… people transferring through a sale a piece of real estate? A lot of the information on offers and p&s contracts involves agents and attorneys. What are the bare minimum steps, the mechanics of the sale, then what other safety/legal components should one incorporate to be safe? At no one point do I want to have to say “one moment while I step out inside my office/car to google that…”. For ex: suppose someone has some land fsbo, I offer and he agrees to some ca$h I can deliver tomorrow. No inspection needed right? I just perform some dd and get title insurance? Or do they get it? Thought I read they did, but then why would they? It wouldn’t be theirs. So do I wait for him to draft a p&s contract? Should I have submitted my verbal offer in writing? Do I need to put the seller “under contract” somehow? Would that be in the offer or the p&s agreement? I read the seller’s attorney writes up the p&s at the end, so that would not be where the “contract” you put the seller under would be no? Sorry if I’m asking a lot of basic questions but I just haven’t found that chapter or episode from all the material I’ve been studying.
You need to stop reading whatever it is that’s throwing you around like a rag doll on the details. I mean really.
First off, everything’s negotiable, except when you’re working with part time agents cum housewives. Then it’s a crap shoot what you can expect.
Meantime, I’ll make it really easy.
1. Find a ‘sample’ purchase agreement’: Google “real estate purchase agreement + your state” Buy it. Download it. Print it. Read it. Understand it. (ie: uslegalforms.com)
2. Find a likely deal: Too much to cover here, except that you need to know your market, to find a deal. So, go find a likely deal.
3. Sift for a motivated seller with a likely deal: Open a conversation. Let the seller talk about his ‘deal’ and sell you on it. Make an offer.
4. Negotiate a deal: Try to give the seller what he needs, and you take everything else. Otherwise, write up what you agree to. Meantime, the agreement will become an escrow instruction that will indicate who’s paying for what, and how much. Answer those questions, and make it part of your offer negotiations.
ex: Title costs, inspections costs, loan costs, termites, earnest deposit, escrow fees, etc. It’s all in there. It’s all negotiable.
5. Write up the agreement: Fill out the agreement based on what you and the seller agree to.
6. Open escrow: Take the agreement to a title company, or an attorney, depending on which is required/usual in your state, and “open escrow.” The title company/attorney will follow your “escrow” instructions in the agreement.
7. Close: After you and seller do everything promised, you close on the deal.
Assigning a deal: If you’re going to assign the contract, you’ll write “et al” after your name (as purchaser), and eventually the title company/attorney will ask what name represents “et al,” on the agreement, so they can properly produce a title with the name of “et al.” (et al = and others)
Of course, there’s too many ways to describe how to get paid on an assigned contract suffice to say that the contract is assignable, because you added “et al” after your name, and that’s all that’s necessary to assign a purchase agreement.