Real Estate

We advise all of our clients to get a gas company inspection directly from the gas company that provides gas service to the home. We feel this is important for a number of reasons:

• If the home does not pass inspection, the gas company could shut off service;
• Some localities may not allow you to obtain an occupancy permit without passing a gas inspection;
• Gas issues are almost always safety issues, and should be addressed before the closing date;
• Litigation over gas issues can be extremely time consuming and expensive.

One of the most common standard sale contracts we see in St. Louis County, Missouri, used to include a paragraph obligating the Seller to obtain a passing Laclede Gas Company inspection no later than closing. This obligation has recently been removed from the standard contract. So when working with home purchasers, we always add this language back into the contract, obligating the Seller to obtain a passing gas inspection.

Be aware, however, that because it is no longer a standard part of the contract, lenders have become accustomed to allowing Buyers to purchase homes without passing a gas inspection.

This leaves Buyers in an unfortunate position of either:

• Obtaining the inspection themselves, but not necessarily having any ability to negotiate over that inspection with the Seller;
• Forgoing the gas inspection, even though it may be a safety issue or lead to future litigation; or
• Getting the inspection, but risking the home does not pass. In this situation the lender may refuse to close until the inspection is passed, even if the cause of the failure was not a safety issue. This will result in a potential delay to closing.

Despite these risks, due to the dangers to Buyer stated above, we continue to advise our clients to make it the Seller’s obligation to obtain a passing gas inspection, prior to closing.

If you are dealing with a similar situation, please contact us at 314.862.2237 or email us at mjacob@marcjacobesq.com

Whether one party to a contract has the right to force to the other party is referred to as Specific Performance.

Generally in a home sale contract, the Buyer does have the right of Specific Performance, meaning they can force the Seller to sell them the home. This is because the law sees land, or the real property, as unique. Therefore, there is no adequate substitute for it.   A Seller must specifically perform the contract and sell the property to the Buyer if the contract so indicates.

What happens if the Buyer refuses to buy? Can the Seller force them to buy the property? Here, the damages are really monetary in nature. The Seller was expecting to get paid a certain mount of money, and now the Buyer is backing out. In this situation, the contract may give the Seller the right to keep the earnest money. Earnest money is the amount of money the Buyer puts down in the event they breach the contract. Alternatively if the contract allows for it, the Seller can sue the Buyer for other monetary damages.

We have not seen residential real estate contracts that give the right of Specific Performance to the Seller, allowing them to force the Buyer to buy the property. That is not to say such contracts do not exist. If they do, however, we do now know if such a right is enforceable.

When a Buyer considers walking away from a deal, the Seller faces a financial loss. In these circumstances, the Seller, their agent, and likely their attorney will exert significant pressure on the Buyer, and may even threaten litigation, in order to compel the Buyer to go forward with the deal.

Buyers in these situations should recognize there is a danger that if they breach the contract, they may be responsible for the Seller’s legal fees if litigation ensues and the Buyer loses.

If you are considering breaching a real estate contract, or believe the other side has breached, we strongly advise seeking legal advice prior to doing so. We assist numerous clients in similar situations. Please contact us at 314.862.227 or email: mjacob@marcjacobesq.com

Many home sale contracts contain a provision allowing the Buyers to obtain private inspections. This period is often referred to as the “Inspection Period” or the “Due Diligence Period.” The Buyers usually have until the end of this period to submit an Inspection Notice to the Seller. If they don’t, the Buyers risk waiving their rights regarding inspection issues.

In most typical cases, it very important that inspections are scheduled as soon as possible after the contract is signed in order to meet this deadline. This will give the Buyers’ lawyer sufficient time to prepare an Inspection Notice that will be legally binding and meet the Buyers’ needs. Depending on how complicated the issues are, Buyers’ attorney may need to review the inspection report or draft an addendum to the standard Inspection Notice used by real estate agents.

This Inspection Notice is then sent from the Buyers (or their attorney or agent) to the Seller, requesting that the Seller make repairs, reduce the sale price, or pay a portion of Buyers’ closing costs for the deal to go forward. (Be aware that if the Buyers are requesting a monetary change, their lender may require a Contract Amendment).

 There are a number of reasons why Buyers send Inspection Notices.   These include:

• The Buyers learn through private inspections that the home is not in as good condition as initially thought;
• The Buyers do not have the money to make certain repairs, based on contractor estimates obtained;
• The Buyers feel that certain repairs are the Seller’s responsibility;
• The Buyers believe that the Seller is in a better position to fully explain the scope of the problem and provide access to a contractor;
• The Buyers needs further financial concessions in order to proceed to closing.

