Give yourself time to get the property reviewed
The dates overlap: look at them together
Documents to provide, appraisal, inspection, signing at the notary: it all overlaps. A tight deadline leaves you little room to explain a change or track down a missing document.
- The financing condition deadline
- The date the other conditions must be met
- The closing date at the notary
When the appraisal comes after the offer
A worked example
Offer accepted on a Monday. You ask for five business days on the financing condition. The lender receives the file Tuesday, orders an appraisal, and the appraiser visits Friday; the report lands the following Tuesday. The condition expired Monday. You either waived the condition without written approval or asked for an extension the seller can refuse if another offer is on the table. With ten business days, the report arrives with three days to spare; if it shows a value under the price, there is still time to renegotiate or add funds instead of losing the deposit.
When it does not apply
An offer with no financing condition shows up in bidding wars, and it protects you from nothing: if the financing fails, you are in default. It should exist only if the down payment covers the price or if a solid pre-approval and a completed appraisal reduce the risk to almost nothing. On a refinance or a renewal there is no offer to purchase, so no condition to protect: the deadline that matters is the maturity of the current loan.
The documents to have ready before the offer
The financing window is won before the accepted offer, not during it. What the lender will ask for is known in advance: two recent pay stubs and an employment letter, or two years of notices of assessment for a self-employed borrower; three months of statements for the down payment; a piece of identification; the signed offer to purchase with its schedules; the listing sheet and, for a condo, the syndicate’s financial statements and bylaws; the property’s tax bill. If everything is scanned into one folder before you make an offer, the file goes to the lender the day of acceptance, and the window serves the appraisal and underwriting, not a document hunt. What loses days is almost always the same thing: an employment letter that drags, a missing statement, income that has changed since the preapproval. Three days of chasing documents out of a five-day window leaves nothing to react with.
How Mathieu can help
Sources and review
OACIQ — Promise to purchase. Reviewed August 12, 2026.