Ken Jacobson & Dick Hargis
I am very fortunate to work at John Daugherty, Realtors, where the company is committed to bringing valuable information and guest speakers to our weekly Sales Meetings. This week was no exception. Real estate attorney Dick Hargis and Mortgage Lender Ken Jacobson addressed our group regarding, “Lending Changes & What the Legal Ramifications Mean to You.”
This provided the perfect forum for our agents to be able to ask important questions on the subject, discuss issues they were experiencing and specific scenarios when representing both buyers and sellers.
Jacobson urged our agents that when representing buyers, to plant the seed at the very beginning that buyers need to have their financing locked in no later than 5 business days prior to closing. Hargis added that if you include this wording in the contract, it also makes the offer appear to be a stronger one to the seller.
Ken Jacobson
Jacobson said that as agents, we need to stay on top of our buyers and keep them moving forward with picking their lender, getting financing in order, etc. Things are much different now with regards to financing, and it is up to us to keep reminding our buyers of the time lines in the contract, and the fact that financing needs to be locked in no later than 5 days prior to closing. This is good to keep in mind whether representing local buyers or relocation buyers.
Hargis said that it is also important for the agents to explain the difference between loan approval and loan underwriting requirements to their buyers and sellers. Buyers can get loan approval and the property may still not meet underwriting requirements. Failure to meet underwriting requirements can cause a contract to terminate.
Hargis also warned that, “emails have now become the hot thing in litigation.” While it is true, we all delete emails, we need to be especially careful in doing so as they related to a real estate transaction. In the courtroom, agents are being asked if they have deleted any emails related to the real estate transaction. If the agent answers, “Yes,” then the next thing that happens is that the court typicaly orders a hard drive dump of your computer, and files are copied from your hard drive. The important thing to remember, is that deleting an email doesn’t protect you. If you sent it, it can be recovered. As such, all agents are reminded to carefully consider what they say in emails as with any other correspondence, as it could come back to haunt you as evidence in a legal case.
On a similar note, agents should also be careful about what they say on their social networking sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
Dick Hargis
Hargis concluded by saying that this technology is all part of the world we live in, but it is also part of litigation as well.
