Posted by John on October 06, 2004 at 11:41:20:
I’d suggest you bring in your own RE Agent, somebody experienced, to help you write a P&S agreement that does put the burden on the seller.
A buyer’s agent would represent only you, but would share in half the listing agent’s commission, so would cost you nothing.
And doing this would give you know-how and experience you don’t have yet.
Contract question - Posted by Max M.
Posted by Max M. on October 03, 2004 at 14:19:03:
I?m about to purchase a vacant lot in a city in California; we intend to build a spec house on it. We were going to buy an adjacent lot, but the deal fell through when the owner decided to hang on to the parcel.
The whole area is undeveloped and we wanted to know where our boundaries are, so while we were in escrow on the adjacent lot, we ordered a survey. The surveyor came back with an estimate of $2,100. Usually a ?shoot the corners? survey only costs about $400. The engineer told us that the reason for the higher price was because they could not find a recorded tract survey in the county records, so they would need to submit one.
I found this odd, since I know there are lot maps showing the individual parcels, and the assessors have assigned APNs to the lots. And the title company said they had no problem with issuing title insurance on the deal. Despite that, the surveyor said that by law he had to file the additional paperwork.
The deal fell apart before we could address the issue with the seller; it?s my position that the seller should foot that bill, since any omissions were previous to my entering the picture. My guess is that their position would be ?tough?. If I want the place, I?d need to pony up for the additional work.
Since that deal is gone, and I?m about to write up a contract for the new lot, what clause could I place in the new contract that would place the financial obligation of the additional work squarely on the seller?s shoulders and not mine?
I need wording that would be clear, but not sound too ominous, and preferably wording so innocent that it would slip under their radar entirely, until such time that the survey bill is due and we move to have it paid for from selller’s escrow funds.
BTW I?m going directly through the seller?s broker, and using the standard CAR agreement. The land price is only about $15k.