Page 11 - RS 8 2019 ONLINE

REAL ESTATE

I’m BuyIng FlorIda ProPerty.

What are my ProtectIons?

Part 2

State Laws, the Realtor Association Code of Ethics, and Company, Attorney, or Broker who is settling (closing) your
Cultural Norms will all affect your purchase process, and how transaction a full, printed copy of that MLS listing.
to best protect yourself. That title company will have to interpret the language of the
listing as an agreement. And if that shed is also pictured in
What if I Don’t Have A Home Inspection Contingency? the MLS listing – let’s just say that, one way or another, you’re
Even many seasoned agents may overlook this one getting that shed.

Another – more commonly missed – but powerful protection At this point – if the seller still will not comply – the title
is the MLS listing itself. company, Realtor Association mediator, or judge will likely
return the buyer’s earnest money, and let the parties go
The MLS listing is, itself, a contract. When two agents join the their separate ways. OR, you could get an order requiring
Association, they agree – under the Realtor Code of Ethics – the delivery of the shed.
to behave in a cooperative way with each other.
So, yes, the buyer could even take the case to court to have
The actual MLS listing for your property is not only an ad. It is it enforced.
a system designed for Realtors to cooperate with each other.
It consists of more information than you will personally find More Broadly – Other ads, pictures, texts, and emails are
on consumer-level websites such as Realtor.com or Zillow. admissible (to a title company, to the Realtors Association,
com. The MLS listing includes offered commission splits for and to a judge) as evidence of an agreement, or as evidence
bringing that seller a buyer, private notes about the property, of violation of an agreement.
and sometimes already-filled-out addendums such as those
previously mentioned. So, What’s the Bottom Line?
Florida is commonly referred to as an “As-Is,” or Caveat
Often, a listing will either privately or publicly offer items or Emptor state. State guidelines bar cities and counties from
services. The seller may offer a previously performed home upholding their own ordinances or even the state’s own
inspection, a home warranty, money for a trashed carpet, or building codes when entering into a resale transaction.
items of personal property. This is a result of the Florida Association of Realtors having
successfully lobbied in favor of removing barriers to the sale.
These items commonly get listed in your purchase contract.
However, even if they are not – as they are written, and Given the nature of this state’s laws and transaction culture,
published as an offer (to “some buyer,” or to “some your best protections are to:
Realtor with some buyer” – the offers in that listing are still 1. Get everything in writing that is required to be in writing.
enforceable. 2. Get the non-required home inspection contingency in
writing, and make sure it’s at least 15 days.
Let’s say, for example, that the listing says, “Come and buy 3. Get everything else that is important to you written into
this! The shed comes with the house!” Then, at the final the agreement (with caveats for some financing stuations).
walk-through, the buyer finds that the shed is missing. The 4. Check what’s written anywhere (and that means anywhere)
seller’s response is, “You never wrote in the contract that you regarding your agreement.
wanted the shed. So, we took it with us.”
And that’s the bottom line.
The easiest way to have had this ad upheld would have been
to have had it written in the contract. However, let’s say
that we already didn’t do that. We can still provide the Title
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