Sign Georgia Banking Contract Online

Industry sign banking georgia contract online

hi everybody Dana sparks Broker of maximum one Greater Atlanta Realtors and this week's contract tip I'm continuing on with this series of the changes to the 20/20 guard Georgia Association of Realtors contract forms so again as I have mentioned in the previous videos these contract forms will be available for use on January 1st 2020 you will access them wherever it is that you currently access your forms through our Docs and F MLS or transaction desk and Georgia MLS and as a realtor with your in RDS number you will have access to them also from the Georgia Realtors site so wanted to continue on we are also teaching we are also maximum one companies are hosting classes classroom classes on the 20/20 gar contract changes and all of our offices starting in December so please check the link below for the online calendar and we love to welcome you in a class these classes are open for all agents regardless of brokerages they are hosted by maximum one and we are hosting them in December and January and some in February as well so plenty of opportunity to be able to look at the forums ask your questions and get three hours to e through the Georgia real estate academy so ready on with the topic so today I'm gonna cover the changes to the actual purchase and sale agreement there are actually not a lot of changes in the purchase and sale so let's go over them but we're starting with paragraph b 1a this is where it talks about the warranty so we know that the warranty that is being conveyed between a buyer and a seller when they go binding on the GAR contract is a limited warranty deed and this is the it's a and it is this is the 12th let me read it to you and then we'll discuss it seller Warren said at the time of closing the seller will convey good and marketable title to said property by limited Warren subject only to one zoning to general utility sewer and drainage easements of record as of the binding agreement date and upon which the improvements parentheses other than any driveway or walkway do not encroach so that is the change that they added for 2020 is they added that parenthesis regarding other than any driveway or walkway do not encroach so it is not required in the guard purchase and sale agreements for the buyer to get a survey however it is always always a great idea for a buyer to get a survey of a property prior to closing on that property so as a buyer's agent you might want to have that discussion well you should have that discussion with the buyer regarding having a survey and time it so that that survey will be completed prior to the end of due diligence so that the buyer would have the option of terminating the contract under no penalty should something come up on the survey that they are not happy with additionally if a buyer chooses to not have a survey you probably might want to consider getting that in writing that you did have that discussion with them about getting a survey and they declined to get one so if your maximum one agent we do have that documentation called service recommendations in the reference section of paperless pipeline if you're not a maximum one agent please talk with your broker about something to have that documented alright moving on next change is under the where it talks about the brokerage relationships so that is all covered in section hang on so under paragraph b10 see under the section of brokerage relationships where it has the disclaimer and the gara forms committee has put in some additional information in there just to further clarify to the public the relationship or the relationship or the responsibilities of the agent / broker with respect to the purchase and sale agreement so let me read you what the change is there so it states again paragraph b10 C that is the brokerage relationships in this transaction where it's describing the brokerage relationships and defining and talking about dual agency designated agency no agency and the duties and responsibilities of the broker and the disclaimer the disclaimer section the part that they have added for 2020 states hire acknowledges that when and if the broker answers a question of the buyer or otherwise describes some aspect of the property or the transaction the broker is doing so based upon information provided by the seller rather than the independent knowledge of the broker unless the broker makes an independent written disclosure to the contrary so in other words it is just further clarifying to the public especially the buyer that any representation or any any answer that the broker or / agent answers regarding the property is based on the information provided to the agent by the seller so that is a good protection for an agent and if you as the agent are asserting something about the property from your own knowledge you need to make sure that you have that as a written disclosure that it is from your knowledge not from the seller knowledge all right next change this part has to do with the default section so this is in paragraph c2 under default and this is this is say it I don't to put my opinion in here but I think you guys might like this this is under default section under the rights to the broker and what it states is in the event that this agreement is terminated or fails to close due to the default of a party here to the defaulting party shall pay is liquidated damages to every broker involved in this agreement the Commission the broker would have received had the transaction closed for purposes of determining the amount of liquidated damages to be paid by the defaulting party all written agreements establishing the amount of commission to be paid to any broker involved in this transaction are incorporated here in by reference the liquidated damages reference above are a reasonable pre estimate of the brokers actual damages and are not a penalty so what that may be first of all they added the language an out but about not being a penalty based on a lawsuit here in Georgia that occurred I believe in 2018 so they just represent that's a legal issue but the change to you as a broker slash agent is they took out the language the previous version in 2019 referenced the how to ascertain what commission was to be paid as liquidated damages and in the previous contract in 2019 it referenced brokerage engagement so in the 2019 version it stated that under the default section rights a broker a same thing the part Irma native fails to