Posted by Rick H on January 14, 1999 at 14:01:40:
It would seem as though $50. would be a small price to pay for $10K profit. I would make sure that the properties I put offers on had plenty of room for my margin & to do my homework well.
I normally use verbal offers with a realtor or letters of intent so I have a clue as to wether or not the result will be favorable.
$50 inspection fee…Buyer pays! - Posted by Cathryn Sykes
Posted by Cathryn Sykes on January 14, 1999 at 12:40:29:
In my post below, I don’t think I made things clear. Acording to my lawyer, Texas has a new law that requires the buyer!!!to make a non-refundable $50 deposit if the buyer wants to include an inspection contingency clause in their
contract. In other words, as the buyer, if I want the right to cancel the contract if I’m not happy with the inspection, I first have to put up $50 and I lose that if I cancel. This is separate from the Earnest Money deposit.
The only thing I can think of is the the govmint decided to punish evil investors for using inspection approval as a contigency clause. Has anyone else heard of this?
Cathyrn - maybe you need to get … - Posted by deborah
Posted by deborah on January 15, 1999 at 11:08:52:
a new lawyer.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING - Posted by Cathryn
Posted by Cathryn on January 14, 1999 at 23:41:36:
There are certain advantages to belonging to an investment club. Mine met tonight and I managed to pounce on a member who’s a lawyer. I asked him about that $50 Independent Consideration fee, and he said it’s not something you have to do, it’s just a way to make sure that the seller get’s a consideration so that if the seller pulls out and you take him to court to enforce performance, you can prove he was given something in the contract, other then the “I’ve got a dozen clauses in here to make sure I get this back!” earnest money. Now why did my lawyer say this was a “new law for Texas?” (Maybe I sneezed in the middle of his explaination and missed a crucial phrase.)
Thanks much to everyone who tried to clear this up. I like the ideas about making the seller pay for anything not-disclosed that shows up in the inspection!
Re: $50 inspection fee…Buyer pays! - Posted by Kristin
Posted by Kristin on January 14, 1999 at 21:05:16:
Cathryn,
Please ask your attorney to show you the new law in writing. I submitted two purchase offers today in Texas,(both with realtors) and on both I used the inspection option. I put up a $10 fee on each property, in addition to the earnest money. That $10 gives me 10 days to inspect the property, and back out if I choose to. If I back out, I lose the $10. No big deal. TREC has not brought out a new contract since the Sept, 1997 version, and none of the realtors I work with here know about a new law requiring a $50 fee for a contingency clause.
Check out your TREC contract, and look at Section 7D, page 4. This is the only clause that asks for an additional fee in order to inspect the property, and the section allows for you to set the amount and the time period. You can say $5 or $1, or whatever the seller will accept.
Hope this helps,
Kristin