The pressures buyers and sellers face to sign that contract

I wrote this blog for you. For every individual looking to purchase or sell a property in North Carolina and even those who are repeat buyers or sellers. The purpose of this blog is to provide a singular place for you to ask questions and just dig deeper into your contract before signing anything.

Read before signing

Many of us, including myself, have signed a contract without carefully reading it. Once you sign without actually reading the entire document word for word, you are essentially signing a legal document without knowing exactly what the consequences are. Unfortunately, too often we are presented with a contract, and the proverbial clock is ticking, and we feel pressured to just check that the main things are there and we sign.

In my neck of the woods, in Chapel Hill, the average home price is $620,776. To most, that's a whole lot of money and if you are about to sign a contract for let's say $500,000, I would expect that you would have read the contract in detail to avoid any negative financial and/or personal consequences.

The culture of realtors

Not all, but some realtors out there expect to send you an offer and you sign pretty much right away. You are told by many that if you like a property, you need to jump on it. Then the realtor says, "the listing agent told me they have another offer on the table". The realtor thinks she's doing you a favor by not letting you "miss out" on your dream purchase and softly nudging you to send that signed offer quickly.

The culture of realtors may be a factor in why some buyers and sellers fail to read the 17-page Form 2-T contract. It's the "let's go" mentality that doesn't leave you much room to review your contract, ask more questions, and do more research before signing the contract.

The answer

I say you have ALL the power. My best advice is before you choose a realtor or sign a representation agreement, go ahead and ask the realtor for a copy of the Form 2-T. That's your homework. One night, take your time and print out the contract and read it. Have a list of questions. Google some of them. Shoot the realtor an email with some of your concerns. Do this before you schedule any showing to look at a property.

In this blog, I will talk about a lot of things including due diligence fees, buyer and seller representations/obligations, breach of contracts, contingencies, and other topics that affect you if you plan to purchase or sell a property in North Carolina.