On November 1, 2021, the FR/BAR Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase (the FR/BAR “As Is” Contract) underwent several changes reflecting an intent to level the playing field between buyers and sellers of residential property. In case you missed it, here are some notable changes. PLEASE NOTE: This is NOT a comprehensive or exhaustive view of these changes. The Contract has further updates, new riders, and other changes that you should familiarize yourself with and contact legal counsel for further information.

Section 8(b) – Loan Approval Period

Two tasks must now be completed during this period: The buyer must obtain approval for financing as described in the section (as before) with a new requirement that the buyer’s lender must receive a satisfactory appraisal before the approval period expires. This aims to prevent a low appraisal from ruining a transaction up to and including at the time of closing. It also aims to ensure that the property can return to market much sooner to find a new buyer, should funding fall through.

Make sure you’re ending the loan approval period well before the closing date!

Section 19, Standard O – Delivery Methods

Under the revised contract, methods for delivery notice have changed. They can now be delivered by fax or email, in addition to the by mail or via personal delivery options that remain in place. Other electronic delivery methods have also been deleted, such as text messaging. Texting cannot be used to provide notice under this new contract! They are unreliable in terms of providing evidence that a notice was delivered by erasure or tech ‘fails.’

Other Notable Changes Include, but are not limited to:

The definition of “Personal Property” now includes thermostats, doorbells, TV mounting hardware, and storm protection items.
FIRPTA withholding and reporting costs have been added as an item to be paid by the seller.

• The definition of closing now includes that “all funds required for closing are received by the closing agent and collected pursuant to STANDARD S”.
• And of course, due to our new way of life in a pandemic, STANDARD G -Force Majeure has been revised to include “governmental actions and mandates, government shutdowns, epidemics, or pandemics.”
• Along with these changes, there have been several updates and additions of new riders including Mold Inspections, Seasonal/Vacation Rentals/Pace Disclosure Riders, and others. Please keep in mind that this list is an overview of changes and NOT a comprehensive list. Should you have any questions on the contract, please contact legal counsel for advice.

You can review a full breakdown the contract changes here.

There aren’t a lot of business execs, owners or decision-makers out there who haven’t heard of the prestigious Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management (OPM) Program. And there aren’t a lot of people…um….anywhere, who aren’t aware that Harvard Business School is one of the very best in the world. So we’d like to take a moment to congratulate our own Aaron Davis, who recently completed the 3-year OPM program, becoming an alumnus.

Aaron tells us that this was no ceremonial event—the students worked hard!  The class was comprised initially of 180 CEOs from around the world, representing 42 different countries and spanning every industry from real estate to manufacturing to software and more. Once a year, Aaron and the students were required to leave their businesses and families for a month of on-site education. All told, they spent 300 hours in the classroom, 75 hours in small group discussions and more than 500 hours doing class prep. Aaron and the class analyzed over 120 case studies on topics like strategy, finance, leadership, innovation, control, marketing, sales, negotiation, operations and technology.

As you likely already know, Aaron is the visionary behind the FAN, PDS, NTS and AMD brands, driving a single office title agency to become one of the largest national title and real estate businesses in the country. (And, if you know Aaron, you know he would immediately interrupt us to give credit to the hundreds of hard-working folks who helped him with making that vision a reality!). So it was a natural progression for him to immerse himself (when not running his business, of course) in an intensive program designed for CEO’s actively involved in day-to-day operations, with a focus on leadership, assessing strengths and weaknesses, and identifying emerging opportunities.

Like pretty much everything else Aaron sets his mind to, mission accomplished! He can now add one more accomplishment to his list. And we at AMD, FAN and all of the AMD brands congratulate him for this noteworthy achievement.

Hey guys, 2020 is finally almost over, and Aaron Davis from the FUTURE, is here to tell us why 2020 really wasn’t all that bad!

1. Remote Online Notarization, or RON, has been one of the most successful additions to 2020. The customers love that we were able to bring a secure digital closing to anywhere in the GALAXY… err, sorry, anywhere in the world.

2. We also introduced ALANNA this year, the virtual closing assistant! Our clients love being able to get answers to their questions day or night. Alanna is always available and provides quick answers to common file-based questions using text or on the web, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

3. AND we’ve starting rolling out electronic EMD delivery! Now home buyers are able to deposit their earnest money deposit digitally without coming into one offices, even though we do have most of the GALAXY, I mean STATE covered with over 40 offices!
We added a lot of new technology for 2020, and we’re glad that our customers have been able to take this journey with us. Future Aaron would LOVE to tell you what 2021 has in store, but that would blow up the time-space continuum– there are rules about these sort of things.

We can’t wait for you, and those of us that can’t time travel, to find out!

Enjoy 2021 – Future Aaron says it’s gonna be greeeeeeeat!