If you would like us to prepare an Inspection Notice for you, or have questions about one, please call us at 314.862.2237 or contact us here.

 

Yes – it is very smart to have an attorney review the survey for a home purchase. A survey is the technical depiction of the land and home that you are planning to purchase. The survey shows: boundaries between you and your neighbors; structures on the land (called “improvements”); encroachments onto your property by your neighbors; and whether your property encroaches on your neighbor’s land.

An attorney’s review of your survey is useful primarily for two reasons:

• To help you understand what the encroachments on your land are, and advise you whether yours or your neighbor’s future building plans could result in future encroachments
• To reconcile the survey with the title insurance commitment in regard to:

• The legal description;
• Encroachments over which the Title Company will not issue insurance;
• A party’s proper legal name the Title Company is requiring to sign a waiver or affidavit allowing you to get coverage over a particular encroachment.

Attorneys can also be helpful in other issues that arise with surveys. Surveys identify common areas, such as in a condominium or a subdivision, setting forth where your property ends and the common area begins. Only after reviewing the survey can your attorney negotiate with the Title Company over what they will cover in your policy.

Attorneys can also assist when there are competing surveys. Often surveyors disagree where a property’s boundaries are. After reviewing the competing surveys, an attorney can work with the surveyors to reconcile where the actual property boundaries exist.

We recently helped a client buying a home obtain full title coverage by having their neighbor’s surveyor go back and reset their surveyor’s pin to be more in line with the pin our client’s surveyor had placed.

What can happen if you don’t have an attorney review the survey? Without having an attorney review the survey, you may misunderstand a very critical part of your property line, or that of your neighbors. This can be costly and sometimes disastrous. Litigation can develop over boundaries, maintenance easements, fences, utility easements, etc., all of which are very costly.

A potential client who was selling a large and expensive suburban/rural parcel approached us about the following situation. After they put their house up for sale and relocated to another state, their agent informed them that a local utility company was out at the property, marking off part of one of the structures to be knocked down.

It turned out that the structure encroached on the utility company’s easement. Potential clients were understandably livid because the demolition of this structure would virtually cut the value of their property in half.

When the clients initially bought the property, the easement showed up on the survey, but a faulty reading of the survey by their real estate agent led this family to believe that none of the property’s structures encroached on the easement. This situation could have been avoided had an attorney reviewed the survey. Unfortunately, at this point, there was very little that could be done to help.

Getting help on the front end and knowing what you are getting into with regard to the survey is really the best way to have issues addressed and questions answered.

We review surveys on behalf of many clients. If you would like to discuss your situation with us, please call us at 314.862.2237 or email us at mjacob@marcjacobesq.com

As you might imagine, costs vary depending upon location and the attorney. Many attorneys have a policy to charge hourly rates, regardless of the matter; other attorneys use flat fees. A Home Closing is the type of matter that we  believe can be set as a flat fee.

The actual price will depend upon your locality within Missouri and any anticipated difficulties that might occur at the closing. A safe range of prices, however, is somewhere between $250-$750. This price may or may not include the attorney’s travel fees to and from the closing.

Prior to hiring an attorney, a potential client should understand the terms, scope and cost of representation. The fee agreement (a contract between you and your attorney for the services rendered) should also be signed either before the closing or at the very least, at closing.

There are many reasons why having an attorney at the closing is very helpful. Specifically, Attorneys:

• Review the Title Commitment upon which the final Title Insurance Policy will be based, explaining what the Title Company will not cover in their Title Insurance Policy.
• Decipher the HUD-1 Closing Statement; get clarification from the Title Company and make corrections to any mistakes on the HUD-1.
• Ensure all Grantors are listed property on the granting deed. (Often the actual Grantors are not the party the buyer is dealing with – the Grantors could be a Trust, Executor of an Estate, Third-party investor, etc.)
• Determine whether updates need to be made to the lending documents. A lender will often ask the home purchaser (borrower) to re-sign the lending documents at closing. This packet of documents can be between 25-100 pages, depending on the lender. If any circumstances have changed since the borrower’s application, the borrower may be under some obligation to notify them of the changes that took place.

Having a Lawyer at your side during a home closing is a smart move to make. We attend numerous home closings on behalf of clients.

