Buyers Disclosure Statement a Good Concept
An agent recently posed the question on his ActiveRain blog, “What about a buyer disclosure?” Jim Crawford, an agent with RE/MAX Greater Atlanta office, said sellers are always called to task to disclosure everything about the house but agents are finding more and more that it’s because of the buyer that a sale falls through.
So what about the buyers? What about dead beat buyers? Why do they get off scott free? Many potential home buyers can deliver a less than honest picture of their ability to buy and they have to offer nothing in return to demonstrate that. They can give you a generic certificate of pre-approval from an defunct Internet mortgage site, and very frequently balk at confirming their ability to to purchase by having another loan officer review their abilities to buy.
I really like the idea of a buyer’s disclosure statement and it looks like the Florida Association of Realtors already offers one. The form is designed to assist the seller in evaluating the buyer’s ability to purchase. Some of the questions:
- Do you currently rent or own?
- Have you owned before
- Have you made application with a lending institution or mortgage company as yet? Name of firm and contact information…
- Have you ever filed bankruptcy? When?
- Can you provide the credit scores from your credit report?
- Is there any pas, existing or threatened legal action against you that would prohibit you from purchasing a home?
I think this form is an excellent idea… one that I’ll be showing to my own broker.
