If you are going to sell a home or property on your own without the help of a realtor — known as For Sale by Owner or FSBO for short — eventually you will need the real estate documents required by law to complete that sales transaction.
That legal document package is big and complex. Page after page of Real Estate Purchase Agreements, Disclosures, Deeds and filing documents.
Since each USA state makes its own real estate laws, the document package is different for every state. Many times, it’s different for specific counties within a state, too!
The language used in a For Sale By Owner real estate documents package also changes based on the type of financing used for the transaction. Will a bank mortgage loan be secured by the Buyer to pay the Seller? Will seller-financing be provided through a Land Contract or a Seller-Financed Mortgage? Perhaps the parties might even test the home buying waters first with a Lease-to-Own Contract? These choices significantly change the wording and details of the final real estate contracts.
When a basic agreement between the parties is reached (usually by using an Offer to Purchase Real Estate form) and the next step is to have the final home sale paperwork created, a Buyer and Seller must decide how that legal document package will be generated.
There are two options to create these real estate legal documents: to do-it-yourself, or to get professional document preparation help.
Under the do-it-yourself option, there are three choices:
– you can use downloadable FSBO legal document software;
– you can enter information into a website that generates the real estate forms online;
– or you can buy pre-printed forms from an office supply store and write-in all of your transaction information by hand.
On the professional real estate document preparation side, there are three choices there as well:
– you can use a real estate contract preparation service to customize documents for your transaction at an affordable flat-rate price, but no legal advice is provided should you have an uncommon transaction or personal situation;
– you can find and hire a real estate attorney to draft custom documents and provide you with all the legal advice you may need, but this is usually the most expensive option;
– or you can hire a title company to create the documents for you, which can get you a bit of legal advice on document options at a mid-range price, but often comes with a series of upsells (title search, title insurance, etc.) that can push the price higher.
FSBO Documents examines these real estate document creation options in clear detail and helps you make a decision on which path might best meet your needs.
We’ll show you proven, credible providers for each option, address the many state requirements for creating and filing the paperwork, and discuss how the financing methods affect the real estate document language.
We’ll even provide definitions, answer frequently asked questions, and point out recent changes in real estate law that can affect a for sale by owner real estate documents package.
So pick a Topic Category to begin! Let’s get you the facts you need to have your For Sale By Owner contracts properly drafted!
