In Florida, co-tenants or co-owners of property have a right of partition, which means they can force a sale of the property if the parties can’t agree on whether or not to sell the property. As long as they haven’t in writing agreed to not sell the property at the time of purchase, one of the parties can file a partition action and ask the court to force a sale of the property and split the proceeds accordingly.

Any time you permit the seller to remain in the home after closings, there are will be some calculated risks. If you do permit the seller to occupy the property after you’ve purchased it, it’s important to have a lease drawn up by a real estate attorney, or a post-occupancy agreement drawn up by a real estate attorney. That way, everyone knows what their rights and responsibilities are until such time as the buyer can occupy the property.

Most real estate contracts have a financing contingency deadline. You want to make sure that you pick a lender not only that of course will offer you good terms, but that can meet the deadline for the financing contingency. If your lender does not meet the deadline for the financing contingency in the contract, you may be in breach or default of the contract, and may lose the house or be sued for damages.

It’s important, I think, to hire both professionals during a transaction. Each party brings a different skillset to the table. A licensed Florida attorney is there to represent you and watch out for your legal interests. A real estate agent has expertise when it comes to the market itself, but a real estate agent does not necessarily have fiduciary duties to where they have to keep your best interest in heart at all times. An experienced Florida real estate attorney can assist you in this process, working together with your agent to bring about the best result.

Every real estate transaction has closing costs. Those are costs, fees, taxes that are in addition to the sales price. A licensed Florida attorney can advise you on whether or not you’re paying the proper closing costs or whether the other party’s trying to shift some traditional closing costs onto you.

Contingencies are parts of a contract. Lawyers often refer to them as conditions proceeding, which are things that must occur for the closing to move forward. For instance, the buyer may have an inspection contingency and may have a certain number of days to inspect the property or they don’t like the inspection results and may be able to back out of the contract. Another common contingency is the financing contingency where the buyer has a certain amount of time to obtain financing or they don’t have to follow through and close on the deal. It’s important to consult with an experienced attorney that can tell you, as the seller or the buyer, what contingencies are necessary or which contingencies may not be in your favor that you want to negotiate out of the contract.

If a party breaches a contract, the remedies available to the other party depend on what’s in the contract and whether the contract excludes specific remedies that would be typically available under the law. The most common remedy would be money damages to make the person whole again in the event of a breach of the contract, but also specific performance. That’s when you ask the court to make the seller perform the deal and there are a variety of other remedies, depending on the situation.

(silence).Some typical closing costs in a residential real estate transaction include state of Florida documentary stamp taxes, recording fees, title insurance, loan fees if you’re borrowing money, a survey. There’s a variety of closing costs and each situation will determine whether or not those closing costs apply to you.(silence).

Some of the key provisions in a real estate purchase contract are, of course, the purchase price, the closing date, a financing contingency, an inspection contingency, but there’s also a lot of smaller, little-known clauses that are important to the transaction. It’s very important to retain the services of an experienced real estate attorney to review the contract if you have any questions.

It’s important when you buy real estate to draft the contract to give yourself what’s called an inspection period. This is a time period where you can have a professional inspector come in, inspect the house. You can have an AC person inspect the air conditioning, an electrician inspect the electrical system. During this period, the honeymoon kind of has worn off, so that you more realistically get a picture of what you’re buying, but it’s important that you draft that into the contract in advance because if you don’t, then you’re going to be buying the house as is with that problem.