Guess what? If your agent can’t properly read and understand the sales contract, who do you think will suffer the consequences? Yes, YOU! All to often, a real estate professional, just like anyone else, can get too comfortable. When that happens in real estate, the agent may summarize the contract to the buyer instead of reading it and explaining it.
Contracts are long, and mostly boring. But they are the only thing that protects your rights in the sale. So you’d better take the time to read it BEFORE you sign it and find yourself committed to something you thought read differently.
For example, time frames. There are a number of time frames in any contract. A time frame for the mortgage approval, a time frame for the inspections to be completed, etc. Some of those may overlap. Some time frames refer to calendar days and some refer to business days. But miss one of those deadlines and you lose certain rights you had.
Another area for problems comes from assumptions. There might be things the agent says are understood, when in fact if they are not spelled out in the contract, they don’t exist.
Protect yourself. Don’t sign anything without thoroughly reading it, either with your agent or on your own. It is not unreasonable to ask to see a blank copy of a contract early on in the process so that you can understand it BEFORE you need it.
Either way, don’t rely on the agent to do your reading for you. It’s your name on the dotted line.
