RealTown's RealTalk

JIM
The Jim Cummings Team
CRS, GRI, RECS, e-Pro 500
512-633-3853 Mobile & Voice Mail
Real Estate Consultants
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"Lawyers may back out of a home purchase agreement on behalf of their

clients for any reason, or for no reason at all, under the "attorney

approval contingency" clause common to most residential sales contracts

written in upstate New York, the New York Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. "

Do you have similar provisions in your state's laws or procedures?

Merv.

In MD agents write 99% of our contracts, ver seldum does a buyer hire an attorney. Infact it is amazing to me but 98% do not use an attorney to view the offer. Our contract come from MAR, but sometime companies will not use the standard contract so each offer has to be read over carefully, as the seller broker may have a clause that is no in the MAR contract.

Glory Bee Costa ABR, CRS, GRI, E-PRO, SRES 410-310-9081-Cell 410-763-6001 EXT 107  Gen. Office 

Maryland-WaterFront-Homes.com     Glory@GloryBeeCosta.com     Re/Max Gold Realty, LLC- Easton, MD  

Eileen brings up an ATTACHMENT to the standard Real Estate Contract

Line 72 ATTORNEY REVIEW: The respective attorneys for the Parties may approve, disapprove, or make modifications to the Contract...within five Business Days after teh Date of Acceptance. 
We saw seller's attorneys use this in the days when there were multiple offers and a better offer appeared.

Today, we rarely see it being used...but it's still available.
 

Whoa"!!  Now who's brain dead idea was this "review"?  How much would you wager, this "review" came down with the full approval of NAR?  Of coarse we neglect to realize, if one or both parties prior to the offer hired legal representation you wouldn't need this clause, but you wouldn't need a Realtor either. RIGHT!  But lets say AFTER the fact.  Let's say that after the parties agreed to the terms and price.  This clause could be a convenient clause to hire an Attorney to review what both parties had agreed too!  This clause is a LEGAL DEAL KILLER!  It wouldn't be necessary if the party(s) had "LEGAL" representation, BUT AFTER THEY SIGN THE OFFER?  So why is it in a Standard Contract?  This is CRAZY.  No wonder the consumer spends 80% of their time surfing the Internet looking for a deal?  This clause should be known as the "Suspicion Clause"!  If within 5 days you become suspicious of your Realtor (represented or NOT) call your local attorney.  Yea this is what our industry needs, more attorneys to kill deals.  What did we get Licensed for?

Shoot, we've had that Attorney section in our contracts for at least 10yrs.... almost never gets used... most buyers and sellers are not looking for a way out, they are trying to make it happen.

I usually tell buyers that if they have a attorney friend or relative, that will do it for free or for cheap, to let them look it over, but NOT to reinvent the wheel. (I once had a Seller's attorney that wanted to completely renegotiate the contract.... told her she should keep the washer-dryer, etc.... I calmly explained that we just wanted his input for "protection" not for "negotiation".)

I did have one young townhouse couple, first-time skittish buyers, several years ago, that were constantly monitoring all the dead-lines, and ways "out".... they were buying the highest-priced, upgraded-to-the-max (marblefloors, etc.) townhouse in the community, and they loved it, but were uncomfortable, especially as a friend of theirs had bought a similar unit for much less.

It was a strange way, for me, and a first, to be constantly looking for ways "out"....  we did close, and they were very happy, but it was strange to be working a deal and it a way, looking at it backwards. We had plenty of loopholes if we needed them.
One of the other big "Outs" is the Receipt of Condo Docs".... the listing agent was lax in getting them to us, and we let it be, because it gave us that extra "out". (It taught me, when I'm the listing agent, to always provide those docs ASAP....)

Lindy in Houston

11/30/2008 @ 12:57 PM HST

>>

Lindy in Houston (snip):

It was a strange way, for me, and a first, to be constantly looking for ways "out"....  we did close, and they were very happy, but it was strange to be working a deal and it a way, looking at it backwards. We had plenty of loopholes if we needed them.

One of the other big "Outs" is the Receipt of Condo Docs".... the listing agent was lax in getting them to us, and we let it be, because it gave us that extra "out". (It taught me, when I'm the listing agent, to always provide those docs ASAP....)

<<

Hi Lindy,  since day one, I've always looked for "outs" for my clients; however, I always impress upon my clients that offers are serious and even with "outs", they should only be submitting offers they plan to go through with.

On the listing side, I'm with you there Lindy. If we need condo or association docs, we get them BEFORE we list so that we can provide them immediately and in many cases, if we submit a counter, we provide a password protected link to the documents (thank you ihouseweb). 

Also, as a listing agent, we try to provide as much information as possible including the disclosure statement, title report, survey, floor plan, inspection report, etc. This really helps in weeding out the truly interested buyers and once in escrow, there is a substantially lower chance that it will fall out of escrow. 

With Warmest Aloha,