A seller provides an Agreement of Purchase and Sale to a prospective buyer, stipulating an irrevocable period of 24 hours. Within 12 hours, before the buyer has communicated acceptance, the seller receives a significantly higher offer and decides to revoke their original offer. The original buyer, upon hearing of the revocation, immediately attempts to accept the initial offer within the 24-hour period. What is the legal standing of the original buyer's attempted acceptance?

Question: A seller provides an Agreement of Purchase and Sale to a prospective buyer, stipulating an irrevocable period of 24 hours. Within 12 hours, before the buyer has communicated acceptance, the seller receives a significantly higher offer and decides to revoke their original offer. The original buyer, upon hearing of the revocation, immediately attempts to accept the initial offer within the 24-hour period. What is the legal standing of the original buyer's attempted acceptance?

Answer options: ✅ The original buyer's acceptance is invalid because an offer can be revoked at any time before acceptance, even if an irrevocable period was stated.

• The original buyer's acceptance is valid as the seller was bound by the irrevocability clause for the full 24 hours.
• The seller is liable for a breach of contract for revoking the offer prematurely.
• The buyer can compel the seller to enter into a contract, but only if they can match the terms of the higher offer.

Correct answer: The original buyer's acceptance is invalid because an offer can be revoked at any time before acceptance, even if an irrevocable period was stated.

Explanation: An offer can be revoked at any time before acceptance, even if a period for irrevocability has been stated. The irrevocability period only limits the offeror's ability to revoke the offer if there is consideration for that promise to keep the offer open (e.g., an option agreement). Without such consideration, the irrevocable period is merely a promise, and the offeror is free to revoke it before acceptance.