There are form contracts that are often issued by the board of realtors. A realtor cannot give you legal advice regarding the forms you are signing. They are only permitted to fill in the blanks. However, just filling in the blanks can be problematic if they are not filled in correctly or if it does not reflect your transaction accurately.
We always advise our clients to have us look at the contract before they sign it because once you sign the contract, you are bound by that document. If we want to change terms later, very often we cannot change them, because you are in a contract that can’t be changed without the other side agreeing to the change.
We can change things before they are executed, and that’s the best thing to do. Often, realtors will puta provision in the contract that is subject to the attorney’s approval within a fixed period of amount of time. While a provision like that is not perfect, it’s better than nothing, and very often we will get those contracts and we will see that there are provisions that we recommend altering.
It’s better to do that then signing it without that provision in it.
As our firm also handles real estate litigation, we see the fallout from the issues that result from a poorly worded standard contract. Based on our experience and knowledge gained from our litigation work, we have been able to tailor our transactional deals to help alleviate the risk of future litigation.
There are additional terms and conditions that we like to see in our transactional work based on our experience in litigation, whether we are representing a buyer or a seller. As a buyer or seller, you have that additional expertise from a real estate lawyer that a realtor will not have.
There are safeguards we try to have in place in every real estate contract that we review or draft to protect our clients against future litigation.
Learn more about real estate in Columbus, Ohio.