Posted by PBoone on March 26, 1999 at 12:49:15:
Believe Noone and Assume Nothing, Unless it is in writing.
It is my experience here that 97% of the agents do not know the facts legal or otherwise. ( I am being nice )
Pat
7 days to back out…without a contingency!!? - Posted by N8
Posted by N8 on March 26, 1999 at 01:08:45:
This is a new one to me, and actually has me wondering why you need contingencies in your offer.
I was making an offer today on an REO prop, and got to talking with the RE broker. This was after I had written up the offer, with the “subject to approval of buyers partner within 5 working days” in the contract. She started talking to me about a “disclaimer” or “disclosure” form required by law to be given to buyer when selling RE in Oregon. According to her, this form gives the buyer a 7 day right to recision for ANY reason. (7 on a disclosure, and 5 on a disclaimer)
Is this common everywhere? I was always under the impression that you only had until the indicated offer acceptance time to revoke without losing your earnest money.
Needless to say, this was completely news to me, and made me wonder why I was bothering to put potential “red flag” contingencies in offers, when I automaticly had a built in escape route.
Cool!
By the way, she also said that with FSBO’s, most of them don’t know that they’re required by law to make you sign a disclosure or disclaimer. If you bought a piece of property and they didn’t make you sign one, you could return a year later and say you found out about some problem and they would have to give you your money back (“and it would be easy to enforce in court”)!
Now is this just a broker over-tootin’ the anti-FSBO horn, or is this for real?
News to me!
Re: 7 days to back out…without a contingency!!? - Posted by PBoone (Oregon)
Posted by PBoone (Oregon) on March 26, 1999 at 09:47:32:
The disclosure “Form” required here is one that gives full disclosure on the property. Many sellers check the box pleading ignorance to any problems.
I believe the paragraph the broker is referring to is regarding “Professional Inspection” which gives ___ or seven days if not filled in to inspect the property.
We use the same forms as realtors when writing an offer to FSBO’s
Pat
Re: 7 days to back out…without a contingency!!? - Posted by Sue(NC)
Posted by Sue(NC) on March 26, 1999 at 09:43:33:
In NC, the seller must give a disclosure prior to the sale… but if the disclosure is not provided prior to the contract signing, the buyer has three days to recind. The ‘blanket’ recision does NOT apply if the disclosure is provided & signed prior to the contract.
Re: 7 days to back out…without a contingency!!? - Posted by Alex Gurevich, TX
Posted by Alex Gurevich, TX on March 26, 1999 at 08:34:05:
More and more states nowadays incorporate laws requiring a full disclosure of the property condition from seller to buyer. Real estate earnest money (or purchase) contracts promoted by state real estate commissions usually provide for some time for the buyer to evaluate the disclosure and cancel the contract if not acceptable.
Besides the traditional investor “escape” clauses (like “contingent upon partner approval”, etc.) there are usually other clauses allowing buyer to weasel out of the contract. For example, typically both the examination of the title commitment and survey give buyer the right to object and cancel if not satisfied.
My personal preference (only if I had to, and I have never backed out of a contract so far) is to use the already pre-printed standard clauses rather than send a red flag with some classic investor escape clause.
Bottom line, read your state contract 10 times, know it forward and backward, and you can usually use a lot of legal delays and escapes already built in. An everage consumer has no clue as to what’s in there, so your knowledge will give you a fair advantage.
Re: Signing a disclosure or disclaimer - Posted by Charles - DFW
Posted by Charles - DFW on March 26, 1999 at 04:36:54:
I recently sold my house FSBO, yes I had to fill out disclosure form. (We actually had one filled out to give to people who looked at the house, so they knew everything up front[It was a new home so nothing major])
The Title Company made sure all the paper work was in order, at least mine did. Of course, if you find something the seller fails to disclose, that is another story.
Good luck
Oregon disclosure/disclaimer info - Posted by Jim Beavens
Posted by Jim Beavens on March 26, 1999 at 13:29:00:
While browsing websites looking for a local attorney here in Portland, I came across this website that has several essays on various legal issues. Here’s the description of the disclosure/disclaimer law in Oregon.
http://www.buckley-law.com/infogen/realor.html
A few excerpts:
“If the Seller fails to provide either a Disclaimer or Disclosure Statement to a prospective Purchaser, that Purchaser can revoke his or her offer up until closing.”
“The Disclosure/Disclaimer rules do not apply to sales where the Purchaser indicates to the Seller that the Purchaser will use the property for purposes other than a residence for the Purchaser or the Purchaser’s spouse, parent or child (purchases as a rental and never intends to occupy) and the first sale of a dwelling never occupied.”
Hope this helps!
Jim
P.S. This info is worth what you paid for it.
Re: 7 days to back out…without a contingency!!? - Posted by N8
Posted by N8 on March 26, 1999 at 12:28:52:
Hey, Pat.
According to the broker, the disclaimer form has nothing in it stating how many days you have to back out. She said, however, from experience she knows that it is 5 days. As far as the disclosure form, it doesn’t matter what box they check “pleading ignorance”, or anything else… you still have 7 days to back out. In other words, there is nothing in the forms that the seller can do to NOT give you that window of recision rights.
According to her, of course.