Should I use a lawyer in state or out-of-state?

Hello Jake, I'm a transactional and corporate lawyer working in-house counsel for a company with 13 entitles and thus, I have to constantly draft, review, amend and negotiate commercial transactions and contracts on a weekly basis. As a result of this work, I have a great understanding of what clauses are needed within a contract to protect an entity/person and what clauses are needed to ensure the contract is covering all probable scenarios that may arise of the contract, such as, lack of payment or breach of contract. Maybe I can assist you with your purchase agreement. Feel free to text or call me at (305) 510-2722 or email mjosephkelly@gmail.com Best regards, -Michael J. Kelly, Esq.

Hello! Just to be clear, I am not licensed to practice in Texas, but I am a licensed attorney in Oklahoma. I have seen this question be unanswered for a while, so I thought I'd respond. Typically, once the parties have both agreed (by writing and signing) terms of a contract, including a maturity date for payment, the maturity date can only be changed by all parties in another signed writing. That means that one party (such as the owner finance seller) should not be able to change the payment terms of an agreement without your express approval. Hope that helps!

Good morning. I am a WA State attorney, and I have reviewed numerous purchase and sale agreements (PSA), and have bought and sold numerous pieces of property in WA and CO. You are wise to ask this question. Since you are the buyer, normally your buyer's real estate agent would prepare the PSA for you to use, after discussing with you. Since you said a PSA "was presented to you" I"m wondering whether you are buying a new home from a building contractor. In any event, the purpose to an earnest money payment is to hold the home for you and let the seller know you are interested. In most cases, however, the seller can keep your whole earnest money payment if you back out of a purchase for reasons that are not protected in the PSA. For example, if you write your offer contingent on your subjective approval of an inspection report, or write your offer contingent on obtaining financing at terms you approve of, either one of these terms can get you out of the contract and also have your earnest money returned to you. There should be language in the PSA that clearly states what happens to the earnest money and how much earnest money you are providing. I hope that that is helpful. If you continue to have questions, I urge you to have an attorney review any and all documents, including those for loans, prior to signing anything.

A well-written purchase offer usually includes several ways for a buyer to back out of the purchase without any penalty - for example, if the buyer doesn't like the inspector's report, one can usually back out on that basis - another typical one is failing to obtain a loan. I hope your buyer's agent wrote up the offer in a way that gave you 2 or 3 "escape clauses" - you should talk with your agent, but if there are problems, I would recommend that you have a real estate attorney review your offer and help you get out of the offer - if possible - with minimal or no cost to you.

Based on what you’ve described, once the option period has expired without the buyer exercising their right to purchase, the option agreement is generally no longer enforceable and you are free to market the property to other buyers. To protect yourself, review the exact language of the option agreement to confirm whether it provides for automatic termination upon expiration, and consider sending the buyer a written notice—ideally by both regular and certified mail—confirming that the option has lapsed and that you are releasing the property for sale to others. Please be advised that I provided this information for educational purposes, and no attorney client relationship has been formed.