Contracts and Contract Law
Formation
The elements are offer, acceptance (mirroring the offer), consideration, capacity, and legality. Counteroffers kill the original offer. Acceptance is effective on dispatch under the mailbox rule in many settings, but real estate practice uses written acceptance plus delivery, so read the contract's notice provisions rather than relying on common-law defaults.
Statute of Frauds
Connecticut's statute of frauds requires a writing signed by the party to be charged for interests in land - purchase agreements, deeds, mortgages, and leases longer than one year. Part performance or estoppel may rescue an oral deal in narrow equity cases, but exam answers should treat oral land contracts as unenforceable. Written modifications and addenda signed by both parties avoid later disputes.
Standard sales agreement anatomy
Purchase price and financing terms; earnest money deposited and held in escrow; mortgage contingency (the buyer must typically apply promptly and give written notice if financing fails within the stated period); inspection and title contingencies; risk of loss; default remedies. Sellers usually keep the deposit as liquidated damages and may also seek specific performance. "Time is of the essence" language makes deadlines enforceable.
Traps
Assuming a statute automatically gives a three-day attorney review or cancellation right in Connecticut - attorney review exists only if the contract provides it. Assuming a contingency is satisfied by silence rather than written notice. Confusing an assignment (transfer of the buyer's rights) with a novation (new party replacing the original, with consent). Forgetting that a buyer's deposit is the seller's leverage, not the seller's automatic property before default.
Rule of thumb: every contingency needs a deadline, a method of notice, and a consequence for missing it.