close to do a party yeah would have receipt it goes on further on to say that says the liquidated damages are necessary in the event a broker reference herein either has a brokerage engagement agreement or other written agreement for the payment of real estate commission with the defaulting party the broker shall only have remedies against the defaulting party as provided for in such agreement so in essence that referenced the amount of commission that was agreed upon in a listing agreement or in a buyer brokerage agreement the change here in 2020 is it just references it just says if it fails to close the for the purposes of determining the amount of liquidated damages to be paid all written agreements establishing the amount of commission to be paid by any broker involved in the transaction or incorporated here in so does that mean that the amount of commission would have been paid to the broker is that based on what the Commission would have been heard the transaction or what the commission would have been heard that by a brokerage agreement or port or the listing agreement um we will have to get a little bit further clarification on that but that is a change and they did take out the verbage specifically referring to the actual brokerage agreements so I don't know if it would still refer back to the brokerage agreement if there was an agency client relationship with the party and this is to cover contracts working with customers or if it just specifically references the amount of Commission that would be paid per the purchase and sale agreement transaction had it not closed so interesting change there and stay tuned as I get further clarification on that the other thing that they have changed again in paragraph C 3 where it talks about risk of damage to the property and they have made this change in all of the court all of these changes that they made in the purchase and say our corresponding changes in all the purchase and sale agreements the purchases sale for new construction lot and land so forth and so on but under risk of damage it does say that the seller warrants at the time of closing the property and all items remaining with the property if any will be in substantially the same condition including conditions disclosed to the property disclosure statement as on and it used to say binding agreement date they have changed that too now say as of the offer date and the reason behind that is that the buyer has seen the property as of the date they're writing the offer and there can be a time difference between the offer date and when the parties actually go binding so that has been a change that the timeframe that the baseline timeframe for the condition of the property is offer date rather than finding agreement date another one going on under paragraph c 4e again this is in the other section where it is talking about the entire agreement modification and assignment that one is just again most of these changes are for clarification for our public buyers and sellers but that one just states that this entire agreement may not be amended or waived except upon the written agreement of the buyer and the seller any agreement to terminate this agreement or any other subsequent agreement of the parties relating to the property must be in writing and signed by the party so that's the addition they made there is a reference to of us be in writing and signed by the parties now they have added a new section so this is a new section in paragraph C for statute of limitations and this paragraph states all claims of any nature whatsoever against the broker and/or their affiliated licensees whether asserted in litigation or arbitration must be brought within two years from the date of any claim or cause of action arises such such actions shall thereafter be time-barred so that is based on case law that any well just what it says any claims must be there is a two-year statute of limitations on that now on going further under the same paragraph c500 definitions they have further clarified or tried an attempt to clarify how you know when there is a binding agreement date there is still for whatever reason a lot of questions under when the actual binding agreement date is so this clarification states that paragraph 5b binding agreement date if the binding agreement date shall be the date when a party to this transaction who has accepted an offer or counteroffer to buy sell real property delivers notice of that acceptance to the party who made the offer or counteroffer in accordance with the notice sections of this agreement and but they just further clarified it it said the binding agreement in 2019 is stated the binding agreement date shall be the date when a party to this transaction who has accepted an offer counteroffer to buy or sell real property delivers notice of that acceptance to the party who made the offer a counteroffer in accordance with the notice sections of this agreement so that's what it says that's what it used to say in 2019 it further went on to say notice of the binding agreement date may be delivered to either party or the broker working with or representing such party to the other party if notice of accurate binding agreement date is delivered the party receiving notice shall sign the same and immediately return it to the other party so in essence they clarified it by eliminating that other language that seemed to have confused to everybody basically the binding agreement date the last party making the offer or counteroffer is the party that binds it so regardless if you're a buyer making an offer and then the seller would sign it so then you have an accepted contract but it's not binding upon the parties yet the seller then or the party in this situation the seller who has accepted the contract needs to send notice of that acceptance to the buyer and the buyer binds it so the easiest way to remember it is the party making the last offer or counteroffer in this example it's the buyer making the last offer is the party that binds another example buyer makes an offer to the seller seller makes a counteroffer back to the buyer buyer makes a counteroffer back to the seller seller makes a quote a counteroffer back to the buyer buyer signs it it's not binding yet we have an accepted contract but the buyer must send it back to the seller and the seller is the party that binds it in this example the seller was the party making the last counteroffer party making the last offer counteroffer is the party that binds