In today's "stimulus"- induced real estate market sellers and buyers of residential real estate need help. And realtors are not geared to help in the way I mean. They are motivated commercially to make the sale and are not trained lawyers. There are many pitfalls in the Standard Real Estate Purchase Contract of the Board of Realtors that the realtors cannot tell you about.
To list a few items as starters:
How do I submit language that protects me without blowing the deal? What is such language? Do I want to use the standard form contract? Do I have a choice?
Even more fundamentally, when the Contract is signed by both parties is it really a contract or is it something else under the real world practices of the local Board of Realtors? Enforceable, I mean. Or can the other party "walk." Is it just a free option that the buyer has for a month or two? Why give him that? Especially if he ties up your property during the good selling season -- spring for example.
What if I have an old victorian house, with the normal nicks and bruises of such a house? Occasional water in the basement. Dry rot in places. Can the buyer just "walk" over those?
What if the buyer selects "conventional financing" in the "conditions" section of the Purchase Contract but without filling in the blanks delimiting the conditions he must have to go forward with the closing. Is there a binding contract?
What about the necessary language involving an FHA deal? Do you understand what that means?
How about closing costs? FHA wants them put on the buyer. But just saying "closing costs" is not enough, as we shall see.