The art of writing contracts!

It seams easy to write contracts, but the right way is quite different. As we all know we all have someone that is an expert in it and will tell you how to do it, from your realtor, to your cousin, to a friend, but what do they really know. Realtors have been using the same clause that they were thought in their classes or are using a copy of someone else, Your cousin, bought one or two building and used the realtors documents, or naturally you should use your friends clauses, Wrong!

I am not attacking realtors here, i am just saying that they were thought by their perspective association on how to write their contracts, and given guidelines on what to write. Let’s also or ask themselves who do they owe loyalty to? Their Board or Real estate Agents, the vendor and then you, and that their ultimate goal is that you buy the property, so why complicate things in making the contract stand out  from the norm.

The more clauses that you will have the more chances of the offer not being accepted, do we agree? The more complicated your clauses the toufger thier job will be and realistically some of them do not even know why you are writing this clause this way  and how they are going to sell it to the vendor. So for them keep it simple . use the standrd clause.

I disagree, your contract is key and the way you will write it, will at some point make all the difference in the world in a good contract.

As an simple example, “Vendor agrees to carry a second mortgage in the amount of…….” versus “Vendor agrees to carry a mortgage in the amount of..”  the actual difference is nominal one word, but the implication is enormous. The later does not tell in what position the vendor will be in . meaning that he might be in third or even fourth position if this is what you need for financing.

So understanding how and what to write in your contracts is imperative.

We wrote contracts where the vendor could not pull out of the deal and because of two words he actually had to pay us out (a hefty mid six figure amount) to get the deal cancelled. just because he did not read his contract properly or did not understand why we wrote it that way.

So a quick tip. learn how to read contracts, and understand how to sell your clauses to both the realtor and the vendor!

For more information on how to write, sell and explain contracts see our

Foundation Program!