Contracts Law. An agreement to sell or agreement of sale is a contract to be performed in the future, and, if fulfilled, results in a sale. An agreement to sell is preliminary to a sale, and is not the sale. “A breach [of an agreement to sell] may occur by which the contemplated sale never takes place.” Callender v. Crossfield Oil Syndicate, 275 P. 273, 276 (Mont. 1929).
An agreement to sell not only binds the prospective seller to sell, it also obligates the prospective purchaser to buy, the subject item for the price enumerated in the agreement. “An agreement to sell and buy is a contract by which one engages to transfer the title to a certain thing to another, who engages to accept the same from him and to pay a price therefor.” Callender v. Crossfied Oil, supra, 275 P. at 276.