Legal Contract Form

PREMIERE PLUS REALTY, BROKERS CHRISTOPHER LADD HARKER LLC, AGENT
Office free 866-738-5517 pay 239-455-1977 free fax 941-375-3658 Deane & Chris at Home 239-455-1595

What you should know before selling a home
Find agent. Find a suitable real estate company and agent. When
Chris moved to Naples he shopped for Real Estate Company that
he could affiliate to. He chose Premiere Plus because the people
there were laid back, warm and friendly, and truly concerned to
make you feel comfortable. Chris had been in the business starting
in 1976 and could quickly spot people who were really professional
and had plenty of KNOWLEDGE.
He saw that at Premiere Plus, the customer comes first, and they
only pick agents who are really good ones. He liked their size.
They were not too big or too small, but just right. Florida has firms
with thousands of agents. Even here in SW Florida there are firms
with many hundreds of agents. And there are firms with a dozen
agents. Chris felt comfortable with a firm of a hundred or so agents.
Enough to cover the area in a thorough and diverse way, but not so
large that the agents and their customers felt and got lost.
Picking an agent to work for you as a customer is even more
important. This is the gal or guy who you will be closely working
with for a while. Choose one who has lots of KNOWLEDGE and
who is willing to let you benefit from it by being AVAILABLE to you.
Pick one who will provide you with FULL SERVICE and STICK by
you for the whole process until your real estate needs are fully met.
And by all means, pick someone you like. In other words do not
use the agent who is mediocre, who you can never reach, who
might give you some service and who disappears like a magician
before you are done.

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What you should know before selling a home continued

Negotiate the Listing Agreement. This contract does not have to
be overly complicated. Just needs to cover what you want for the
home and what the agency does and what you do when the home
is sold. Specifically it will cover the points below.

Type of listing and for how long - Generally you will either hire the
agency as a Transaction broker or as a Fiduciary Agent broker.
When homes are selling slowly, agencies will seek a twelve month
listing and then ask for you to renew the listing after one year if the
home has not yet old. When homes are selling quickly, agencies
will ask for a six month listing.

When you select transaction brokerage you are a customer to the
agency and must be treated fairly and honestly. Who ever comes
forward to make you an offer on your home will be treated exactly
the same as you are treated by your transaction broker. You and
your buyer will be equals (by Florida law) in the mind of the agency
you have hired to sell your home. The primary objective of your
agent is to facilitate the coming together of you as seller and some
buyer, so that you both walk away happy. This is the relationship
that most agencies prefer, because they have much less legal
liability.

When you select fiduciary agent brokerage you are much more
than a mere customer to the agency. Not only must you be treated
fairly and honestly, but the agency has a duty to represent you and
only you. Who ever comes forward to make you an offer on your
home will be treated as an adversary, and your agent’s job is to get
as much from this adversary as possible to further your interest.

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This buyer will not be treated exactly the same as you are treated
by your transaction broker. You and your buyer will be opposites
and not equals (by Florida law) in the mind of the agency you have
hired to sell your home. The primary objective of your agent is to
negotiate for you with some buyer, so that you come out ahead,
with no particular regard for whether the buyer walks away happy.
This is a relationship that some agencies will not accept, because
they have too much legal liability.

Price and terms of sale - Here your listing agent will conduct
considerable computer assisted research to suggest a price. You
will decide what price you want to ask for your home in the public
marketplace. You may specify certain terms of sale such as close
of title within sixty days.

What personal property - goes with the home, such as a Persian
area carpet. And what real property that ordinarily belongs to a
home do not go with the home, such as a prized ceiling light. Some
mortgage companies will not allow personal property to convey as
part of the security for a home mortgage. Therefore many real
estate agents will prepare a separate personal property sales
agreement with a separate price for these items.

Amount of commission and when it will be and due - This is most
always expressed as a percent between four and ten. This is
payable under different conditions. Your listing agreement may
state that if you procure a buyer, the percent is one percent. The
commission is usually due when the home actually conveys title to
another owner.

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Responsibilities of the agency – This may be an agreement that
the agent will place advertisements in the newspaper, will hold
open houses, and will send electronic mailers to potential buyers.

Showing rules for the home - This will specify how the home will
be shown to prospective buyers. Is a lockbox allowed, what time
and days are open for showing, how much notice will be given
before home showing.

