The Sales Contract
Once you have a pre-qualified or pre-approved buyer who has agreed to the asking price, you will want to fill out a sales contract with his signature. As a rule the real estate agent would handle this detail, but since you are the agent for the “for sale by owner†home, you will be handling this detail. It is a good idea to look over a blank sales contract so you will be familiar with it. You might consider doing this before you have a buyer.
The sales contract will specify the property being sold, the name of the seller and the buyer, the amount of money the house is being sold for, and the date when the title and the purchase money will change hands.
The property you are selling is known to you by the street address however it will have a legal description, which looks nothing like the address. This legal description is needed by the county to identify the property. You will find the legal description of your property on your deed and it will be located on the sales contract you signed when you first purchase the home. The legal description of your property will start with lot and block number and include pages of a platte book which is located at the county court house. This information is necessary when filling out your sales contract, but you don’t have to understand it. There are a couple of items listed in the legal description you might need a definition to. Real Property is land. It is considered real property because it will last forever. Improvements are considered to be the buildings and structures on the property. Your home is an improvement on your real property, which the house is sitting.
A large part of the pages in the real estate sales contract is to cover possibilities. For example: “In the event the seller does not fix the leak in the roof†an alternate action is then described, such as this contract is terminated. Or the seller agrees to pay X amount of dollars to cover the repair of the roof.Â
Other possibilities may include, if the buyer is unable to obtain a large enough loan to purchase your house. The sales contract will require a buyer to describe in more detail than you may want to know about in an effort to prevent the buyer from backing out of the contract with the false claim of “unable to get a loanâ€.
The buyer has a right to pay to have the property inspected. In the sales contract there is a dead line date for this inspection to be completed. If problems are found during the inspection the seller can choose to repair the problem or release the buyer from the contract.
The sales contract will require the seller to turn over a clear title to the property, which has been insured and researched by a title company.
You can obtain Real Estate Sales Agreements at any major office supply store, such as Staples. You can also obtain them from the nearest real estate office, but may be a more complex document than you need to suit your needs. These forms can be downloaded for a fee from audrie.com.