Step #2: Agree on Terms
Step #1: Agree Which Terms to Use
With updated real estate forms taking effect August 1, Realtors drafting — and receiving — offers this Fall run the risk of using dated forms.
So, is that a problem?
Actually . . . not usually.
Unless the old form contradicts (changed) state or federal law — not an issue this year — that’s perfectly fine.
In fact, more than fine: if the parties opt to use and ultimately execute their deal on a dated form, those are the terms they’ll each be held to (per two obscure clauses — “parole evidence” and “integration” — that are tucked into the fine print at the end of each contract, and which provide that nothing outside the “four corners” of the contract is to be read into it).
On the Same Page? (Literally)
Still, that’s not what the parties may intend.
So, this year’s “new and improved” forms — amongst mostly tweaks — clarify the timetable governing Contingent Offers, and omit a dollar amount for the difference between homestead and non-homestead properties (the latter are taxed higher).
Allowing that the latest contracts are usually “better” (shorter, clearer, etc. — at least that’s the theory 🙂 ), it’s simplest if the Buyer just incorporates them into their offer.
That’s a Counter(Offer), Too
But what if the Buyer doesn’t use the latest form(s)?
The Seller can counter not just the Buyer’s offer, but their choice of contract, by presenting their counter on the new form(s).
Which, after all, is a type of counter-offer, too.
Banks & Foreclosures: One Size Fits All (50 States)
Using “foreign forms” is precisely what bedevils so many Realtors (including this one) about bank-owned foreclosures.
My (least) favorite “stealth substitute form”: the Inspection Contingency that reads like the regular Contingency right up to the end, where it takes away the Buyer’s right to negotiate any issues turned up by the inspection — or even get out of the deal.
In other words, the whole point of the inspection!
See also, “Chinese Drywall in Minnesota?“