easiest way to remember it then if further goes on where it talks about in that same paragraph a material relationship that one it's not a change they just moved it under to the definitions paragraph rather than where it was stand alone all right the cyber fraud warning and the limitations of liability so that got changed in the mid-year review last year in 2019 June 1st 2019 they had the cyber fraud warning in the limitations of liability should one of the parties be a victim of cyber fraud and they had an initial line in the middle of the page the top third of the page well a lot of buyers and sellers were missing those initials so basically what they've done under the cyber fraud section and the limitations of liability section they have removed the place for the buyer and seller initials because the buyer and the seller will sign the offer of the counteroffer at the end and so that part is agreed upon when they sign the contract all right moving on under the section well it's still still still the same thing so they have this cyber fraud paragraph as a standalone paragraph then they have added a whole separate paragraph number seven that says limit on brokers liability and it is all in bold it is all in cap and again this is a a new section they've just sort of teased it out and separated it out just to really really really bring to the public's awareness the the awful issue that cyber fraud is in our industry as an agent and as a broker it's really really important to have this discussion with your buyers and your sellers that not to trust any anything having to do with money especially wire instructions that come across from an email or that comes across as a change from what you have what they have already received and definitely not to trust the phone number that comes across on an email stating a change in the in the instructions the buyer or seller sometimes there's wire instructions for a payoff for a seller too but the buyer typically is the one interacting with the wire instructions to get the wire instructions from a broker for earnest money and or to get wire instructions from a closing attorney for their down payment the agent really should not be the messenger of those wire instructions the buyer needs to get those directly from the party to whom they are going to wire the funds should be handled by u.s. mail by an analog fax machine by hand delivery as an agent my advice to you as a point of practice is go to the closing attorneys that you close with on a regular basis your broker that you work with on a regular basis obviously your own get a stack of their wire instructions in person from those parties then when you have your buyer appointment and you are meeting with your buyer in person physically hand them the wire instructions right then that way when you do find a property for the buyer to go under contract there's no delay in having to get the wire instructions mailed by u.s. mail from one of those parties to the fire they will already have them in their hand but again the biggest thing is make sure your public knows and you as an agent you to be aware that you too can be a victim of wire for cyber fraud do not trust any changes to wire instructions that come across by an email the other thing that's happening is the bad guys are out there and I don't remember what it's called spo fing or ghosting or but what's happening is the bad guys are sending text messages to a buyer in a real estate transaction with with new wire instructions the problem is the phone number from which the party gets the text is the number of the closing attorney or the broker crazy how they're doing it if these bad guys would cut all this time energy and effort into working for good rather than evil might be a different outcome but nevertheless it is it is not only emails that are getting hacked but text messages so it's just a huge huge issue to make sure you have a thorough discussion with mostly your buyers but again your sellers - regarding a payoff and make sure that your sellers go to their bank and actually physically get the wire instructions to their account and take those two closing so that the closing attorney also does not accidentally become a victim of wire fraud trying to wire a payoff for a seller's mortgage after a closing so what they have changed in the garb purchase and sale agreement for 2020 is they they still have that cyber fraud warning other thing as an agent you guys really should all have a wire fraud disclaimer on your email signature just as another way of reminding our public to be careful but paragraph 7 is a brand-new separate line item paragraph it is all in bold and all in caps and it states limit of brokers liability buyer and seller acknowledge that brokers a shall under no circumstances have any liability greater than the amount of the real estate commission paid here under to the broker excluding any commission amount paid to a cooperating real estate broker if any or if no real estate commission is paid to broker then a sum not to exceed $100 and be notwithstanding the above shall have no liability in excess of $100 for any loss of funds as the result of wire or cyber fraud so again they have just tease that out to make that a separate in your face bold statement they take they took away those initials and they they just added that in conjunction you know right after the the paragraph about cyber fraud and the cyber fraud language again just has it has that changed and all of those changes can also be found in other contracts the lot the lot purchase and sale agreement land purchase and sale commit commercial anyway those those corresponding changes have been made throughout the various contract forms where that had been addressed so not a whole lot of changes a couple of important changes I will get clarification on the the amount of liquidated damages that Commission reference should a party default the amount of liquidated damages to a broker if that is the amount of commission strictly based on the purchase and sale agreement or if that reference is a buyer brokerage agreement or a listing agreement I will get clarification on that so stay tuned for a future video on that and hopefully I'll have clarification before those classes are hosted at maximum one offices thank you guys so much for watching I appreciate it and I'm Dana sparks Broker of maximum lunker here Atlanta Realtors i've got puppies playing at my feet satisfying your needs with service innovation and education you