The following is a list of some of Wainwright Real Estate’s policies. We hope this
will be of assistance. Earlier versions of the policies should be discarded.
A) | Missing required fields on the input sheets. These are fields marked by “+” or “*”. These fields cannot be left blank. Even if the field should be “0” or “none”, it still needs to be filled in as such. |
B) | Square footage problems. This is a required field, and if you get the information from somewhere other than measuring it yourself, you need to disclose the source of the information in the remarks (e.g. “sq. footage per tax records”, or “per owner”). |
C) | Missing seller signatures and/or names. Please double check the tax records to see if all owners are accounted for. |
D) | Missing start or expiration dates, or missing check box items on the 4-page listing contract. |
E) | Missing forms and addendums, including disclaimers/disclosures/lead paint/AICUZ addendums. If these addendums are required, they need to be completed and signed by the seller and turned in with the listing. |
F) | Make sure to include a copy of any Power of Attorney that is used to sign the listing. |
G) | Commission problems. The minimum commission requirements of para. 6 must be met. The selling broker commission being offered (SBC) needs to be at least 2.5% for all listings. Also, in the Brokerage Fee section of the listing contract, the first blank is the TOTAL commission (e.g. 6%), and the second blank is the selling agent commission (e.g. 3%). |
A) | It is illegal to give a referral fee to anyone who is not a licensed real estate agent.
All referral fees must be paid to the agent’s broker. |
B) | Never put any terms of a contract on an addendum with the intention of hiding
what the addendum says from anyone. All addenda must be kept with the contract at all times, especially when it is being given to the loan officer or appraiser. For example, you go to a new home site, and the agent tells you that the seller will include items in the sale in excess of what would be allowed by the lender. He further tells you that it is customary to do this. This is mortgage fraud and is a federal felony which will get you involved with the FBI and could land you in prison.
Another example: You sign a sales contract which calls for the seller to give cash back to the buyer at settlement. The buyer’s loan officer tells you that this must be on an addendum and cannot be reflected on the HUD-1; in other words, that as long as the loan officer doesn’t know about it, it's OK. What the loan officer is really saying is: "YOU go to jail, not me". ALL MONEY THAT PASSES BETWEEN BUYER AND SELLER AT CLOSING MUST APPEAR ON THE FINAL HUD-1! Otherwise, it’s mortgage fraud. Typical violations of this rule include escrows which aren’t allowed by a lender and seller rebates or "allowances" above and beyond allowable closing cost assistance. There are a lot of loan officers and even settlement agents in town who do not understand this, so please be careful. Of course, you cannot prevent the seller from giving a rebate to the buyer, but if you sign a contract or addendum with such a provision, or otherwise facilitate such a rebate, then you are potentially making yourself a party to mortgage fraud. The rule to follow is: if it can't be on the HUD-1, it can’t be done. The HUD-1 must reflect the ENTIRE transaction, and there cannot be any "side-deals" between the buyer and seller that are not reflected on it (allowances, escrows, gift cards etc.). |
C) | Never certify in a contract that you are holding earnest money when you have not
yet received it. This could cost you your license. This means that when you submit an offer to a seller or seller's agent, you must have actually received the deposit from the buyer at that time, unless it is otherwise disclosed in the offer that you have not. This is especially important for HUD/VA sales. Never submit an offer to HUD or VA until you have actually received the deposit from the buyer. |
D) | Wainwright agents are not allowed to list property for rent or manage rental property. You must not act as a rental agent or property manger, even as a favor to a friend. This includes even small things like collecting rent from tenants. Additionally, if you manage your own rental property, make sure the tenant knows that Wainwright is not involved. Do not give them your card or tell them to drop rent off at the Wainwright office. Wainwright does have a property management department, and if you have an owner who needs their property managed, you may refer the owner to our property management department. You will receive a referral fee for doing so, and your name will be kept in he file so that you can list the property if and when the owner wants to sell it. |
E) | Never put a client's earnest money deposit in your own account, even with the intention of writing your own check back to the company. This is commingling and could cost you your license. If you agree to "front" the earnest money deposit for the buyer by paying the deposit with your own check, this fact needs to be acknowledged in the sales contract. Otherwise, do not turn in your own personal check for an earnest money deposit on any of your contracts. |
F) | Never sign or initial for a client on a contract unless you have a valid, written power of attorney from the client authorizing you to do so. In the absence of a power of attorney, the clients must sign for themselves. If you (or anyone else without a power of attorney) sign for them, even with their permission, the signature may not be legally binding. If either party later decided not to close, the other party might sue you for leading them to believe that they had an enforceable contract when they did not. Additionally, always remember that there is no such thing as an oral real estate contract. Never allow a contract to be "accepted by phone conversation." Never write this on a contract. Doing so could result in the same type of lawsuit. The buyer or seller (or their attorneys in fact) must actually sign the documents themselves. A fax is acceptable for this purpose, so if they can "accept by phone," they can accept by fax. If you are dealing with an agent who tells you that his client has accepted your offer "by phone," tell the agent and your client that you cannot consider the offer accepted until it is accepted in writing. This means that you should advise your client not to take any action that will cost them money (e.g. paying for an appraisal or home inspection) until the contract has been accepted in writing—unless you want to reimburse the client out of your own pocket if the deal falls apart! |
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