Sign Washington Travel Agency Agreement Easy

Document type sign travel agency agreement washington easy

hi I'm Annie Fitzsimmons I'm your Washington Realtors Legal Hotline lawyer and today's topic is fixtures also known as how not to buy a major appliance for your client the problem of course is that brokers have buyer's or seller's who after closing are unhappy because they either didn't as the buyer get the appliance or some other fixture that they thought they were gonna get or seller ended up giving away an appliance or a fixture that they didn't want to give away and they blame all of that on the broker representing them who then ends up buying you know some very lovely new appliance for the former client it's an expensive really expensive lesson to learn and I've had several brokers ask me about it recently and the fixture doesn't have to be an appliance and in fact sometimes the appliances are the easy ones because that's what we often educate around of a washer and dryer if it's not included in the purchase and sale agreement it's not included in the transaction same is true the refrigerator any any appliances that aren't built-in appliances they are personal property and any personal property does not stay with the real property following closing of the sale transaction unless the parties have agreed that seller is going to leave the personal property in the real property at the time of closing okay so if I'm not seeing this issue coming up with appliances where am i seeing it recently there was a snowblower buyer thought was going to stay generators water filtration systems playground equipment outbuildings a property that buyer broker may think is a fixture meaning that it stays with the property but seller believes is personal property meaning that seller gets to take it now honestly the the litmus test for the difference between a fixture and personal property can be extremely subjective the one rule that's always true is that a court has to determine whether a disputed item is a fixture or personal property and the court will apply a test that lawyers will go in and argue about and they'll argue the facts and they'll try and apply the facts to the law and spin it the way that they think makes most sense on their clients behalf but as I've often said if your client finds themselves in a courtroom they've already lost even if they want and so have you so how do you create a scenario where you avoid the clients the two parties fighting over fixtures buyer brokers I think a lot of this has to do with you and how you handle buyers viewing of the property and then writing of the purchase and sale agreement listing brokers are not off the hook you need to be very diligent and so let's start actually with listing brokers listing brokers when you sit down with your seller to list property you need to have a candid conversation with your seller about anything in the property that could be a fixture or that a buyer may believe is a fixture but that the seller wants to take ask probing questions about things like generators a hot tub that's not built in the front porch swing the outbuildings the playground equipment water filtration systems propane tank satellite dishes all of the things that seem like they may be fixtures but seller may be thinking well I just put that hot tub there a year ago and it's just sitting on the deck seller may be thinking is personal property listing brokers if seller has an item in the home that either is or isn't a fixture but seller wants to take it with them listing brokers the best advice you can give that seller is get that item out of the house before the house ever goes on the market and if it's something like a chandelier which is clearly a fixture clearly a fixture but seller says oh it's an heirloom piece within my family I want to keep that chandelier great take it out now replace it with a new chandelier that's not you know sentimental to you buyer will never know the difference and you keep your heirloom chandelier if it's some item that's a bigger ticket item seller can't easily replace it maybe it's you know they just bought a brand new refrigerator freezer to replace one that died and they're planning on taking their brand new refrigerator freezer with them to their new home they're obviously not going to replace that before the sale but you need that make absolutely clear not only for the buyer and the buyer's broker but in your own kind of notes that you're going to adhere to when you're helping the seller review buyers offer that the refrigerator freezer doesn't stay and and while you communicate that to buyer and buyers broker maybe through the MLS printout maybe a note on the refrigerator freezer you're going to figure out how to how to make clear that information yourself what you really have to do listing broker is make sure that buyer and buyer broker haven't identified the refrigerator freezer as an item that's staying with the property at the time of closing paragraph five of form 21 the included items provision is the paragraph that controls this issue okay listing brokers do a good job with seller I'm gonna set listing brokers aside for the moment let's talk about buyers and buyer brokers buyer broker here's my recommendation when you are showing homes let's say you're gonna show buyer five houses you need to make a list a note you can need to create a note pad page for each property that you're going to show the buyer and again I don't care if this is on a real piece of paper but use a real pen to write on or if it's on your iPhone or wherever it is I don't care how you create this list but create a list for each house don't do it in your mind because as rock-solid as your brain is you might lose an important issue so you have this list you've shown them five houses they say I'll find it finally determine that they want to buy house number four now you pull out your list for house number four okay what was it as you walked through the home with buyer that the buyer called out as an important feature to them oh look I'm really happy because the MLS printout says that the washer and dryer will stay or they walk through the house and they say oh great there's a generator installed in this property there's you know it looks like it's hardwired in who knows whether it really is but it looks like it is or maybe it's something that's clearly not a fixture but it's just something that the buyer wants look there's a canoe here in the backyard and I would love to have that canoe the sellers are moving into a condo in downtown Seattle they don't need the canoe on this lakefront property that I'm purchasing so I want the canoe okay so make a list of all of these items one for each of the houses that you're looking at when they decide they want the house number four you pull out the list for house number four and as you sit down to write the purchase and sale agreement with the buyer you say to the buyer okay I remember this house this is the one that had the generator and the canoe and it also identifies on the MLS print out that the washer and dryer will stay how important to you are all of those items of personal property and in that generator maybe it's personal property maybe it's a fixture I'm not real clear and in fact nobody would be so buyer how important is it to you to have all three of those items in the property at the time of possession oh I really want those items okay is it so important to you that you want to negotiate those issues over the purchase price or the closing date or whatever other issues might be out there let them give you their answer if they say yes then buyer broker make sure you identify the washer/dryer the canoe the generator in the purchase and sale agreement and if buyer says oh no you don't need to mention the washer and dryer in the purchase and sale agreement we don't have to negotiate about that because seller already said they're gonna leave that by referencing it in the listing printout here's where you get to be truly value added to your buyer you get to explain to the buyer that the listing printout is nothing more than an offer from seller it is not the terms of agreement and so buyer if you really want that washer and dryer it's time of possession then we have got to include the washer and dryer in the purchase and sale agreement same is true of the canoe same is true of the generator and you get those items included in the purchase and sale agreement only then do you have a contractual right buyer to claim those items at the time of possession okay we could end the video right there but I'm gonna give you one more tip buyer brokers you are sometimes going to an encounter a lender who says you can't include personal property in the purchase and sale agreement it goofs up our value of the property versus the appraisal yadda yadda yadda it just creates issues so don't include those in the purchase and sale agreement some lenders don't care you may not know which lender is which until after you've got the purchase and sale agreement drafted so some buyer brokers will choose to carve out the personal property issue from the purchase and sale agreement altogether and leave that to the buyer and the seller if you're going to handle it that way that's fine but make sure the buyer understands that's what you're doing and the buyer may want to write some kind of agreement for themselves you're not licensed as a real estate broker to create the personal property agreement but they may want to create a personal property agreement to present along with the real real property purchase and sale agreement it's not impossible in fact it happens all the time that those items are included in the original purchase and sale agreement negotiations and then carved out later that it can be handled that way not seen me I don't know if I've ever seen a transaction fail because of that personal property issue as it approaches closing it's just sometimes a hurdle that you have to deal with and if by your brokers if you run the risk of having a seller who wants to sell to another buyer besides yours as the closing dates approaching and your buyers lender is requiring that the purchase and sale agreement be modified before closing that's when you could have a problem with that issue so again something to think about I'm not telling you exactly how you have to handle that personal property issue but recognize that it might be something that you want the buyer and seller to handle in a separate agreement questions on this or any other topic sent an email to me Legal Hotline at W a real tour dot-org thank you for being a Washington Realtors member [Music]