stopwatch on it.
In Calgary a condition period usually runs seven to fourteen days. That is not much time to book an inspection, get a lender to final approval, read a set of condo documents, and think clearly about all three. The buyers who come through it calmly are the ones who knew the sequence before they started.
What has to happen immediately, and the two conditions that decide most Calgary deals.
Your condition dates are written into the contract as specific calendar dates, not as “ten days from whenever things get going.” A day spent waiting to call your lender is a day permanently gone from the period. The single biggest cause of a rushed, stressful condition period is a slow start.
Your deposit is due on the timeline stated in the contract — commonly within one to two business days of acceptance. It is held in trust by the brokerage named in the purchase contract, not paid to the seller, and it is credited toward your purchase at closing. If you terminate properly under a condition, the deposit is returned to you. Have the funds ready before you write the offer; scrambling for a bank draft is a bad first impression and, if you miss the deadline, a breach.
Send the accepted contract to your mortgage broker or lender immediately — they cannot start final approval without it. Book your home inspector the same day, because good Calgary inspectors are booked several days out and your window is short. If it is a condo, we chase the seller's side for the document package on your behalf — that one is ours, not yours.
We coordinate the inspection access with the listing brokerage, chase the condo documents, keep your lender and lawyer in the loop, and track every deadline against the calendar. You should never be the person who discovers a deadline is tomorrow.
A pre-approval says a lender is willing to lend you roughly this much, based on you. Final approval says a lender is willing to lend this much on this specific property. Those are different questions, and the second one is the one that has to be answered during conditions.
Your lender will usually order an appraisal to confirm the home is worth what you agreed to pay. If it appraises at or above the purchase price, this step passes quietly. If it appraises low, the lender lends against the lower figure — and the shortfall becomes cash you have to find, because the mortgage will not stretch to cover it. In a competitive market where offers run above list, this is the most common financing surprise in Calgary.
Lenders will ask for pay stubs, a job letter, T4s or notices of assessment, proof of down payment with a 90-day history, and often more once they start reading. Every day you take to send a document is a day off your condition period. Send what they ask for the day they ask.
Between accepted offer and possession, do not buy a vehicle, do not finance furniture, do not open or close credit cards, do not change jobs, and do not move money between accounts without a paper trail. Lenders re-verify before funding. Deals fall apart at the closing table over a truck bought three weeks earlier.
A Calgary home inspection runs roughly $400–$700 for a typical single-family home, more for large or older properties. Be there. The written report is useful, but the two hours walking the house with the inspector is where you learn how the home actually works — where the shut-offs are, what the furnace has left in it, what the inspector is genuinely worried about versus noting for completeness.
It is a visual, non-invasive examination of what is accessible on the day. The inspector does not open walls, lift carpet, dig up the yard, or dismantle the furnace. They cannot see what is buried, and they are not certifying that nothing will ever break. It is a well-informed snapshot, not a warranty.
Some findings need a second opinion your general inspector cannot give: a sewer camera scope on an older home with mature trees, a structural engineer on any horizontal foundation crack, an electrician on aluminum wiring, a radon screening test. These cost extra and take extra days — another reason to inspect early in the period rather than on day nine.
Every inspection report on every house contains a long list of items. That is what you paid for and it is not a sign the house is falling down. Sorting the serious from the routine is its own skill — our guide to reading your inspection report covers exactly how, and what each finding tends to cost in Calgary.
Most buyers think the financing condition is about them. Part of it is about the home, and that part is the appraisal.
The lender is lending against the home as much as against you. It wants to know the home is worth what you agreed to pay, so it orders an appraisal, or in some cases uses an automated valuation. The appraiser values the home from recent comparable sales, not from your contract.
The lender lends a percentage of the lower of price and appraised value. If the appraisal is short, your down payment has to cover the gap, or you negotiate with the seller, or you use the condition to walk. Each is a real choice and the time to make it is inside the condition period.
Make sure the appraiser can get in promptly; the seller's REALTOR® arranges access. Ask us to send the comparables we used in your offer to the appraiser through the lender if the lender permits it. A well-supported price rarely appraises short.
Appraisals are ordered after the lender receives the full application, and the appraiser needs days to visit and report. On a short condition period, ask your broker to order it the day the offer is accepted.
The broker or banker is the person who turns a pre-approval into a commitment. Making their job easy is the fastest way through the financing condition.
