From: Brandon Yeager, Founder of the Real Estate Rocks Newsletter
Location: HouseRock Headquarters, Greensburg, PA
Saturday 6:42 AM
Dear Friend,
This newsletter may prevent you, or your unknowing real estate agent (hopefully not Uncle Chuck?) from either: getting sued or losing ten’s of thousands of dollars, or worse.
This one is no-joke.
As a real estate investor and Broker in Pennsylvania, I cannot tell you how many times this happens. But,far MORE than you want to know.
But first…You should know:
Amigos Lives Matter
One of my favorite movies as a teenager was the 3 Amigos.
Three down and out Hollywood actors: Ned Nederlander, Lucky Day, & Dusty Bottoms…They are struggling to make it.
Losing jobs. Seems they can never catch a break. Until one day…standing in the middle of the street with no clothes, just undergarments and hats.
The Telegram Arrival
The telegram arrived that changed their lives.
It read:
Three Amigos,
Hollywood, California.
You are very great.
100,000 pesos.
Come to Santa Poco. Put on show, stop.
The In-famous El Guapo
If you are familiar with the movie. You know what happened.
If not, long story short:
The 3 Amigos traveled to Mexico for what they anticipated was a well-paying acting gig and to work with the “More than Famous” El Guapo, only to discover the townspeople thought the Amigos were real, heroic, gun-slinging cowboys and was trying to hire them to come to Santa Poco to stop El Guapo and his band of real, legit, they will shoot you and kill you renegades who were terrorizing the citizens of the little town.
This is a funny story, but in my everyday world, that’s where the humor ends and the stories diverge.
Time to turn my baseball cap around…backwards to frontwards. It’s that serious.
Please lean in and listen to me carefully.
Every week across the state of Pennsylvania, realtors, real estate agents, and some of them possibly even being “scum sucking pigs” complete the dreaded mistakes that follow.
I’m going to describe to you the symptoms. And then I’m going to define the problem.
I see this happen time and time again, either with other agents who are representing Sellers, or also with other agents representing Buyers.
Something is being requested, or asked that is “out of the ordinary”.
Perhaps it is dealing with an owner financed property which will involves a privately held note and mortgage and terms to be negotiated.
Is the shed movable? or no? Is it portable enough that it is going with the sellers?
Grandma Rita’s plum tree that was planted 18 years ago and the sellers are planning to dig it up and take with them when they sell.
Drafting “side agreements” for personal property outside of the real estate sales agreement.
Writing up a “rent back” agreement for the seller who needs to stay an extra 2 weeks in the house before their new one is ready to move into. Nah, no security deposit is needed.
Was the “easement” properly worded to allow for Electrical company to access the lot, and from the correct direction? Was the easement clearly defined for where the neighbor’s driveway could cross your property? Or maybe a highway access permit is needed depending upon which road the property is located. What is the minimum number of vehicles per day that will need to access the driveway?
I Agree: Most Agents Are Well-Intentioned
They want to help you make all your dreams come true.
They want to get the deal under contract and closed ASAP. For You (the client), and themselves, so they can feed the kids.
Most agents have access to standardized real estate contracts either through their Broker or their state Realtors Association.
Herein Lies the Danger
Real estate agents practice law without a license — often termed the Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL)— when they move beyond filling in blanks on pre-approved, attorney-vetted contract forms and begin creating, interpreting, or significantly altering legal rights and obligations. While agents are experts in marketing and negotiations, they are not authorized to give legal advice or draft custom legal language. (Note: I pulled this definition straight from Google – it’s a perfect fit).
Please hear me: I understand, in real estate time is of the essence. I’m also not saying simple changes are not possible.
However, in many instances, if Brokers knew what some of their “understudies” were doing with legally binding documents they would throw themselves from the Mt. Washington inclined plane.
Ok, maybe not that bad, But, sometimes these things are pretty bad.
I want to protect you.
I want to protect the assets in your life that mean the absolute most to you.
I want to protect the largest potential pieces of your retirement so that you can fulfill your life’s dreams and create generational wealth for your children, and your children’s children.
It Only Takes a Few Words
However, sometimes…just a few words written on a piece of paper, interpreted the wrong way, without the correct legal details and context make all the difference in the world.
Amigos: 100,000 Pesos…Come…Put on Show.
I love you mi amigo.
And friends don’t let friends hire real estate agents who act like they are attorneys and gun-slinging words around and crossing out stuff so much that their real estate agreements look like redacted Epstein files.
(See what I did there?)
This is a very serious issue. And I hope that I have thoroughly convinced you that you need the right experts on your side.
If you know anybody planning to sell, or buy in the near future, and you want them to be well-protected, please have them reach out to me. We will take amazing care of them.
Later,
Brandon “Tell Me I Will Die Like a Dog” Yeager
PS. Special terms are absolutely able to be incorporated into your offers and agreements. However, knowing when to bring in legal experts who see the ramifications of this on a far greater scale than you or I, is paramount to everybody’s success: yours especially!
The attorneys are the ones arguing cases at the courthouses.
They are seeing judgments be awarded that bankrupt people and companies.
In the meantime, I love you my Friend…
even if you may be a “son of a motherless goat”.
Make it a Great Week!
