Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Executing a home settlement/lease agreement when seller/owner is out of town

I found a home for a renter or as I like to think of as 'my future buyer'. The home is owned by a lady out of the country and her mother,a realtor, is the listing agent. So I was there with my clients to execute the lease,but the listing agent wasn't.

This in and of itself is ok,but I thought the listing agent would have been there, thinking her daughter gave her power of attorney to sign the lease or she would help us expedite the daughter signing the lease, unless she was under the weather.

So I worked with the agent's manager. My clients read over and signed the necessary documents,which didn't have any signature on the owner/landlord.

Since the listing agent wasn't there,we didn't know if she had power of attorney to sign the necessary documents and if she could have in fact signed. The manager, to my surprise, wasn't sure if there is power of attorney. It was my error not to ask directly to the listing agent before settlement how the lease was going to be executed with her client/daughter out of town,so I wouldn't be surprised.

So we left the settlement table without a "fully executed lease",which is either going to be signed by the agent (if given power of attorney) or mailed to the owner out of the country. So,we can expect a fully executed lease in 7-10 working days and commission checks won't be written to the brokers until that point in time. But the broker collected the 2 checks today for deposit and first full month rent. No keys for my client yet because not fully excecuted lese. So The broker was able to taketh but not giveth away.

To the landlord's credit, she is doing the right thing and pro-rating August rent until the lease is signed by the other party. The owner's mother really should have been at settlement to resolve the matter/give clarity then and there. So, I'll have to wait a few weeks to get payment. I do everything I can to represent my client's interests,but I do so in order to earn my salary.

I did get the manager to laugh when I asked when the last time she had a dry settlement was. To think positive,at least it isn't a short sale/foreclosure where I may not be getting the salary I earned for my work.

For my clients,the home is being cleaned up and they are scheduled to pick up keys for the home on August 7 and I will make sure the home is move in ready for them,and that I get paid ,of course :-)

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