My home is listed "for sale by owner" and I’m entertaining offers. I don’t know what next steps and paperwork needs to be handled on my end before the sale is finalized. I’d like to protect my seller’s rights and prevent legal recourse by the buyers because I didn’t follow some obscure real estate law.
tom_britton said:
Feb 01, 09 at 10:56 pmFirst let me state that most FSBOs usually end up reverting to a qualified Real Estate brokerage within 60 to 90 days after failing to locate qualified buyers who believe the property to be free and clear of all encumberances such as a clear deed, a registered deed, no encroachments on any adjoining properties, compliance with all local construction codes and guidelines, no reported losses of any kind from water damage, proper homeowner’s insurance, compliance with fire and safety codes, title insurance, a thorough disclosure statement about the condition of the property, and many other required documents that will need to be made available to the prospective purchaser. There are a number of franchise companies that will provide services to homeowners wishing to sell thier own property with set fees for the services they provide. When you add up all the various fees for what services they do provide, the real estate attorney fees, the title company fees, appraisal fees, and marketing fees, you may find that you are very close in the cost of expenses to what you would pay to a qualified real estate brokerage. Another option is to deal with a "discount brokerage" that provides "unbundled services" at different levels with additional costs for each level of service. Again you need to compare the associated costs for all of the services you will probably end up needing before actually finding a qualified buyer before making any decisions in this regard. If you still feel a little uncertain in this FSBO venture, you should contact a qualifed real estate attorney to make sure you don’t leave yourself open to eventual litigation by the offending pary (the buyer) after the sale has been completed.
thylawyer said:
Feb 05, 09 at 6:31 amYou are representing yourself and have a fool for a lawyer. You should have researched this before you put the house on the market. You will need to accept a written offer by a writing of your own. You then need a purchase and sale agreement, which the buyers will have a lawyer look at. You may want to have a lawyer draw yours up.
Then you will need a deed to the buyers, maybe a smoke detector and CO detector certificate and whatever else the state of Texas requires before a propoerty can be sold.
Vibe said:
Feb 05, 09 at 5:20 pmYou will need a WILL, beacuse you’ll be dead meat. Do not sell with out a realtor or at least talking to an agent. Most agent would be glad to set you up with paper work and review it for no charge or a small fee in hopes for you doing business with them. Or pay more and talk to an attorney.