Dave Harmon wrote:
>
> But I fear you might be suggesting a contradiction. If you call upon
> the Realtor arrange to have the Register of Deeds locate and fax
> documents to you, then you are, in fact, going to rely heavily on the
> Realtor.
> ****not really....this is not what I said.
> I said....>>>> most
> of the time you can go straight to the realtor's office and the fax will be
> waiting for you.<<<<
> You will not see any deed restrictions and/or covenants until closing and
> they are not always presented.
A bit of forewarned is fore-armed. They have to ("have to" as in
legally required, in most places) show you the restrictions and
covenants early enough that you can make the decision about whether you
want to make the offer (or you offer contingent on review of the docs).
Sure, they'll resist because it's a pain (Oh, they're just standard
boilerplate...don't pay no mind to that part about not being able to
sell to non-whites.. it's not enforceable anyway), and they'll try to
drop it on you at closing ("I, James Lux, certify that I have read and
understand and agree to all the documents herein listed on Attachment A,
signed along with all the other 50 things.").. but it's just that sort
of thing that should cue you to "whoa there..."
And today, with it definitely a buyer's market, it's not like the seller
has a line of idiots waiting to offer over-asking price, sight unseen,
with cute little letters about how they'll be good owners and take care
of that little plant in the yard, waiting to flip before the loan rate
resets.
I'm not so sure about the free faxing, either.. it's one thing to fax
over 5 or 6 pages, another to fax over a 2" thick stack (which is how
much paper is in my CC&Rs). Let the seller make the copies. Maybe you
might want to check with the county (via that real estate person) to get
a confirmation that what they're handing you is really what's been
recorded (e.g. that the number of pages match, the cover sheet is the
same, etc.).. Ultimately, the seller (or someone) is going to certify
that the document you've been given is a true and correct copy of what's
been recorded.
> If there are so many pages of restrictions that you need to hire a real
> estate lawyer then you should look elsewhere.
I think that in many areas, there will always be several dozen or
hundred pages of CC&Rs to go through, especially if it's a planned
development. The developer isn't sensitive to page count, since they're
just duplicating what they did last time, and, in fact, high page count
is good, because the planning officials who have to review it won't
spend as much time on each page, that way.
And, truly, after you've read through 3 or 4 sets of these things, all
*almost* identical (with the important things being what's different),
it's a real chore.
A local attorney, who may have seen them, or whose partner may have
drafted them, might be more aware of what's important and what's not,
or, at least, where in the hundreds of pages to go look for that all
important antenna restriction.
So might a savvy real estate person.
Of course, it might take just as long to find that savvy attorney or
real estate person (among all the other chaff out there) as to just read
and figure out the documents yourself. (bearing in mind the "lawyers
representing themselves having a fool for a client" dictum)
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