Prepare Your Option Agreement

Please note that I have included sample real estate option, memorandum of real estate option, and purchase agreements in this book for informational and in-structional purposes only. For specific information on how to properly document a real estate option transaction in your state, please follow my advice and consult with a board-certified real estate attorney [...]

You must make certain that the signatures on a real estate agreement or memorandum  of agreement are properly witnessed because documents that are not properly witnessed are not in what is known as a recordable form. This means that the document cannot be recorded in the official public records. Each state has its own requirement [...]

Once you have your initial real estate option agreement properly prepared by a board-certified real estate attorney, use it as your master copy so you will not have to go running back to your real estate attorney for a new real estate option agreement every time you buy an option. You can use the option [...]

The best way to find a qualified, board-certified real estate attorney in your area is to contact your local bar association lawyer referral service or your state’s bar association lawyer referral service. Once you have the names of board-certified real estate attorneys in your area, you’ll need to do an online search of your state’s [...]

In most states, attorneys in good standing are defined as: “those persons licensed to practice law who have paid annual state bar association membership dues for the current year and who are not retired, resigned, delinquent, inactive, or suspended members of the state bar association.” The basic qualifications for attorneys to be certified in real [...]

To avoid being snookered by some incompetent $300-an-hour attorney in an Armani suit and alligator shoes masquerading as a real estate attorney, I very highly recommend that you proceed with caution when selecting a real estate attorney. You must hire an honest, competent, board-certified real estate attorney in good standing, who has experience working with [...]

First things first: Make certain that all the provisions in your real estate option agreement are in full compliance with all of your state’s real property statutes. And whatever you do, do not operate under the false assumption that a real estate option agreement that you can download for free from a web site on [...]

The three essential elements that make a real estate option agreement valid are: 1. A specified real estate option period. 2. A clearly defined method for exercising the real estate option. 3. Valuable consideration paid as a real estate option fee by the optionee.

In general legal terms, a real estate option agreement is a unilateral agreement, binding only on the optionor or seller, in which a promise—the exclusive, unrestricted, and irrevocable right and option to purchase—is exchanged for performance—the exercising of the option by the optionee or buyer. And the purchase of a real estate option does not [...]

One of the biggest mistakes that I made when I first started out as a real estate option investor was that I did not include clauses in my option agreements that fully protected my rights and interests as optionee. However, I started to wise up when a property I had an option on burned to [...]