Income proof, employment letters, bank statements showing the down payment and its source, identification, the accepted contract, and the MLS® listing. Have the file ready before the offer is written and send the contract within the hour of acceptance.
Lenders want to see where the money came from over a period of months. Large unexplained deposits, money moving between accounts, or a gift without a letter all cause delays. Keep the money still and the statements complete.
A lender's approval usually comes with conditions: an appraisal, proof of insurance, a satisfactory credit re-check, sometimes a paid-out debt. Each one is a task with a deadline. Ask the broker for the full list the day the approval arrives.
Do not change jobs, buy a vehicle, open credit, co-sign for anyone, or move money around between acceptance and possession. Lenders check again before funding, and an approval can be withdrawn.
Condo documents, the other conditions, how the deadline actually works, and what derails deals.
When you buy a Calgary condo you are buying a unit and a share of a corporation — its finances, its building, its decisions, and its problems. The document package is how you find out what you are joining. Getting a great deal on a unit inside a corporation facing a $40,000-per-door special assessment is not a great deal.
You do not order the package and you do not pay for it. The seller obtains it from the corporation and provides it through their agent. What we do is press for it early, check it against the list of what a complete package contains, and request anything missing the day we spot the gap — because packages arrive incomplete more often than not, and the corporation's turnaround on a missing reserve fund study or a year of minutes does not pause your condition clock. Late or incomplete documents are a routine reason to need an extension, and an extension requires the seller's agreement.
A professional condo document review runs about $300–$500 and is among the best money you will spend on the purchase. Reviewers read hundreds of these packages a year and know exactly which line in a reserve fund study or which sentence in two-year-old board minutes signals a problem. We can recommend reviewers we trust.
The reserve fund study and how well the fund is actually funded against it, the board minutes, the insurance deductible, the budget, and the bylaws — in roughly that order. Our condo document guide goes through each one and what a red flag looks like.
Get a quote in writing during conditions, not the week of possession. Certain Calgary realities make a home harder or more expensive to insure: Poly-B plumbing, aluminum wiring, knob-and-tube, an old roof, a history of hail claims, a wood stove, or a property in a flood-mapped area. Occasionally an insurer will decline outright, and you want to know that while you still have an exit.
If your purchase is conditional on selling your current home, you are running two transactions against one clock. The dates need to line up — possession on the sale, possession on the purchase, and the bridge financing if there is a gap. This is the most timing-sensitive kind of deal we handle and it needs to be mapped out before the offer goes in, not after.
In Alberta the seller typically provides a Real Property Report with a municipal compliance stamp — a survey showing the buildings and any encroachments, confirmed by the City as complying with bylaws. It catches decks over property lines, non-compliant garages, and fences in the wrong place. If the RPR is old or missing, the alternative is usually title insurance, which protects your lender and you but does not actually tell you where the boundary is.
New construction brings its own conditions — builder timelines, warranty enrolment, and pre-delivery inspection. Acreages add water quality and quantity testing, septic inspection, and access confirmation. These take longer than a standard condition period and should be negotiated with realistic dates.
Your condition date has a specific hour attached to it — commonly 9:00 pm on the stated date. Conditions do not roll over, and there is no grace period. This is a contractual deadline, and the consequences of missing it are automatic.
You waive. You sign a waiver confirming your conditions are satisfied. The deal is now firm and unconditional — you are buying the house, and your deposit is at risk if you walk after this point.
You terminate. You give notice under a condition that has not been satisfied. The contract ends and your deposit is returned. This is a right, not a favour, but it must be exercised properly and on time.
Nothing happens. If a condition in your favour is not waived by the deadline, the contract typically ends by its own terms. Silence is not an extension — and a deal you actually wanted can die because paperwork sat unsigned.
If your lender needs two more days or the condo documents arrived late, an extension is possible — but only if the seller agrees, in writing, before the deadline passes. Sellers usually agree when asked early with a real reason. They are far less willing at 8:00 pm on the night of.
Once conditions are removed you are committed to completing the purchase. Deposits are at stake, and in Alberta a seller's remedies can extend beyond the deposit. Do not waive until you genuinely are satisfied — and never waive because you feel awkward asking for another two days.
More condition periods are lost to two wasted days at the beginning than to anything discovered in the house. Everything downstream — appraisal, document turnaround, a specialist's second opinion — depends on the front end moving on day one.
