Jameson Stone, legal counsel for the Greater Harrisburg Association of REALTORS®, provides a legal column to our membership.
What is your agreement with your broker? A recurring question to the Hotline is “what is my broker’s obligation to pay me when I have pending transactions at the time I affiliate with a new broker?” There are many similar questions relating to fees after termination and whether a salesperson can take her clients and transactions to her new brokerage…
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What happens when a FSBO freaks out at settlement when she learns for the first time that she is paying seller assist and that the proceeds are less than she anticipated? She goes hunting, that’s what. Who is the likely target? By definition, a FSBO is without an agent and we all know what a horrible idea that is!
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The most dangerous clause in the Standard Agreement for the Sale of Real Estate (ASR) is found in our current Paragraph 32(B), Additional Terms. Here’s where agents can let loose with the most creative use of the pen imaginable! A problem is, that when these works of art fail for any reason, they are likely to penalize the author (agent) and his or her client…
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Let’s see a show of hands: how many of you think PAR should publish a standard “as is” agreement of sale? I see great show of hands which is a little surprising given that the widely used PAR standard agreement, ASR, is in fact an “as is” agreement. True, PAR doesn’t use the words “as is;” rather it provides that the property is to be sold in its “present” condition…
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You either have firsthand experience or have heard stories of how modern surveillance techniques are entwined in the sale of real estate. Baby cameras, pet monitoring applications, security systems, and other surveillance equipment with varying degrees of technological and recording capabilities are now common features in homes. Some systems have no audio capabilities and are only available to view in real-time…
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Timely tender of deposit checks is a growing problem that did not exist when offers and deposit checks were hand delivered. Now, deposit checks follow an offer’s acceptance by a handful of days. Further, a typical agreement includes a checkmark in Paragraph 26(G) limiting the seller to retaining paid deposits as the sole remedy in the event of buyer default…
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My wife and I were recently sharing a farewell dinner with a couple moving from the mid-state. Their home was sold and packed. They were letting down their hair after a week that was particularly demanding, both physically and mentally. The wife of this couple, Betsy (not her real name) had called me a month earlier about their buyers’ demand to visit the house with a contractor to take measurements and make observations…
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Does a listing agent have a right to see your buyer agency contract? At the moment, I can’t think of a good reason! It is not prerequisite to your being paid a cooperating commission. Your entitlement to that is wholly dependent upon whether you are the procuring cause of the sale. The terms of cooperation, established by your local MLS…
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In news and other articles, another’s profanity is frequently replaced with "expletive deleted." Some use the term in self‐censorship. More often, we just let the expletives fly. At that moment it might feel quite good to do so; upon reflection, not so good. Realtors® hold no ownership on profanity or expletives deleted, the inspiration for this article did…
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Major revisions to the Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act (RELRA) took effect in November 1999. The changes introduced the Consumer Notice and buyer agency and all that is tethered to it like dual agency and designated agency. I remember touring the State and helping licensees with these new concepts and practices. I also remember stubborn licensees who…
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