Patrick Campbell

First time buyer here.

I am looking through this offer-to-purchase contract that was provided by our realtor. Basically it says that I can have my attorney review it and make changes anytime within 3 days from when I sign and submit it, otherwise it is legally binding AS-IS.

Is it typical to submit the contract FIRST, then have an attorney review it? To me it would seem to make more sense to have the attorney look it over and make changes in my interest, PRIOR to submitting. I don't have a lawyer at this time.

Joe T

subscribing.

GhettoVaquero

lawyer? We are in the process of buying a house right. After we found a house we liked we put in a offer. After a price is agreed upon we put a contract in but nothing is binding until 1) you get pre approved for the loan to buy the home 2) bank appraises the home 3) independent inspector checks the home out. never heard of having lawyers involved

Jezzhuntin

i would know what I am signing before signing anything. I am not sure what type of purchase sale agreement they gave you, but each state is a little different. Find someone you TRUST to look it over. Idaho's agreement are pretty straight forward. In ID though the seller is not protected at all unless you tweaked it yourself. on the buy side make sure you have set amount of time for due dilegence, ie, liens, CC&Rs, inspections, etc. I am sure you have some contingencies that involved in your contract, like financing, fix this, etc. Not sure if helped much, but i have been through quite a few contracts in the last few years. can you be anymore specific? what are your concerns?

Jezzhuntin

agreed, my dad owns a commerical/ industrial firm so i have learned a great deal from him. mainly you have lawyers involved in corporate buys, not residential type homes. if you don't trust you realtor, find one you do.

Hankpac

That kind of wording is so that if later you say "Hey, I don't like this", they can say, "you had a chance to change it, tough". Have it reviewed before signing, if you are going to do that. the 3 days is because of laws that say essentially you can back out up to 3 days later if you change your mind. The contract will probably say you lose your "earnest money'.
Importantly it hints that perhaps you SHOULD ask a lawyer to look it over.
It's one of the reasons I don't deal with real estate agents when I sell. I know exactly what I want in my contract, and what I don't.
The dirty little secret is that the title company does all the paper work for you, if you sell without an agent, and has all the "Standard" contracts.
Unfortunately if you see a house you like, it will probably have an agent stuck all over it, and you can never really talk to the actual owner, another reason I don't care for agents. Just my opinion, but I don't think they do enough to warrant the 6% they get.
Anyway, best of luck on buying a home. Hope you find a good one.

ClackClack

I'm going thru this now... the 'lawyer clause' is for your benefit... you have three days to deal with buyers remorse and back out if you want. You don't have to provide a reason, just say 'contract withdrawn due to attorney review'. I did this on a house where the septic was not functioning properly but the health department was dragging their feet on filing the inspection paperwork. The attorney review clause let me get out before the contract was binding and before I got the inspection paperwork. By then it would have been too late. At the time I withdrew, I had a verbal that the septic was not working from the inspector which would not have satisfied the contract terms otherwise.

Joe T

Yeah, I'm selling a piece of junk fishing cabin and the people want to live in it. I'm financing it and want a lawyer to go over the paper work 1) to make sure I'm protected the best possible if I have to foreclose and 2) It's a piece of junk and I don't want them coming back saying I didn't disclose something and causing a pain in the rear.

Should I get the lawyer to look at it before we make a contract at the title company or after?

fbx22

attorneys? Ive not dealt with attorneys. As a first time buyer your in for a long pain in the butt proccess. As you'll soon find out its not like buying a truck I imagine if your realtor was dumb them you might want to get a lawyers 2 cents but if you have a good realtor thats just representing you ONLY and not the seller(which is illegal most places) then your realtor has been trained and certified to write up these documents. Thats why they get 3 or 4% from the sellers final price

Blue6.7QC

Come to the east coast and try to buy a house. You HAVE to get a lawyer in NY. Comming from CA to NY was a shock. I would have your lawyer look it over first. Also as my farther used to tell me about realestate, "it aint yours till escrow closes"
Jeff

Geico266

I would not buy any real estate right now, prices are headed down.

.......and I make my living buying and selling RE.

Patrick Campbell

Thanks all. I talke to my parents who said they didn't have a lawyer. I'll have my father take a look at it.

I guess I was concerned about the contingencies -- I thought I did, but now I do not trust my realtor for this reason:

There is a mortgage contingency clause in the contract, that says if I can't get the mortgage I want, I can get out of the deal with no obligations. There are blanks for you to fill out "...not more than _____% with not more than _____ points" and I was ready to put in there 6% with 0 points but the realtor had already filled this out with "previous rate" (wth?) - when I confronted her about it she was very adamant about telling me not to worry about anything! Either she is an idiot, or trying to get me to commit to something that she thinks I do not understand. I am not going to say if I can get a loan at any "previous" rate that I'll take it.

fbx22

that is odd. If the realtor doesnt want to write it how you want it, then fire them and get a new one I had to fire one because they were very lazy and didnt return my calls for a day or 2 so I found one that had a policy that she would return any call within an hour I was new at it and I thought at first I just should deal with the realtor I had until someone told me the important idea I'd overlooked. The realtor works for YOU and is there to serve YOU! If they dont want to, then get a new one

ohiostate24

I agree with Geico. Im getting ready to buy a house (looked at several) but within a couple months they say the prices and interest rates are gonna be down.

Joe T

I'm selling the said real estate above for a premium right now... And I expect it to keep climbing although I'm still going to sell it. Since the late 90's it's almost tripled in value and IMO I'm selling it at the right time.

It's region to region on prices. There are still places out there still increasing in value.