Addendum To Property Inspection Report: Fill & Download for Free

That would probably depend on your “weasel clause(s)”.Any time you make an offer on a property, include a statement to the effect of “This offer is contingent upon Buyer’s acceptance of an independent inspection report.” If the inspection report comes back clean, you can be reassured the transaction should be ok; if it comes back with the revelation of one or more problems, you have to decide whether you want to pursue the property (for example, you might still be interested in the property, only at a lower price, perhaps what you’d intended to offer minus the estimated costs of repairs).Before making ANY offer, make an arrangement with someone you trust to review the transaction and tell you whether the deal is sound or if there’s something fishy going on. Then you can also use something like “This offer is contingent upon the approval of Buyer’s Transaction Adviser. Unless Transaction Adviser disapproves within ten working days of Offer date, acceptance is presumed.” If your “Transaction Adviser” is an attorney, use “Attorney” instead of “Transaction Adviser”. Make sure any objections are provided to the Seller within the specified time limit.You can write “weasel clauses” for a wide variety of things: carpet color, replacement of blinds, removal of odor, stained concrete driveways, adequate financing, etc., etc., etc.These kinds of clauses will probably not appear in a boilerplate offer form. You may need to add them in an addendum.To refocus on your original post, having ANY weasel clause may give you an out. Read your offer and the sales contract carefully. If you have a weasel clause, try to use it (even if it is for something that is otherwise acceptable). If you do not have any escape clause, you may have to resort to threatening legal action for “misrepresentation”. When I worked the trade in California, the Seller was required to disclose ALL known deficiencies in a property. Missing one disclosure was potentially fatal to a deal.Good luck - I hope this lesson doesn’t get too expensive for you!Update:“The seller’s refusal to sign the termination is a problem for us because we are in a corporate relocation, which provides us with a specific amount of time in which to make the sale. We cannot begin the process to buy an alternative property until he signs. Therefore, we will have to pay additional rents, and potentially incur the cost of hiring a real estate attorney.”Ok, now this adds a new dimension to the problem.I suspect that you are able to “…begin the process to buy an alternative property…”, even if you don’t realize it. If you have external constraints (the relocation timeline), you will have to act within those, even if it means you have to deal with an uncooperative Seller OUTSIDE of them (which is to say “deal with him later”).Assuming that all your money is tied up in the first deal, you could make an offer to the next Seller by offering a Promissory Note as your earnest money. The Promissory Note should be conditional upon the first of two things happening: either the Seller of the first property gives you your first earnest money back, or the second property closes escrow. Under rare conditions, a Seller might agree to let you pay a Promissory Note over time; it’s a point to negotiate (and if you don’t ask for it, you are certain to not get it).Hopefully, you will have other properties that you considered, and there is a “next best” property that is suitable for your needs. Let your mortgage company know immediately that the loan is in jeopardy and why it is in jeopardy. If you have a “next best” property lined up, get them to set up the required mortgage for that other property - get it done ASAP. Scrambling for a mortgage at the last minute is almost always awkward.Work with your Escrow Company. Let them know why your deal is in jeopardy and what you want to do about it. They may allow you to substitute another property and another mortgage lender, but it’s likely they would rather open a second escrow.In addition to requiring the Seller to comply with your offer (by releasing the earnest money funds back to you), you could point out that their actions may cause you significant financial damages, and that you will have reason to sue them (including not only the damages, such as legal representation and hotel stays, etc., but for the court costs as well). In poker terms, “see his opening bet and raise him”. If you have a valid contingency clause, he’s bluffing. If you raise the stakes, he should fold. If he calls your raise, you stand to gain a larger pot than you would have otherwise.Best of luck with this. Relocating is bad enough - adding a real estate fiasco doesn’t help. I hope you don’t lose any sleep worrying about this.

