A short sale essentially is when the lender agrees to take less than what is owed on the mortgage. This became a common occurrence, unfortunately, when the real estate market crashed in 2008, 2009. People often owed far more than her homes were worth. Instead of foreclosing on all these homes, sometimes a bank will agree to do a short sale, which is to take less than what is owed.

A survey gives you a visual representation of your property lines and boundaries of the property. It will show if there are any structures on the property, where those structures are located in terms of your boundary lines, so you can assess if the neighbor’s fence is on your property or if an improvement on your property is encroaching onto a neighbor’s property. You will need a survey if you’re going to obtain title insurance so they can insure the title against easements and encroachments because those items cannot be discovered without performing a survey.

A Time is of the Essence Clause in a contract means that the time periods are important in the contract. Any contract that has a Time is of the Essence Clause, a judge or court is going to enforce the time periods strictly whereas if that clause is absent, if someone misses a deadline or a closing by a few days, a court may say that that’s de minimis or not a big deal.

Tenants in common means that you each have an undivided interest in the property. For instance, if there are three owners of property, each owner has a one-third undivided interest in the property. If one of the owners were to pass away, their one-third interest would pass to their heirs or to their beneficiaries under a will.

Typically, most attorneys and title companies will require a wire transfer at closing because of the amount of fraud that’s around today with cashier’s checks, wire is the safest way to get money to the closing attorney or the title company, however, you should always verify on the phone, the wiring instructions with the person that’s sending them to you to make sure you’re sending them to the right place.

If the real estate agent is aware of a defect on a property, it’s their duty to disclose that to their client. Similar to a seller’s duty to disclose facts that materially affect the value of the property, the realtor is also held to that standard.

Closing is where everything comes together. The seller will sign and deliver a deed which transfers the property to the buyer. The buyer will sign their loan documents, including a mortgage if they’re getting financing on the property. A closing statement will be drawn up and gone over by the closing attorney or title company with the parties.

Typically, in the state of Florida, the seller is responsible for the documentary stamp tax on the deed. In most counties in Florida, they’re responsible for title insurance and the real estate brokerage fee; however, none of those are actual laws, but rather, customs that have been followed over a long period of time. All of these items can be negotiated at the time of contract.

At the closing, the buyer and the seller will each sign their documents. The seller will sign a deed, which actually transfers the property to the buyer. Typically, the buyer will sign a mortgage if they’re borrowing money to buy the property. Then the closing agent will distribute the funds to the people that are due. The parties will exchange keys. Most of the time it’s a pleasant process, but sometimes it’s not so pleasant.

In Florida a seller has an absolutely duty to disclose all known facts and materially effective value to property that are not retally observable by the buyer. A seller cannot stick their head in the sand and answer, “Don’t know,” when they know for a fact that there is a problem with their property. Even if the house is sold as is, the seller still that obligation to disclose any defects to you. I would recommend consulting with an experienced Florida real estate attorney if you think that the seller has lied or omitted an answer on a defect in the property.