If you would like us to attend one for you, or wish to inquire about our residential home services, please contact us at 314.862.2237 or email us at mjacob@marcjacobesq.com

In a residential home purchase, sometimes a buyer is unable to obtain a bank loan for the full amount needed. In these cases, the buyer may ask the seller to act as a bank, lending money for a portion of the purchase price.

If another lender (a bank) is involved, that lender may limit how much the seller can loan. The seller’s mortgage lien will also be secondary to the bank’s mortgage lien. If no other lender is involved, the seller is essentially acting as the bank for the entire transaction.  

Seller financing often occurs in “For Sale By Owner” and “Rent-to-Own” situations, or if the buyer and seller are family members. In these situations, some degree of trust already exists between the parties or the seller is highly motivated to sell but cannot find a buyer who qualifies for conventional financing.

Regardless of how the parties came to structure the transaction, it is important that proper documents be used and that those documents be properly tailored to the specific situation.

 For example, the parties will want an addendum to the sale contract indicating the basic terms of financing. They will also want proper mortgage documents to be prepared for signature at closing. In Missouri, those documents include a Promissory Note and a Deed of Trust.

A Promissory Note is a document that serves as evidence that a debt exists between the buyer and the seller for a certain amount of money and on certain terms.

A Deed of Trust, referred to as a “security instrument,” is a document that secures the property for the benefit of the Trustee (an agent of the lender).   Deeds of Trust are recorded with the appropriate county Recorder of Deeds and create a lien against the property.

If you are a seller considering financing the sale your property, or a buyer seeking seller-financing, it is important to seek out proper legal advice prior to entering such a transaction. If you would like to discuss your situation with us, please call us at (314) 862.2237 or email us at mjacob@marcjacobesq.com

 

Yes. You may cross out language in a standard home sale agreement. The parties to the contract (the Buyer and Seller) are free to delete or add any language they wish into a standard home sale contract.

Real estate brokers and agents, however, are often prohibited by law from making such changes themselves. If they do, they risk losing the legal protection of their local trade association (e.g., the local Realtors^® Association) and may violate prohibitions against practicing law without a license. The Buyers and Sellers, however, are not subject to such restrictions.

In order to determine which parts should be deleted or added for your protection, you might want to consult a Real Estate Attorney who is experienced in residential transactions in your locality.

It is important to remember that someone, usually a lawyer, representing some person or entity, drafted the standard contract you are using. That lawyer likely included language in the contract to make sure their client was protected. That does not mean they were trying to protect you.

It is only by making such modifications, when appropriate, that the parties are able to tailor the contract for their specific deal.

In the law we have a concept that all real property (land, buildings, etc.) is considered unique. If that is true, it should follow that every contract for the sale or purchase of real property should also be unique.

Standard forms are often a good starting point, but merely signing something that somebody else’s attorney prepared for them does not provide you the protection you should demand or receive.

If you are purchasing or selling real property and would like to consult an attorney, please contact us at 314.862.2237 or email us through this site.

If you are purchasing a home, and need financing (a loan/mortgage), there will be a deadline in the real estate contract by which you need to secure that loan. This deadline is called the Loan Contingency Deadline or the Loan Commitment Deadline.

Many homebuyers are unaware of this deadline in their contract, or do not understand what it means, letting it pass without getting the proper approval from the lender. Letting this deadline pass can have significant financial consequences.

Before we get into what happens, let’s go over a few necessary definitions to better understand the process of getting a loan:

• Pre-qualification: Pre-qualification is based on your overall financial picture (income, debts and assets) and merely reflects the loan amount for which you might be approved. Being pre-qualified does not mean that you are approved for that loan. In fact, you could pre-qualify, but ultimately not be approved for the loan.

• Pre-approval: After doing an extensive check on your financial status and credit score, the lender will tell you the loan amount for which you are pre-approved. This is the amount the bank will lend to you, with some conditions. Note, the bank has not yet agreed to give you the loan. Pre-approval is subject to an internal bank process called “underwriting.”

• Loan Commitment or Loan Approval: If you are pre-approved, or in some cases after underwriting is completed, the lender will issue a loan commitment or loan approval letter. This letter states how much the bank is willing to lend to you and on what terms. This “commitment” is typically subject to a number of conditions that you must meet prior to receiving the loan. If the conditions are not met, the lender is not obligated to provide the loan.

For example, the lender may agree to give you a loan, but only if the property appraises for at least the purchase price. The lender may also require certain documentation prior to guaranteeing the loan. Thus, a loan commitment is not much of a commitment at all, depending on what it is subject to.