Let me start off with the following statement : You are on a boat in the shit river and let’s see if we can get you to land.I’m in Florida, so these are the things you need to find before you sit with a lawyer :A) what type of purchase contract did you do? we have about 4 basic contract and subset of each.B) if there a disclosure that states the property owner is also a realtor and has an interest in the property, this is an addendum to the above contract ( all of them as far as i know )C) is there a sellers disclosure ( separate document ) showing what is a visible defect prepared by the seller.D) the inspection report… if you ever encounter me, you’ll see how firm I am about this, I have the very very best inspector and I always brag on how he finds problems, to the point where other agent love him too because his job is to protect YOU the client and report to You and me how bad ( or good ) the property is.now down to the nitty-gritty:Florida, it’s a state for shady deals, but the laws are also very firm, so if you get caught you are screwed.A) sellers disclosure should show all known material defects in the property, here is the case that brought it all to the front of every realtors eye’s and made is a requirement Residential Property Disclosures: Seller Beware! | The Legal Scoop on Southwest Florida Real Estateyou need to see if everything match’s up, you signed showing you knew something was wrong with the property, does the disclosure show something different IE: example nothing signed about a water leak but the roof just started it’s own water fountainFrom what I have heard, you might have up to 7 years to file a claim. I don’t know for sure I am not a lawyerInspection : your purchase contract states clearly if you are self inspecting or using a real inspector, if you use a real one, then he should have a License.good luck

As other real estate agents have posted, it comes down to whether you had a formal buyer’s agent agreement with that agent. If you did, it isn’t a matter of etiquette. You have a contract. Unless there is a clause added to the contract that exempted certain properties, you agreed that any house purchased during the term of that contract was covered by the contract, regardless of whether that agent actually found the property for you.If you didn’t have a buyer’s agency agreement with that agent, then sure… go ahead and tell them. It will help them understand the importance of getting one signed with future buyers.If you have a buyer’s agency agreement in place, no matter how nicely you inform the agent of your private sale, you are informing them of a breach of contract. You owe them commission. So, it’s probably best to avoid telling them at all.If you had informed your agent up front, that you are potentially negotiating a private sale, but the seller isn’t willing to pay any commission, your position could be quite different. Many agencies might simply let you out of the agency agreement. But if you don’t tell them until after closing… well… good luck.Perhaps as importantly, you are missing out on important services that they could have provided you at no cost to you, and that you may regret not receiving.If you saw a private sale opportunity (say on zillow), and you were interested in that property, you should have contacted your agent and had them arrange it for you. This process would vary by state, but in general, they would contact the seller, and work out a Right to Show agreement with them. That agreement would allow the agent to represent you, as per your buyer’s agent agreement. It would allow the seller to pay a buyer’s agent side commission only. Most “For Sale By Owner” sellers are happy to do this, because they are still paying only half of the usual commission.The result of this would be that you - as the buyer, retain all of the benefits of agent representation, and the seller still pays for it. The seller meanwhile, has essentially forgone their own right to representation as they didn’t list the house with an agent. So they ostensibly saved some money, but they have also put themselves in the position of an amateur dealing with someone represented by a professional. That may end up costing them in the end, but of course, that’s not your problem.There is a common misconception that the work of a real estate agent stops when the contract is signed. This is sooooo not true. Finding you the right property is a small part of what the buyer’s agent does. Especially for the buyer’s agent, the work truly begins when the contract is signed. If you have a professional agent, they will be doing all kinds of legwork on your behalf to ensure that the deal closes smoothly and your rights are protected. Here are just some of the things they should do on your behalf:Making sure you use state approved real estate contracts. These help protect your rights as a buyer.Helping you understand 100% of the contract to purchase. There are a lot of gotchas here. Your agent has been (or should have been) trained to make sure you understand every part of that.Helping you to understand the process of buying the house, the importance of getting a home inspected, what to expect in the loan process, etc.Making sure you stay on top of deadlines for inspections, getting homeowner’s insurance in place, applying for loans, filing addendums, etc. This helps to ensure you don’t forfeit rights or lose the contract altogether.Helping you to review the inspection report, and request necessary repairs.Ensuring that closing date modifications are requested, if something causes the date to change. This happens often with delays in getting loan appraisals done, especially when a government guaranteed loan is involved (FHA, RD, VA, etc.).Helping you avoid pitfalls with local ordinances that may result in extra costs to you after closing. There are sometimes upgrades that an existing owner is grandfathered from that a new owner may have to perform. Your real estate agent should be helping you navigate through those, if necessary.By going around your agent, you lost out on all that. You had to go it alone in the transaction. Maybe you did it all right. Then again, you may realize a year or so down the road that you have problems a real estate agent could have helped you avoid. On top of all that, you may end up having to pay for it.