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New Florida Real Estate Contracts

By
Real Estate Agent with Illustrated Properties

What are the changes in the Florida Real Estate Contracts? What is the difference between a traditional contract and an As-Is contract? What are the most common misconceptions about real estate contracts?

See the full explanation on Jeff’s web page on Florida Real Estate Contracts.

In the mid 1980s Coke came out with the infamous botched marketing of “new coke.” New Coke performed better in its blind taste tests in head-to-head competition with Pepsi. It tasted better than Pepsi or the “old Coke”. The launch performed abysmally. People wanted the old familiar Coke and not the new sweeter and more-like-Pepsi version.

Coke got the message fast and launched “Classic Coke”, giving consumers what they wanted.

As unwelcome as New Coke, comes a new contract form that increases standard Florida real estate contracts from four pages to eleven pages.

Explanations for this nearly triple size increase range from input from real estate attorneys up north using contracts with more binders, to changes in the market conditions and loans needing greater protections. Half of one of the new pages is populated indemnification clauses for realtors. Inspections are now a three part process. Execution of larger contracts increase the complexity of every part of the process such as things like faxing and email attachments.

Contracts that are larger are more intimidating and cause more people to engage attorneys for reviews. Inevitably, more complex contracts create more opportunities for exiting the contract as well.

You can see the New Florida Real Estate Contracts at Jeff’s Website.

Jeff Specializes in Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter homes for sale in Admirals Cove and PGA National .


Comments(3)

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Carol Zingone
Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Florida Network Realty - Jacksonville Beach, FL
Global Realtor in Jax Beach, FL - ABR, CRS, CIPS

Here in NE FL, our purchase and sale agreements are 10 pages now, so it sounds as if we have been dealing with this longer.  Are you comparing to the FAR BAR Contract length?

Aug 18, 2010 01:54 AM
Michael J. Gallo
Florida Luxury Realty - New Port Richey, FL
Florida Luxury Realty - Gulf Home Sales Team

Jeff, i like the new contract.  I like that the buyers expenses are included and the permit information is included and of course the addition of the total available addendas.  Agent knowledge of the contract will make it more pallatable for the buyers/sellers.  If you just say sign here and initiall here......chances are you will have an attorney poking around the contract. 

Aug 18, 2010 01:58 AM
Wayne Martin
Wayne M Martin - Oswego, IL
Real Estate Broker - Retired

Great post. I hope most readers will go to your website for a more detailed explanation.

Aug 18, 2010 02:00 AM