We received a recent heads-up email from someone in the real estate business regarding new contract boilerplate from one of our hydra-headed real estate brokerages. The alert noted that this brokerage is now including language in their standard purchase offers that requires use of a specific title company....and guess who owns that title company...why, surprise, surprise, it's an arm of big brokerage, inc.!
While I'm not an attorney, and wouldn't even try to play one on TV, this bit of "well-it-depends-on-your-perspective" skullduggery seemingly puts a seller in a most untenable situation. Assuming everything else in the buyers' purchase offer would be acceptable to the sellers, wouldn't any sort of a counter regarding use of a title company (let's say, the one they used when purchasing their current home, which might provide them a credit for a subsequent sale...or simply one they would prefer to entrust with the transaction for the sale of their home) void the original offer?
Gee, I wonder why consumers might harbor doubts about the integrity of folks who make a living at real estate? But, hey, what a great way to attract top agents!
Incidentally, we recently had a closing with an agent of this brokerage....the agent's buyers wanted to know why they were paying their agent's brokerage "GARP" fee included on the HUD. Do you know what a Realtor GARP fee is....and how comfortable might you be in explaining it?
Doug Parker, Prudential Calhoon Company Realtors, http://ikarensell.com
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