OMG 13 pages! Purchase contract.....

[Matthew Reed]

Ok, I got a lead on a house, I look at it and tell him I'll pay him $85K for it.  He agrees, says "send me a contract".  I used a one-pager that was in the class I took (I've used it twice before, both times rejected).  It has all the important stuff, the offered price, the amount down, etc.  He signs it but instead of $100 down he lines it through and enters $2000 down, and he lines through my title company and puts in his. 

I know it's not official until I initial the changes, but I decide to send it to my lawyer.

He goes nuts!  Why would you use this contract!!!?  He says.  "It has nothing about loan contingency"!  I say; no, it's a cash deal.  He says "do you have this cash"? me; "no, I'm going to get a hard-money loan" him "Well that sounds like something we need in there."  me, "No, this is presented to the owner as a cash deal, the loan will go through in 30 days.

Anyway, long story short he sends me back a 30 PAGE CONTRACT!!!!!

What do I do?

I can't send that back?  Can I?

I've bought other houses before, but I got them from wholesalers and they did the contract.

-Help!

-Matt

[Jon Holdman]

A short contract is great.   Right up until something goes wrong.  That's why real contracts (as opposed to guru class contracts) tend to be many pages.  Because this is a complex transaction and a lot of stuff can go wrong.  So, let me be clear - a one page contract is almost certainly going to get you in trouble at some point.

I'd have a look at your standard state contract and go from there.

You do realize you're dealing with a savvy seller, if they've asked for a reasonable earnest money and chosen their title company.

In most state, the buyer has the ability to dictate the title company, not the seller.  Seller's get around this by saying they will only buy title insurance if you use their company.  What that typically means is they bought the property using their title company and did a "hold open" on the title policy.  So, when they sell they only pay an incremental cost for the new title policy.