How long is a due diligence period?
As long as the signed contract says. No section of the Code of Virginia sets the length of a due diligence period, so the number of days, the event that starts the count and the way a buyer ends the contract inside it are all terms of the purchase contract. On land, that number has to leave room for every check the buyer means to run.
No Code section fixes the days, so the number lives in one clause of the contract
Search the Code of Virginia for the length of a due diligence period and you will not find one. Neither the settlement agent chapter, nor the chapter on residential executory contracts, nor the residential disclosure statute sets a number of days. The length is whatever the buyer and seller wrote down.
That writing is not optional in practice, for the statutory reason set out in what documents you need to sell land. The period a buyer is relying on is therefore a clause in a signed document, and the place to find its length is that clause. The plain definition of the term is under due diligence period.
Read the clause for more than the number. Four things in it decide how much time a buyer actually has:
| In the clause | Why it changes the real length | Who reads it |
|---|---|---|
| The number of days | Calendar days and business days run out on different dates | The contract; an attorney |
| The event that starts the count | A count from ratification, from delivery of a document, or from some other event can start on a different day than the buyer assumes | The contract; an attorney |
| How the buyer ends the contract inside the window | A notice given in the wrong form or after the deadline may not do what the buyer intended | The contract; an attorney |
| Whether and how the period can be extended | No statute extends it; only the parties' terms do | The contract; an attorney |
The residential disclosure statute points buyers at the same work without timing it. On residential property it covers, Va. Code 55.1-703 advises purchasers to exercise "whatever due diligence a particular purchaser deems necessary", naming a property survey and a call to the locality about zoning, lot coverage, height or setback requirements. That is a scope, not a schedule. The schedule is the contract's. And a purchase contract is not the same thing as a land contract in the installment sense, which is a different instrument with its own rules.
On raw ground, count the checks first and the days second
A house buyer's window is often built around an inspection. A land buyer's has to hold several pieces of work, each done by someone else on someone else's calendar. A period picked before anyone asks how long that work takes is a number chosen blind.
The checks follow the ground, and the five-factor read of a parcel is laid out on Bowman's method for reading land; this page does not repeat it. What matters here is that each check on a parcel runs on someone's clock, and none of those clocks is set by the contract.
| The check | Who does the work | Whose calendar decides the time |
|---|---|---|
| Soil evaluation and perc test for a septic system | A licensed onsite soil evaluator, and the local health department | The evaluator's and the health department's |
| Boundary survey | A land surveyor | The surveyor's |
| Recorded access, easements and restrictions | An attorney reading the land records | The attorney's |
| Zoning, subdivision and setbacks | The county or town planning office | That office's |
| Whether the ground supports the buyer's plan as a whole | The buyer's own consultants | Theirs |
Two of those clocks have pages of their own. The soil work, and why the perc test is only part of it, is covered in how long a perc test takes. A broader study of whether a tract can carry a plan is explained in what a feasibility study is.
What an MLS status can and cannot tell a buyer while the window runs
The multiple listing service in this region has status words for a property under contract with conditions still open. They describe status, not length.
The Southwest Virginia Association of REALTORS MLS guidelines (2024 edition) have three such words: Active Contingency while conditions are open, a Contingency Kickout status that lets the seller keep showing the property, and Pending once none is outstanding. What each one means is defined under contingency, and whether a given contract carries a kickout is a contract term, not a Virginia rule.
A move from Active Contingency to Pending is not the start of closing; in the guidelines' terms it means no contingencies are outstanding. The time from a signed contract to a recorded deed is its own question, answered in how long closing takes on land.
One more line connects this window to money. A buyer's earnest money can be tied to the same clause, because a contingency exercised on time can be what the contract counts as a permissible reason to end the deal. How that deposit is held and released is covered in what earnest money on a land purchase contract is.
Setting the due diligence window on a land offer?
Send the parcel. Lowell can list the offices this ground will send a buyer to, so the days in the contract are weighed against real work. The clause itself stays with your attorney. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Can a due diligence period be extended after the contract is signed?
Only on the parties' terms, since no statute sets or extends one. Va. Code 11-2 is Virginia's rule on which contracts must be in a signed writing before anyone can sue on them, and a contract for the sale of real estate is one. Whether an extension has to be put in writing the same way, and how to document one, are questions for an attorney.
Does Pending in the MLS mean the due diligence period is over?
The status and the clause are separate things. In the Southwest Virginia Association of REALTORS MLS guidelines, Pending means the property is under contract and pending settlement with no outstanding contingencies, and a property under contract with contingencies is entered as Active Contingency. When a buyer's due diligence period actually ends is read from the dates and the starting event in the contract.
Does the count start on the day the contract is signed?
Only if the contract says so. The clause names the starting event the same way it names the number of days, whether that event is ratification, delivery of a document or something else. A count that starts on a different day than a buyer assumes also ends on a different day. Reading the clause for a particular deal is for the parties and an attorney.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 11-2, contracts that must be in writing Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 55.1-703, required disclosures under the Residential Property Disclosure Act Virginia General Assembly
- MLS guidelines (2024 edition): Active Contingency, Contingency Kickout and Pending Southwest Virginia Association of REALTORS