Miami Condo Short Sale Contract Tip #6

Short sales of Miami condos and homes are often a great way for a buyer to get an excellent deal on a property and a seller to get out from under an upside down mortgage with hopefully less damage to credit and his or her pocketbook.  This is the sixth of several blog entries, in no particular order, each with a tip for the buyer or seller or both, to help make sure the deal goes smoothly while giving protection to one or both parties.

Miami Condo Short Sale Tip #6:

Contract deposit amounts and placement.  Like any real estate contract, a short sale contract will at some point require deposits.  Buyers should always place their deposit funds with their real estate attorney or title company, not with the Realty agents or with the seller.  It is standard to place a $1,000.00 deposit down at the time of submitting the contract offer, with the balance of typcially 5% coinciding with the last day of the inspection period, usually 10 days after receipt of the seller’s lender’s approval of the short sale.  It is suggested that a contract with higher deposits placed in the beginning may be more likely to be accepted by the seller, but unless the seller has stated such, it is likely not necessary, and may possibly place the deposit funds in jeopardy if a problem of some sort arrises with the transaction.

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1.The buyer’s lender requires it to protect their interests in the property.
2.The seller may be selling the property in a fraudulent manner.
3.The seller may have obtained the property in a fraudulent manner.
4.A prior seller may have acted in bad faith or committed mortgage fraud.
5.The seller or a prior seller may have a personal judgment recorded against them which may attach to the property.

Explanation:  Real estate title insurance, unlike most insurance, insures the property going backward from a point in time rather than forward.  This means that when a buyer purchases a piece of Florida real estate or a Florida condo, the title insurance insures or otherwise guarantees that the buyer is covered if a defect in the property title is discovered.  Property defect examples may include the following:

The seller has fraudulently sold the property to another recent buyer.
A prior seller has fraudulently sold the property to more than one buyer.
The seller purchased the property while committing mortgage fraud.
The boundaries may be incorrect and part of the property may actually be owned by an adjacent neighboring property owner.
There may be an easement which decreases the value of the property.
Structures on the property may encroach onto valid easements or an adjacent property.
There may be an older unrecorded deed transferring the property which is now recorded.
The seller or prior seller may have outstanding personal judgments which could attach to the property.
A prior owner may have unknowingly sold the property without satisfying family members’ homestead rights

Contact Christian N. Folland, Esq., a Florida Bar Certified real estate attorney and Lic. real estate broker at 786.276.9900 or cfolland@southptc.com for all your confidential real estate legal, Realty and title needs.  Folland & Associates, LC is a full service real estate law firm in Miami Beach, FL  33139. South Pointe Title Company and Real Estate Miami,Inc. are owned and operated by Christian N. Folland, Esq.

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