Express Contract in Real Estate: How It Works + Examples

An express contract in real estate is an agreement where the parties state the terms out loud or in writing. That sets it apart from an implied contract, which a court infers from how people act.

Every purchase agreement you sign is an express contract. The question that matters is when an express deal holds up and when it falls apart, because a handshake almost never survives once land is involved.

What Is an Express Contract in Real Estate?

An express contract in real estate is a written or spoken agreement between the parties to a deal that clearly spells out the terms of the transaction. The price, the property, the closing date, and the conditions are all stated, not guessed.

The opposite is an implied contract. People create an express contract with words, written or spoken, while courts infer an implied contract from the parties’ actions (Watkins Firm, 2020). That basic distinction hasn’t changed in decades, which is why a 2020 law firm explanation still holds.

Like any contract, an express contract needs five elements to be valid:

• Offer. One party states exactly what they’ll do.
• Acceptance. The other party agrees to that offer without changes.
• Consideration. Each side gives something of value, usually money for property.
• Capacity. Everyone signing has the legal ability to sign.
• Legal purpose. The deal itself has to be lawful.

How Does an Express Contract Work in Real Estate?

An express contract works by putting every key term on the table. The parties state the price, the property, the closing date, and the contingencies, and the contract forms once one side accepts the other’s terms exactly as written.

The process looks simple on paper. In practice, most deals go back and forth a few times before anyone is bound.

Express Contract Example

Here’s a hypothetical deal that shows how an express contract comes together, step by step.

The offer

You send a seller a written offer to buy her house for $180,000, cash, closing in 21 days, with a 10-day inspection period. You sign it. Nothing binds either of you yet, because she hasn’t accepted.

The counteroffer

She crosses out $180,000, writes in $190,000, and changes the closing to 30 days. That’s not an acceptance. It’s a counteroffer, and it kills your original offer.

The acceptance

You agree to $190,000 and 30 days. You both sign and initial the changes. Now you have an express contract: every term stated, both parties bound.

The amendment

Two weeks later, your title company needs 10 more days. You can’t just agree to that on the phone. You write an amendment extending the closing date, and you both sign it. The amendment becomes part of the express contract.

That last step is where I see new investors slip. They agree to a change by text, assume it counts, and find out at closing that the seller remembers it differently.

My motivated seller scripts end with a written offer, not a verbal yes, because a yes on the phone isn’t a contract you can close on.

Express vs. Implied Contract in Real Estate

In an express contract, the parties state the terms. In an implied contract, the parties’ conduct creates the deal, and a court fills in the terms from what they did.

Feature	Express Contract	Implied Contract
How it forms	Stated terms	Conduct
Proof	The document or words	The parties’ actions
Real estate use	Purchase agreements, leases	Holdover tenancies
Enforceable for a sale	Yes, if written and signed	Rarely

For years, the most common implied deal in real estate sat between buyers and their agents. Before the NAR settlement, buyers and agents typically ran on a handshake: the agent showed houses, got paid when the buyer bought, and the buyer paid nothing directly.

That changed on August 17, 2024. Since then, MLS participants have to sign a written agreement with buyers before touring a home (Houzeo, 2026). The handshake became an express contract.

Some states got there first. Eighteen states already required written buyer agency agreements in some form before the settlement, and Arizona bars a broker from suing for a commission without a written employment agreement (Central Arizona Association of Realtors, 2025).

Agents working seller leads for realtors now put buyer terms in writing before the first showing, because the old handshake no longer counts.

When a Lease Turns Into an Implied Contract

When a lease ends and the landlord keeps taking rent, the law often creates a new month-to-month tenancy, even with nothing in writing. The landlord’s conduct of cashing the check forms the contract.

California writes this into its statutes. Under Civil Code § 1945, a landlord who accepts rent after the lease expires is presumed to have renewed the lease on the same terms, for no more than a month when rent is monthly (BH Real Estate Law, 2026). New York’s Real Property Law § 232-c says the same thing: accepting rent after the lease ends creates a month-to-month tenancy starting the day after it expired (Richard Plehn, 2023). That New York source is a few years old, but the statute it quotes is still in force.

