Buyer promises to pay attention

In this final install­ment of this four-part series on the WA Seller Dis­clo­sure we’ll con­cen­trate on the buyer.

As I men­tioned ear­lier, the Seller Dis­clo­sure is usu­ally ready to be down­loaded by any bro­ker from the MLS where it is part of the prop­erty list­ing. This gives the buyer’s agent the chance for review prior to mak­ing an offer.  If the buyer goes ahead and makes an offer, page 5 of the Seller Dis­clo­sure State­ment can be included with the buyer(s) acknowl­edg­ing on line 263 that they’ve received the offer.

Three days to say No

see the full-size page

Note that in line 255, in the all caps text, it says that the “buyer shall have three busi­ness days from the day Seller or Seller’s agent deliv­ers this Dis­clo­sure State­ment to rescind the agree­ment.” The agree­ment that is being referred to here is the Seller Dis­clo­sure and NOT the Pur­chase and Sale Agree­ment. Also, the word “deliv­ers” in this sen­tence includes the buyer’s agent bring­ing the State­ment to the atten­tion of the buyer, but in real­ity, that would most likely hap­pen at the time the buyer is mak­ing an offer.  With the sub­mis­sion of the offer and page 5 of the buyer-acknowledged State­ment to the seller’s bro­ker, day 1 of the three days rescis­sion period starts the next day unless that day is a Sat­ur­day, Sun­day or a legal holiday.

What the buyer acknowl­edges and the agent may know

What the buyer acknowl­edges is cov­ered in sec­tion II, A through F.  Most of this, I’ve already cov­ered above but note that F refers to the Lead Dis­clo­sure in case the home was built prior to 1978.  Also, while the broker/agent is not allowed to answer any ques­tions posed on the State­ment, both seller and buyer bro­kers are liable for inac­cu­rate infor­ma­tion if they know the infor­ma­tion to be inaccurate.

Sex offender liv­ing on a nearby farm?

Finally, page 5 con­tains two impor­tant notices. One con­cerns sex offend­ers, the other prox­im­ity to farm­ing. As a buyer, you should not expect your agent to point to house on the street remark­ing that this is where a sex offender lives.  I usu­ally tell my buyer clients where the infor­ma­tion is avail­able, for exam­ple sex offender search in King county. The same applies to farms, such as you may find near homes in Duvall and Carnation.

This is the fourth and final install­ment of the Form 17 dis­cus­sion. The links to the three prior posts are:

1. More changes to Seller Dis­clo­sure (introduction)
2. Page 1 (ninety-nine ques­tions and one asterisk)
3. Pages 2–4 (from potable water to lead-based paint)

If you have any ques­tions, fill out the form on the left or call me at 425–891-8213.

Share it with oth­ers on SERENE where you will be heard and seen.