Clearly I am not the only agent in the Country who writes up contracts, and reviews them, with both buyers and sellers every day for many, many years, without an attorney involved.

That doesn’t make me a lawyer. It makes me a real estate agent.

When the seller wants to keep their dining room chandelier…I am perfectly capable of writing that on a Form 34 blank addendum.

Lawyers drafted the existing forms, and they have no protections for buyers from interest rates increasing. It is the only State I have worked in that does not have an interest rate cap in the Financing Addendum. Without that protection, a buyer who planned to have conventional standard financing, can be forced into exotic financing, or lose their earnest money.

If lawyers really want to be more active in the real estate arena, I suggest you complain about the buyer protections missing in the standard NWMLS agreement, and stop picking on lil ol me. If you put as much passion into protecting the buyers of Washington as you do in worrying about agents not needing you, we would have contracts that offer adequate protections for homebuyers.

Russ P.S. I’ve written 1,000 or so posts since I started blogging in various places. You found one you don’t like…oh well. I have never yet had a buyer client lose their Earnest Money. I think I’m batting 1,000 there.

Sorry I missed most of this…had a very busy day. My sincere apologies to Tim. I’m sure he had his popcorn out

You are very welcome, Martin. Next time I think you will need to pay me a 6% commission, because apparently what I do day in and day out for 16 years is perfectly legal, until I do it for free

If this is what this Country wants to be about…don’t do anyone a favor, I think that is really, really, REALLY sad.

Russ, here’s a real life example of why agents may shy from the practice of routine atty. review. Several years ago, I had Buyer with a well written contract. The house they wanted had another Buyer bidding on it. Our offer was best and we prevailed. The Buyer had no/charge atty review benefits with MS and we made the offer subject to atty. review. At the time, we had 2 kinds of inspections contingency forms. Form A more friendly to the Buyer, Form B, more friendly to the Seller. We used form B, the Seller friendly version because of the competition. During the review the atty., without any consult with me, whacked the Form B, substitued Form A and changed dates. That forced me to go back to re-negotiate the deal, and of course, because the other offer was out there, the Seller and LA suggested we stuff it. Now, we did hold the deal together for the Buyer, but only after agreeing to the orignial terms. I was ticked at the time, my biggest issue being the hack job without consult. When he made the arbitrary changes, he wasn’t working within the context of the negotiation.

The real issue is, and I think you addressed it, is the RE atty”good”. Maybe this atty. wasn’t so good. It didn’t change my experience at that time with an attorney review. And without a referral from an agent, how do we know a Buyer’s atty is “good”, or even a RE atty?

I had an issue last month and referred a client to a “good” RE attorney and the experience saved a deal for him. That was a good experience.

Russ, I do think you guys come off sometimes with an air that tries to put RE agents down. I know your reputation and I do think you’re top drawer in your field. But when you guys have a stage (and you’ve been there with the group), you end up giving the audience a sense of confusion and bewilderment. Or, maybe your plan ahead of time is to confuse and scare the stuffings out of the agents that are attending. When 3 or 4 attorneys all have a different point of view on one issue (like a financing addendum) and and at times contentiously dabate them (and at times talk down to the agents in attendance) it may give agents the feeling that “what’s the use? The attorneys can’t agree, so I’m forced to used my best judgement to get the job done.” I think the agents would learn more and as a profession, you would instill more confidence in your profession , if the audience felt you were there to educate and serve.

I’m not sure exactly what Ardell did for you but sounds like you were very satisfied. Nice job! For other agents out there, just keep in mind that providing legal review of contracts when done outside of your normal real estate brokerage services is the unauthorized practice of law for which many E/O insurance companies exclude coverage.

-Russ

Bravo!

Russ

I agree with ideology of network and team and as being perceived as a professional who directs clients to resources that are able to handle a particular need that I may not hold an expertise on.

As a small business one of the rules I operate under is outsource areas that I am not an expert in or do not have the resources to maintain with in house methods. These may be because of tools, equipment, labor or other. As an appraiser I am required to divert when out of my expertise or enlist a professional that is qualified for the item at hand. As part of business operations in the promotion of company image it is a corner stone to be a resource. This is because as a consumer I would appreciate being put on notice that should I have a need and it can be better served some where else then as a consumer I will continue to do future business with that company because they did not waste my time or mislead me and demonstrated that they had my best interest in mind.

If my client has a need then I will make my best effort to help them address it and learn as I do it.

All professions have ego issues and that is ok because in the end ego and customer service mixes like your oil and water. Those with an ego in the end help my business.

If any of you know good real estate attorneys please let me know because I would love to add them to my network of professionals that may serve my clients in above average ways and in the end promote my company.

First, I have had many agents over the years refer me their clients and I believe I have treated the vast majority with professional respect for what they do. I have not treated them as equals or peers to me in the context of providing legal advice to their/our client.

It does not surprise me that in all your years of real estate, you have used an attorney ONCE. Why? Because you are the type of agent who believes that they know all. Why would your client need an attorney review of something you drafted when you are (as you say) an EQUAL and PEER of a good real estate attorney? Why in the world would they need to incur the added cost? They wouldn’t because there is no added value to that. From your comments, Ardell = Lawyer.

Just look at your post that I linked to in my post above. You were flat out WRONG about a very standard and common contingency form. Had any agent provided that type of “advice” to a real client, they would be committing legal malpractice.

Ardell, you are apparently a good real estate agent. That does not make you a real estate legal expert and until you qualify as one, you cannot be equal to the real estate legal expert. At the same time, I have said over and over that most attorneys (including me) are not experts in the other aspects of real estate brokerage and they should leave those issues to good agents.

-Russ