What are conditions for removing home from market - This may be
an event such as death of a family member or damage from a
natural disaster. What are conditions for terminating the listing
contract - This is a standard clause and usually involves a penalty
payment. One common amount is $500.

Review all offers. You are not only considering the Price, but also
Down Payment, the Time Frame for closing title, and buyer’s Ability
to Pay. The offer to purchase is the formal, legal contract form that
is completed by the Real Estate Agent (using information provided
by the Mortgage Agent). This document will be about 10 pages
long and will be presented to you as the home Seller.

The Buyer is basically saying, here is how much money I offer you
as the sales price. Here is how much earnest money down
payment I offer to you to protect your interest since I am asking
you to take your home off the market and turn away other buyers
(likely forever). Here is when I will have close of title on this home.
And as evidence of my ability to pay, the contract will be contingent
on getting loan approval by a certain date.

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You have specified in the Listing Contract how much money you
want for the sales price. The offer contract will be full price, or
below or above this. But you must remember that price is not
everything. The other terms are very important to you. When price
offered is below price asked, you don’t automatically say “no deal”.
You must work with your agent to decide how to respond.

When you receive a contract offer, you should never just let it die.
You should always give some form of answer. And how you
answer is really, really important. You and your Real Estate Agent
must give some thought here. The offer contract may be the
beginning of a negotiation between your Listing Agent and the
Buyer’s Agent. A good Listing agent prepares you to understand
what to expect in the Contract phase of the purchase so you will
not be doing this suddenly when you receive your first offer. These
issues should be dealt with as early as possible, before you get an
offer.

Specific Performance. In Florida law, a seller who agrees to sell
a particular property must do so as long as the buyer meets all
the terms of the purchase agreement. This is called specific
performance of a contract agreement. You may remember when
Chevy Chase changed his mind about selling his family home, and
had to pay double to the prospective buyer to not buy his home. If
you have second thoughts on a home sale, during the time of a
contract offer, you ought to immediately talk to your attorney.

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Remember also, that the listing contract is a contract to offer your
home for sale in the public market place. If for some reason you
have changed your mind about selling your home, it is possible for
any public buyer who can meet the terms in the listing contract, to
force you to sell your home against your wishes. You need to
exercise your option to terminate the listing contract immediately
when you change your mind about selling.

Seller disclosure to buyer. In Florida law, sellers need to reveal
to the buyers certain information about the home. The real estate
agencies have the sellers fill out a standard form which is mostly a
multiple choice questionnaire. The questions are about material
defects of the home and its major systems and environmental
hazards affecting the home. A material defect is one that affects
the value or use of the home. These defects fall into two groups.
Ones that are apparent defects that the buyer can see. Ones that
are not readily visible defects to the buyer. And you are to include
the defects which are current existing defects as well as potential
defects. False testimony on this form can lead to serious financial
cost to you.

Timing is crucial. Home selling is sort of complicated, like juggling
some apples, baseballs, and potatoes. This is one of the things
that make it a time of anxiety for people. There is so much to
coordinate, and so many people involved. If you don’t already own
a replacement home, you may need to buy a home. And perhaps
to qualify for another home purchase, you may need to find a buyer
for your present home.

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You may find another home but the home owner can not move out
until their brand new home is completed, and in the mean time you
have a buyer for your present home who needs to move in right
now.

There are movers, surveyors, inspectors, maybe repairmen, title
attorneys, utilities, and many more to coordinate. When Chris and
Deane moved from Daytona Florida to Naples Florida, they had to
sell two homes in Daytona, buy a home in Naples, make a piggy
back mortgage for the Naples home, get Deane operated on,
arrange for movers from two locations in Daytona to one in Naples,
arrange for three cars and a motor home to go from Daytona to
Naples, arrange for five inspections, the survey, title insurance,
signing home owners association papers, and a furniture layout
plan for the Naples home, plus arrange for electricity, gas, water,
trash, telephone, newspaper, cable and high speed computer, to
be turned off at the two Daytona properties and turned on at the
Naples home.

And if this sounds complicated, it was much, much more
complicated than it sounds. A top notch Real Estate agent will do
much to keep the timing for things, as on-track as possible. While
the agent can not do everything, the good agent will assist you to
keep everything moving along in a timely manner and try to make
the whole endeavor a much less pressure-filled experience.

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Legal Contract Form

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