Common when you have paid over list in a competitive situation. Know before you write the offer what cash you could put toward a shortfall, so a low appraisal is a decision rather than a crisis.
A buyer reads a forty-page report listing every worn washer and concludes the house is a disaster. Almost every report reads like this. The question is never “how many items are on the list” — it is which items are safety issues, which are expensive systems at end of life, and which are Saturday afternoons.
Coming back to the seller with a list of thirty small deficiencies rarely works and often sours a deal that was going fine. Focused, evidence-backed requests on genuinely significant findings — with a quote attached — get results. We will tell you honestly which category your findings fall into, including when the answer is that you do not have much leverage.
If something is worrying you, say it while there is time to act. Nearly every condition-period problem has a solution on day four and almost none have one at 8:45 pm on day ten.
The report is in and it found things. The next move is a conversation with the seller, and how you open it decides how it ends.
Separate what you knew, what is normal for the home's age, and what is genuinely new and material. Asking for everything on the list reads as a buyer looking for an exit, and sellers respond accordingly. Asking for the two or three things that matter reads as a buyer who intends to close.
A repair by the seller before possession, a credit at closing, or a price reduction. Repairs suit small defined items; credits suit things you would rather control; reductions suit large items. Lenders limit credits, so a large amount may have to be a reduction.
A short amendment through your REALTOR®, with the relevant pages of the report and a quote if you have one. Sellers agree to documented requests far more readily than to a list of complaints.
If the home needs more than the seller will give, the condition exists so you can leave. If the seller meets you most of the way on the things that matter, take the deal. Buyers who hold out for the last small item lose homes over amounts they would have spent on the first weekend's furniture.
Financing and inspection make the noise. Two other items decide whether you can actually close, and both are better started on day one than day ten.
Your lender requires a policy from possession day, and a few homes are hard to insure: older wiring or panels, a wood-burning stove, a previous claim history on the property, a home that has been vacant. Get a quote the first week. If a problem surfaces, there is time to fix it, price it, or leave.
Insurers can see claims on the property, not just on you. A past water loss or hail claim does not stop a policy, but it can raise the premium or the deductible. Ask the seller through your REALTOR® whether there have been claims and for what.
Your lawyer searches the title: registered mortgages to be discharged, caveats, easements, restrictive covenants and, on some land, encumbrances that affect what you can build. Most are routine. A surprise, like a registered right of way across the yard, is better found now than at the signing table.
In Alberta the seller normally provides a current Real Property Report with municipal compliance. If it is missing or shows a problem, the fix is agreed inside the condition period or through your lawyer before closing: compliance, an encroachment agreement, title insurance or a holdback. Do not let it drift to the week of possession.
Chapter four flagged the condo documents condition. In practice the question is time: the package has to be ordered, produced, read and understood before the deadline.
The seller requests the package from the corporation or its manager, who has a set period to produce it. If the seller did not order ahead of listing, the first days of your condition period may pass before anything arrives. Ask the seller's side on day one when the package was ordered.
A condo document reviewer reads the package in a day or two and reports in plain language on the fund, the finances, the minutes and the risks. The fee is modest against the price of a unit, and the report is also useful to your lawyer. Book the reviewer the day the offer is accepted so the slot is ready when the documents land.
The minutes for the last two years, the reserve fund study's summary pages, the estoppel certificate, and the bylaws' sections on pets, rentals and renovations. The reviewer covers the rest, but these are the pages that decide whether you want to live there.
Ask for an extension of that one condition, in writing, with the date you expect the package. Sellers usually agree, because the delay is theirs. If they refuse, the condition protects you: an unsatisfied condition means the contract ends and the deposit returns.
We coordinate the inspection, chase the seller's side for the condo document package and request whatever is missing, keep your lender and lawyer moving, and watch every date on the calendar — so the only decisions you make are the ones that are actually yours to make.
Nearly every condition-period problem has a solution while there are still days on the clock, and almost none have one at 8:45 pm on the night of the deadline. If anything is worrying you, say so early.
Book a CallThis guide is for general information only and is not legal, financial, insurance, inspection, tax, or condo document review advice.
Buyers and homeowners should seek advice from appropriate professionals — including their lawyer, mortgage professional, home inspector, insurance provider, qualified condo document reviewer, accountant where applicable, and REALTOR® — before making decisions or removing conditions.
Calgary Listings Group has guided Calgary buyers through more than 1,380 transactions.
