What is a Standard Real Estate Contract?

The Contract is Standard – What is There to Really Change?

Accepting and/or rejecting offers for a home without involving an attorney is risky business. Each offer presented by the prospective buyer should be in writing and your counter-offer should also be in writing. Attorneys have experience in this process. Whenever athletes or celebrities negotiate big contracts they have their attorneys handle this part of the process. Why should your largest transaction be any different?

Your attorney will be able to answer any questions you have during the negotiation. Things like pre-qualification of prospective buyers, issues with open permits and code violations, how to deal with buyer’s need for financing and all of the conditions the buyer will use to get their money back before closing are just some of the things attorneys help sellers address.

Possibly the most important part of the real estate transaction is the purchase agreement. This contract often includes language only a lawyer can understand. The contract may be several hundred pages or it may be a brief document. It may have different versions which offer different protections, but once signed it will be legally binding.

Having your attorney review the contract will help prevent you from making a big mistake. You don’t want to discover that you have signed away important rights, failed to include important protections, or failed to get what you deserve.

When it comes to legal advice, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. An attorney’s perspective is more helpful and likely less expensive than a law suit if things go wrong.