Even those of you
that may be not so inclined to use it extensively will readily agree that
technology has and will continue to impact our lives. I am an ardent believer and typically an
early adopter of technology, provided it offers a meaningful purpose. At the same time however, it is not meant to
replace the personal contact or the human oversight that is a hugely important
part of a legal transaction such as real estate.
It is not uncommon
during the real estate transaction to have documents transmitted back and forth
between both REALTORS® and their respective clients via fax or more likely
email. All real estate documents in the
province of Ontario have been reformatted to letter versus legal sized pages
for this purpose. While this mode of
document transmittal is fast and in the case of email much more legible than
faxing, it does not lessen the burden on all parties of making sure the
required forms are fully and legally executed.
Today’s forms
require initials on every page to ensure none are missed, and any and all changes must be initialed by both
the Buyers and Sellers. I just read
an article titled “How Email Killed the Deal” in a real estate publication I follow
that went like this. A recent court case
arose when a change in price on an Agreement of Purchase and Sale had not been
fully endorsed or acknowledged by both, the Buyers and Sellers resulting from an
initial(s) and or a signature(s) having been missed on the documents. Who was at fault? In this case it was the REALTOR® for the
Buyers. The Buyers were under the
impression they had an accepted offer at one price whereas in the Seller’s mind
it was a higher price. The matter went
to court and due to the missing initial(s) the Judge ruled there was in fact no
contract. The Buyers got their deposit
back but no house and the Sellers lost a sale.
All of this stemmed
from the fact that documents had been transmitted back and forth as attachments
to emails but were seemingly not opened and checked by one or both REALTORS® to
make sure that all changes etc. were duly executed by both the Buyers and the
Sellers. With something as complex as
today’s real estate transactions, no amount of technology can take the place of
the required human intervention and care as is required to cross all the T’s
and dot all the I’s. This is where a
trained and conscientious REALTOR® must exercise due care on behalf of their
clients. Even when not dealing with people
face-to-face, I always make a call during which we review the documents, I
answer any questions and most importantly cover all the areas where they need
to initial and sign. Just one missing
initial can create a loophole thus jeopardizing a sale so it’s a matter of
checking and double checking everything.
In my
next post I will explain the process of what happens with Buyer’s deposits when
a real estate transaction is aborted.
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