Orders being taken for new Agreement of Sale forms

The wait is over!

The new Agreement of Sale

The new PAR Standard Agreement for the Sale of Real Estate (ASR) is set for release in mid-to-late January. Print forms are now available for preorder and the electronic version will be available from the electronic form vendors around January 15.

The revised Agreement of Sale incorporates some major changes and REALTORS® who have reviewed the new form are ultimately giving it the thumbs up, according to Mike Barth, PAR’s standard forms specialist.

REALTOR® offices can continue to use the 2005 version of the  Agreement of Sale; it is still legally compliant. That version will also be available for REALTORS® who may be in the middle of a transaction and want to be consistent with the form. Electronic forms vendors will have both versions available for several weeks to assist in the transition.

Barth says one of the most substantive changes in the new Agreement of Sale is an expanded broker box. The front page of the form outlines the relationship between the broker, the agent, the buyer and the seller.

The form includes an updated mortgage contingency paragraph to include an appraisal contingency clause. The form has a new format for handling inspections to include more inspection contingencies and allow for a variety of circumstances. It also has reduced the default time for inspections to 10 days.

In response to the new Real Estate Licensing Registration Act (RELRA) changes, the form incorporates a change in language to dictate what will happen to escrow monies in the event of a dispute.

The Agreement of Sale also now has mandatory buyer/seller mediation as compared to the previous agreement where the buyer/seller can waive mediation.

Guidelines for the new Agreement of Sale, which explain how to use the ASR form, will be available at parealtor.org by January 15.

Barth has also been speaking at local association meetings to explain the changes and what they mean to REALTORS®.

Related posts:

1. Podcast: New Agreement of Sale will be available later this month
2. Agreement of Sale expected to ship March 1

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Tags: agreement, form, sale, standard

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Association News, Standard Forms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.