With a market that is rapidly increasing in invetory, I've written more lease/options in the past two months than I have in the past two years.  I'm seeing a problem recurring through these.

The lease periods are running for 12-18 months (in one extreme case, 3 years), and the parties are executing a contract with a definitive purchase price at the inception of the lease.  For the listing agent, they would do well to insert a provision after the purchase price that says "or appraised value, whichever is higher".  For a buyer's agent, the converse would hold.  If the contract is not contingent on financing, one of the parties would need to agree in the contract to fund an appraisal within 30 days of the closing date which would be binding on the parties.

I just see scenarios happening 12-18 months from now where sellers are pissed that they are leaving $50,000 on the table because they made a bad deal a year previous, and I know who is going to hear about it... :)

While these may have been more plentiful in the past few years, it still occasionally happens that a full price offer will come in, which financing either checked as "all cash" or consistent with the terms of the MLS (e.g. conventinal financing allowed).  If the offer also has no contingencies other than those expressly permitted by the MLS or outside of industry norms at the time the offer is presented, you may as a selling realtor be entitled to a commission if the seller refuses to execute the offer.

I have been successful recently in pursuing cases on behalf of selling brokers against sellers where the seller refuses to sign.  The theory in court is that MLS is nothing more than an employment agreement, and that the selling agent has satisfied the terms of employment when an offer is brought in, whcih is in accordance with the MLS terms and industry standards.  I've had three cases like this: in two the seller signed off ont he offer after I filed the complaint in court, and on the third, the seller paid the selling agent almost their full commission and then re-listed the house at a higher price.  I wonder if the selling agent on the third deal then sold the buyer another home and ended up with two commissions, hmmmmmm?

Just letting you guys and gals know so you don't leave money on the table after fully performing.