This matters when you buy a rental. Properties bought from absentee owners often come with expired leases the owner never renewed. If the seller kept cashing checks, you’re inheriting month-to-month tenants on the old terms, not vacant units you can fill at market rent.

I check every lease’s end date before closing. An expired lease tells me more about the deal than a current one.

When Express and Implied Terms Conflict

The express terms win. Courts generally give priority to the express contract when it conflicts with an implied one, because the express terms show what the parties actually agreed to (UpCounsel, 2025).

Does an Express Contract Have to Be in Writing?

Not always. An express contract can be oral, but a contract to sell real estate has to be in writing to be enforceable under the statute of frauds (UpCounsel, 2025).

Leases can fall under the same rule. A lease longer than a year usually needs a writing, and even an oral extension can push a short lease past 12 months and bring it under the statute (Wikipedia, n.d.).

When Can an Oral Real Estate Agreement Be Enforced?

An oral agreement to sell land can still hold up under the part performance doctrine. In most states, a court can enforce an oral land deal when the buyer paid the price, took possession, and made improvements, all with the seller’s permission (Wikipedia, n.d.).

Florida courts still apply that rule. In a 2024 case, a Florida appeals court reaffirmed that an oral agreement to transfer land can stand when the buyer shows payment, possession, and improvements (Lawayala Law, 2024).

Part performance gets you specific performance, meaning a court order to complete the sale. It’s an equitable exception, and courts use it to enforce the deal itself (Wikipedia, n.d.).

The Tenant Trap

A tenant who claims a landlord promised to sell them the house has a hard time proving part performance. The tenant already had possession, and painting walls or planting flowers looks like tenant behavior, not owner behavior (Lexplug, n.d.).

That doesn’t stop the lawsuit, though. Tired landlords sometimes tell a long-term tenant they’ll sell to them someday, and that loose talk can tie up a sale for months.

My rule: never say “I’ll sell it to you” out loud unless you’d sign it.

Can a Text or Email Be an Express Contract in Real Estate?

Sometimes, yes. A text or email chain can form a binding real estate contract if it includes every essential term and something that counts as a signature. Some state courts have enforced these messages, and others have refused.

The reason comes down to electronic signature laws. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) says an electronic signature satisfies any law that requires a signature, and an electronic record satisfies any law that requires a writing (Texas Real Estate Research Center, 2026). The statute of frauds requires both, so a text or email can check both boxes.

Here’s how courts in different states have ruled:

State	Ruling
Massachusetts (2016)	A typed first name on a text counted as a signature
Montana (2024)	Informal texts formed an enforceable contract
Texas	Three emails together formed an option contract
Florida (2022)	Unsigned agent texts did not form a contract
California	Texts need written confirmation

Massachusetts

In Massachusetts, a court held that a seller’s broker typing his first name at the end of a text message satisfied the signature requirement (Inman, 2026). In 2024, the Montana Supreme Court held that several informal texts satisfied the statute of frauds and formed an enforceable contract (Inman, 2026).

Texas

Texas courts have gone even further. In one case, three emails taken together settled all the essential terms of an option contract (Texas Real Estate Research Center, 2026). In another, a Texas appeals court ruled that a person’s name in the “From” field of an email counts as a signature (Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley, 2025).

Florida

Florida went the other way. In 2022, the seller’s agent texted that the seller would accept $3.4 million, the buyer’s agent replied “Perfect and confirmed,” and the court still found no contract, because the parties never signed (Massey Law Group, 2023). California also treats texts as insufficient for a real estate contract without written confirmation (Inman, 2026).

Most text deals fail for a simpler reason: missing terms. In one Massachusetts case, the court accepted a broker’s first name as a signature but still found the texts lacked enough material terms to form a contract (Boston Bar Association, 2022).

Here’s how I handle it. Every offer I text or email says “subject to a signed purchase agreement.” Then I send the real contract for e-signature. I assume anything I text a seller could be read back to me in court, so I don’t text anything I wouldn’t sign.

