It’s one of the most valuable things you can do for Yourself and your Clients
Consider this very common scenario: A buyer buys a home in the summer. Come winter the annual rain presents the new buyer with an issue, a very, very leaky roof. The roof repair company comes to the home and says, “oh, we’ve been here before, we recommended the last homeowners make repairs that they declined to make.” If the condition of the roof was not disclosed in the seller disclosures, the seller is inevitably on the hook for a major lawsuit. At this point, the buyer has more than enough grounds for a suit.
The courts and the lawyers are going to look at 3 major pieces of documented representation about the condition of the house:
The Seller Disclosures
Any Flyers/Agent Marketing Materials
Any statements that are made in the MLS
There is a good reason the seller disclosures documentation holds the most weight in real estate lawsuits arguing “misrepresentation.” The seller disclosures are essentially a notice to buyers of the seller’s knowledge. That means the party in the transaction which is most likely to suffer financial obligations in a real estate misrepresentation lawsuit is the seller.
guide your sellers through the process with Form Filling
It’s often recommended that you don’t participate with your sellers as they complete the seller disclosures. Why? Because the moment that you’re involved, you’re liable. That means you’re capable of being held responsible for misconduct.
How do you educate your sellers and help them to fill their disclosures out legally, completely, and efficiently?
We suggest a company called Sellers Shield. Sellers Shield offers Smart Seller Tools™, online forms created with an interactive and online version of the forms created to prevent the mistakes that can create the risk of lawsuits. Sellers Shield also has “digital assistants” that guide home sellers through the process and provide helpful explanations for legal terms/FAQs that home sellers most often have questions on.
In other words, Sellers Shield will make the process for disclosing faster and more simple and provides the guidance and legal safety nets for your sellers that you cannot.
The real value of your fiduciary responsibility
As a listing agent, your fiduciary responsibility is to ensure that compliance is met with care and diligence. That duty of care and diligence includes ensuring that your clients have adequately disclosed the condition of the home they are trying to sell. And, of course, that you’ve taken every measure possible to relieve your clients of any potential for lawsuit post the transaction.
It’s very likely that your seller clients have no interest, experience, or deep understanding of real estate law and how to safely and correctly navigate a real estate transaction. It is very likely your seller clients aren’t thinking about the actual scenario that they can face a major lawsuit months and even years after they’ve sold their home. It’s your job to make sure that your clients are guided away from any illegal or immoral actions when selling their home.
Understanding the law and your ethical responsibilities can help you avoid potential legal action from buyers further down the road. A hugely useful step in protecting yourself is to be accurate and organized with your record-keeping, even years after a purchase is finalized. There’s no way to remember the details of every house you’ve sold over the years, so a good system of records makes a strong defense.
Executing proper due diligence when it comes to facilitating the seller disclosure process, is one of the most valuable things you can provide for your clients.
Paperless Paperless Paperless
Most real estate deals start with supporting your seller in properly disclosing the condition and historical knowledge of the home they are about to sell. While this traditionally has been done by physically signing papers, today’s technology gives agents new opportunities to complete the process electronically. Not only is using an online platform more convenient, but it also comes with a host of benefits that help both you and your clients prevent seller mistakes, limit agent liability, and save a ton of time.
Sellers Shield's free tool that helps agents and their clients prevent critical mistakes while disclosing the condition of a home. And, after you use their free tool, you can take advantage of their paid service that provides paid legal representation for your sellers against buyer claims, after the sale.
Not only is using an online platform more convenient, but it also comes with a host of benefits for both you and your clients.
Why do We recommend Sellers Shield?
#1 Its seller disclosure form filling software is better than anything else out there by far.
#2 It’s free to use.
#3 Their Home Sale Legal Protection package is a widely recommended comprehensive post-sale legal representation protection ($20k protection) that agents can provide as an added benefit of the listing agreement.
#4 It’s your fiduciary duty. By simply recommending your seller to consider Home Sale Legal Protection, you protect yourself and your brokerage firm from liability in the event your seller or the buyer’s attorney decides to sue for improper disclosure.
It’s a Faster Process
If there are any changes to make in the disclosure forms, agents simply initiate a re-signing through Sellers Shield. Your sellers can initiate changes in their own dashboards as well, without having to reach out to you and wait for your response.
Get Automatic Notifications
Using an online platform also makes it easier and faster to stay on top of disclosures from multiple clients. In fact, you can even start to focus more on growing your client base rather than chasing after signatures.
Enjoy Better Security for All Parties
There are countless ways that essential details can fall through the cracks when you opt to use paper disclosures. Using an online platform limits your liability as an agent in a number of ways. First, you automatically have all of the most up-to-date, state-specific disclosure forms to send to your seller clients.
Help prevent seller mistakes and limit agent liability
There is one last benefit we should mention, Sellers Shield is so easy. If you’ve ever used tools like Glide or Zip Forms, you know exactly how jumbled the process can get for your clients.
Sellers Shield is extremely client-focused and their software is the proof. Sellers are guided through the process in simple achievable steps, and the legal FAQs/definitions are provided for them along the way.
If you’d like to use Sellers Shield for free you’re in luck; it’s always free! You can get started right now at SellerShield.com.
More about Sellers Shield:
Sellers Shield, offers an online disclosure process designed by legal experts to prevent legal issues and mistakes disclosing the condition of the home.
Sellers Shield also offers Home Sale Legal Protection™, which is a paid expert legal representation for sellers protection after the sale cost (Starting From $299).
You can learn more or get started on your seller disclosure process for free at www.SellersShield.com
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