Properly Completed Contracts Ensure Smooth Sales

When the average person thinks about buying and selling real estate, they think about viewing multiple houses to find the perfect fit or staging their current home to attract an excited buyer.

As a real estate professional, you know that these television-worthy activities are only half of the equation when it comes to completing a trade in real estate. The other half of the equation—the paperwork—is less exciting for TV, but equally important to the process.

From accurately reflecting the size of the property in the listing to documenting conditions and price in the offer to purchase, every detail matters. Properly representing a property for sale and accurately reflecting the wishes and position of clients in an offer are part of providing competent service to your clients. But, it’s not just the information about the property that is vital to get right.

Real estate is in large part about working with people, but your role at its core, is to facilitate large financial and legal transactions. Ensuring that client information is accurately and completely included on contracts at the time of signing is crucial to the process.

Real estate professionals must take the time to review the contracts with their clients, ensuring that even the simple things listed below are legible, and that the contracts include completion dates and signature dates.

Ensure the following are legible and complete on contracts:

• the clients’ full name
• their contact information
• the full names of the real estate professionals and brokerage
• full addresses

RECA has recently heard from the real estate legal community that receiving incomplete real estate contracts has become a point of constant concern. They have also commented to RECA that “the law abhors a blank.” They suggest that if a space on a contract is being left blank on purpose, you should make it clear by adding “n/a” or by crossing it off and initialing it.

By taking the time to work with clients to properly fill out contracts, real estate professionals can do their part to ensure that the sale can be processed smoothly and saves everyone from headaches—and possible heartache—down the road.