Posted by John Merchant on March 04, 2003 at 21:26:10:
I suspect they are all pretty much state specific. No one great reason, but forms develop around deals and practice and some seem to survive and keep on being used.
All states land and RE laws didn’t develop the same way, or come from the same heritage…e.g. MA came from British Common Law, while LA’s came more from Spanish and French law. Eight states inherited Spanish idea of Community Property, while the others have not. So of course not all states RE laws mirror all the others.
To find forms in your state for your deal, go to the local Realtors or MLS office, where realtors and agents go for their forms. They’ll sell the forms to anybody, and you’ll find the ones most used in your state…unless the forms are the ones done by lawyers prior to close, such as Deeds, mortgages, Deeds of Trust, notes…these more involve practice of law which a realtor or agent is NOT allowed to do.
Posted by Frank Chin on March 06, 2003 at 11:11:36:
Hi Tony:
I’m not an attorney, but dealt with RE contracts as buyer and assignee in NY.
I saw your “Correction” post somewhere that the above question actually pertains to flips. As far as I know, in NY, there are NO specific forms other than the usual Purchase/Sales contracts, with the following exceptions:
1- The standard P/S contract you have with the Seller must be assignable. The P/S contract itself does not address assignability. It is in the addendum, which the seller attorney would either delete, or cases I dealt with, modified by another addendum stipulating conditions of allowing the assignment, such as your buyer “cannot further assign” without your seller’s written approval, or it can once be assigned once etc.
This part is handled by the seller’s attorney, and he normally has a standard addendum for his clients which usually states “this contract CANNOT be assigned”.
If you plan to close on it as a backup strategy, you may think about the wording of a mortgage contingency clause, as it is usually assumed that you will not close, and the clause is not needed. The mortgage contingency clause is deleted in mine as I know I can close one way or the other. Your credit situation may be different.
The standard P/S contract with your buyer would identify you in the place provided for the seller as the “Assignee”.
For further security, record the P/S agreement with the Seller.
As I mentioned I’m in NY, and the above are the contract changes made as far as I can recall, different from a regular RE purchase. There are NO OTHER forms. If this is your first time, have an attorney handle the paperwork and contracts.