Some lawyers go further and recommend an email disclaimer stating that nothing in the message counts as an electronic signature (Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley, 2025).

How Does an Express Contract Fit With Other Contract Types?

“Express” describes how the parties formed a contract. Other labels describe who’s bound, how far along the deal is, and whether a court will enforce it, so one contract can carry several labels at once.

Label	Question It Answers	Purchase Agreement
Express or implied	How did it form?	Express
Bilateral or unilateral	Who promised?	Bilateral
Executory or executed	Is it finished?	Executory until closing
Valid, void, or voidable	Will a court enforce it?	Valid if signed properly

A purchase agreement is a bilateral contract in real estate, because the buyer and seller both make promises. A finder’s fee agreement is still express, but it’s a unilateral contract in real estate, since only the investor makes a promise.

What Makes an Express Contract Unenforceable?

A lack of mutual assent, insufficient consideration, an illegal purpose, or failing to meet the statute of frauds can make an express contract unenforceable (UpCounsel, 2025). So can missing essential terms, like a contract with no price or no property description.

Consideration trips up more people than you’d think. Even an option contract in real estate needs it, which is why the buyer pays the seller a fee in exchange for the seller’s promise to hold the price.

The problem I see most with investors is authority to sign. An express contract binds only the people who sign it. If the wrong person signs, or a required person doesn’t, you don’t have a deal.

Estates cause the most trouble. With a probate property, only the executor or administrator the court appoints can sign, so a contract signed by an heir alone gets you nothing. The heir may be the one living in the house and the one who wants to sell. That doesn’t give them authority.

Marriages cause the second most. Divorce sellers usually need both spouses on the contract, even if only one of them is talking to you.

Before I sign anything, I pull the vesting deed and compare the names on title to the names on my contract. If they don’t match, I find out why before I spend a dollar on inspections.

Why Do Express Contracts Matter for Investors?

Express contracts give you proof. If a term isn’t written and signed, you can’t count on enforcing it.

Put every term in writing, including the ones that feel obvious: who keeps the fridge, when the seller moves out, who pays the last water bill. Those small items cause more fights at closing than the price does.

Initial every change. Send the signed copy the same day.

A solid real estate purchase agreement template does most of this for you, because it forces you to fill in every term before anyone signs.

Other Real Estate Contracts

Here are the other real estate contracts investors use most:

• Wholesale real estate contract
• For sale by owner real estate contract

Final Thoughts

An express contract is only worth something if the person who signs it needs to sell. Start with motivated seller leads who have a real reason to sign.

You can browse verified motivated seller leads on our lead marketplace and find owners in your market who are ready to put pen to paper.

References

1. BH Real Estate Law, 2026. Holdover Tenant in California: A Landlord’s Decision Guide.
2. Boston Bar Association, 2022. A Signed Text Message Can Result in a Binding Real Estate Contract.
3. Central Arizona Association of Realtors, 2025. Implications of Not Having a Valid Buyer Broker Agreement in Arizona Post NAR Settlement.
4. Houzeo, 2026. NAR Settlement 2024: End of Buyer Agent Commission.
5. Inman, 2026. Two Text Messages, $2.8 Million: How Eight Words Created a Binding Contract.
6. Lawayala Law, 2024. Critical Insights on Oral Agreements for Real Estate: Mowder v. Smith.
7. Lexplug, n.d. Exceptions: Part Performance, Promissory Estoppel.
8. Massey Law Group, 2023. Relying on Text or Email Exchanges to Secure a Real Estate Contract? Don’t.
9. Richard Plehn, 2023. Understanding the Holdover Clause.
10. Texas Real Estate Research Center, 2026. Electronic Transactions: When Email Becomes a Contract.
11. Watkins Firm, 2020. The Legal Difference Between Express and Implied in California Contract Law.
12. Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley, 2025. What Contract? Unsigned Email Satisfies Signature Requirement Under Texas Statute of Frauds.
13. Wikipedia, n.d. Statute of Frauds.
14. Yahoo Finance, 2025. How Are the NAR’s New Real Estate Rules Affecting Buyers and Sellers?.