• Final Commitment: Lending banks do not typically provide this letter unless you ask for it. It states that the lender is providing you a loan and is only subject to you signing the documents at closing (assuming you have no significant, downwards financial change between the date of the letter and closing).

Unfortunately, we have seen a number of clients who thought they had a loan “approved” or “committed” by their bank, only to find out after the loan contingency deadline had passed and the bank  decided not to make the loan.

This puts the Buyer in a very difficult position – they do not have the necessary financing, and are not able to get terminate the contract. They cannot purchase the property, must breach the contract and lose their earnest money. The breach may also subject the Buyer to damages and the Seller’s attorney’s fees if the Seller opts to forgo the earnest money as a settlement.

When one hires an attorney, their legal counsel can encourage lenders to get their appraisals done, finish their underwriting and issue commitments or approvals early, subject only to those documents that need to be signed at closing.

Staying on top of deadlines, advising clients of the risks involved in proceeding without a final commitment from the lender, and helping clients make informed decisions whether to terminate without liability, if possible and desirable, is an important role only an attorney can play in a home purchase transaction.

If you are purchasing a home, and need assistance understanding your loan documents, please call our office at 314.862.2237 or contact us through this site.

 

No. Many people hire an attorney to represent them in the purchase or sale of a home. In fact, this practice is quite common throughout the United States. Our office regularly represents clients buying or selling a residential property.

A number of states even mandate that an attorney be hired for at least part of the process. Even if you live in a state, like Missouri, where attorneys are not required by law, you certainly have the right to hire one to protect yourself, and to do so is in your best interst.

It is against the law in Missouri for a real estate agent or broker to dissuade you from hiring an attorney. (See Missouri Secretary of State: Code of State Regulations – 20 C.S.R. 2250-8.110(3)). Further, the standard  residential contract your agent or broker helps you complete says on the first page “If you do not understand everything in this contract, then you should consult an attorney,” or something similar depending upon which version they use. It should certainly be a big red flag if your agent does, or says anything, to indicate that you do not need an attorney.

Because it is not customary in St. Louis to hire one’s own attorney, many agents have either not had experience working with an attorney or had a negative experience. Sometimes a lawyer is brought in only when things start to go sour between the buyer and seller. At that point, it is a litigator who is hired. When the deal falls apart despite the agent’s hard work, they lose their commission, and blame the lawyer.

However, the situation is much different when a transactional lawyer is brought in at the beginning of deal. Agents who have experienced this situation better understand the added value and protection a lawyer brings them and their clients. These lawyers facilitate getting the deal done from contract to closing, and in the client’s best interest.

In 2011, the New York Times published an article on the desirability of hiring a lawyer, and the pitfalls associated with not doing so: The Case for Hiring a Lawyer .

Even the National Association of Realtors® agrees that hiring a lawyer for home sales or purchases is often in the client’s best interest.  See their response here. As does Nolo.

If you would like to hire a lawyer for the sale or purchase of a home, please contact our office at 314.862.2237

No, the Title Company’s lawyer only represents the Title Company.  Similarly, the Lending Bank’s lawyer only represents the Bank.  The only lawyer who represents you and works to solely protect your interests is the lawyer you hire.

In Missouri, title companies are permitted to provide certain legal forms, such a form deed or marital waiver.  Their attorneys, however, represent neither the buyer nor seller; title company lawyers only represent the Title Company.

While your interests and the Title Company’s interests might often be aligned, they are not always the same.  And at times, your interests may conflict with the Title Company’s interests. 

For example, a homebuyer may be presented with documents at closing, such as an indemnity agreement, that protects the Title Company against the homebuyer. An indemnity agreement states that the homebuyer will have to pay the Title Company under certain circumstances if later there is a claim against the Title Company related to the home purchase.

In addition to making sure your interests are protected, your attorney can negotiate with the Title Company’s attorney over certain exceptions to the Title Insurance Policy.

For example, if the neighboring parcel is wrongly encroaching on your property through a misplaced fence, the Title Company may at first refuse to insure over this part of your property. This exception will limit your future ability to move the fence or build on that part of your property.

Your attorney will try to work with the Title Company’s attorney to resolve the situation in your favor.   Without an attorney on your side, the Title Company would likely not deal with this issue and your property rights could be negatively impacted.

If you would like to consult with an attorney regarding title issues, please contact our office at 314.862.2237 or email us through this website.