REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
Because buying or selling house is such a common transaction, the Florida Association of Realtors and the Florida Bar Association have joined forces to create some template contracts to make that process easier. Attorney Joe Knape knows that contract templates are nothing more than generic guidelines that need to be customized to meet the needs of both the buyer and the seller.
In a real estate transaction, the process starts with a formal offer, or a Purchase Contract for Real Estate.
If you ever bought a property, you know this contains the basics; where the property is located, the agreed upon cost, who is paying what at closing and when the property will be turned over. It all sounds simple, but in today’s volatile real estate market, things rarely are that simple. The Purchase Contract typically contains language pertaining to a marketable title, what types of financing are expected, inspections, repairs, closing dates and penalties for failure to meet any of these obligations.
Foreclosures and short sales have become a common transaction in Orlando real estate. In these cases, instead of just agreeing to terms between the buyer and the seller, previous mortgage holders or the courts may be involved. What in the past has been a relatively straight forward process has become many layered and the complexity increases with each layer.