Real Estate Purchase Agreement: What To Look For

First time home buying can be an intimidating process. The purchase of a new home is one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive commitments the average person will make in their entire life. Because of how important this decision is you do not want to overlook any small detail, especially the fine print and sometime difficult to understand legal speak that you will find in most real estate developer and new home builder’s purchase agreements.


It is highly recommended that you have a real estate lawyer look over the purchase agreement with you before signing it. There are many items that appear on a purchase agreement that may not seem relevant at the time to a first time home buyer or anyone who is not familiar with real estate law.


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In many instances, especially in big cities, home buyers will purchase a condo or property before it is even built. When this is the case, it is important to look for information in the real estate purchase agreement regarding when the developer or home builder promises to be done with construction and deliver the new home. In many cases the date that the sales representative tells you they expect to be done with construction, is often pushed back. This can be a real problem when it comes to planning where you will live and current lease agreement until you have a solid date of when you can move into your new home.

Once construction is complete, however, the developer will want you to move in and settle as soon as possible because this allows them to discontinue carrying the costs of maintaing your new home. If you are unable to settle on the settlement date they assign to you, they will typically charge you between $200-$500 PER DAY until you proceed to settlement. When reviewing your real estate purchase agreement for your new home, be sure that look for and carefully read over any and all information regarding the settlement process.

Settlement Punchlist

The settlement punchlist is a very important document. The punchlist is a list of deficiencies that the builder or real estate developer is obligated to fix after you have gone to settlement on the new home. It is very important to thoroughly inspect the new property and create this list BEFORE going to settlement. As issues come up after you have gone to settlement, the real estate developer or builder will reference the settlement punchlist to see if the item that you would like to have fixed is on there or not.

If you notice a deficiency after you have gone to settlement, unless the item is clearly stated on the punchlist, the developer will general claim that they are not responsible and in most cases will insist that you caused the defeciency.

A huge benefit of having a real estate appraiser inspect your new home prior to settlement, is that they know what to look for and can point out what items should go on your punchlist that you normally would miss.




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