Matthew Rathbun this morning wrote an interesting post on Agent Genius discussing the level of responsibility buyers’ agents have (or ought to have) in disclosing material issues about a property to their buyers.

Laws vary considerably from state to state. According to Matthew, sellers are not required to make any disclosures in Virginia. That’s completely different than here in Arizona - at least when the AAR Purchase Contract is used - and sellers are required to complete a six-page disclosure statement about their home.

As for the buyers’ agents … Matthew uses what seems to be a fairly obvious example, the presence of mold on the exterior of the walls.

You don’t need to be an expert in mold to be able to point out that there’s some sort of issue going on in the photo to the left. But it’s well beyond the scope of my training and licensing to be able to tell you the extent of the issue and what exactly needs to be done in terms of remediation. There are mold experts - people specifically trained in this field - who can help with that type of item.

Experience allows me to point out various items as they come up, whether they be some of the more obvious issues such as the mold above or things to consider from a resale standpoint (which comes up more often in new builds than anywhere else.)

But experience still does not make me a licensed home inspector. I will not be checking all of the plumbing fixtures, running the dishwasher, checking the oven or looking in the attic for insulation - that’s for a home inspector to do. I’m not walking the perimeter of the property looking for termite tubes - that’s for a termite inspector to do.

And at the end of the day, responsibility for due diligence in Arizona falls on the shoulders of the buyer. The AAR contract has a pair of clauses that specifically hold harmless the brokers in the event something is discovered after the fact that could have been learned through the use of professional, licensed, qualified inspectors.

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Two days ago I saw something new - a multiple offer addendum prepared by the buyers’ agent. In essence, the buyer is making offers on multiple homes all at the same time.

Normally, once a seller accepts an offer and returns to the offer to the buyer (or her agent), you’ve got yourself a binding contract. Not so in this case as the language says the contract isn’t really a contract until the buyer affirmatively signs to agree to the sellers’ acceptance.

On the one hand, it’s admirable for the buyer and his agent to let the seller know that they are writing offers on several properties at once. Most would not do that. But on the other hand, does such an addendum help in negotiations? The tone seems to be one of “take it or leave it” but that doesn’t mean the seller necessarily ought to “take it.”

Buyers in Arizona, if using the standard AAR Purchase Contract, have a 10-day inspection period during which they can cancel the contract for any reason - they need only a reason. Which is why it’s rare for a buyer or buyers’ agent to disclose multiple contract are being written. If more than one’s accepted, keep one and cancel the others during the inspection period. (Not the best scenario for sellers, but we’re talking about the buyer’s side.)

Language requiring an affirmative acceptance beyond the normal signature isn’t new - it came almost directly from AAR’s Multiple Counter Offer form. When confronted with more than one offer, the seller has the option of countering just one or countering multiple offers. Affirmative acceptance is necessary because if the seller were to counter two offers on the regular counter offer forms and both buyers accept, the seller has no way to cancel one and they now have their home under contract twice.

Multiple Counter Offers do not need to be identical. In other words, sellers can have different terms on the counter offer sent to each buyer.

The biggest risk, of course, is that all the buyers elect not to accept the counter and the seller is left still trying to find a buyer. It happens. But the best case scenario is one where there are serious buyers desiring this one home and the extra offers provide the needed leverage to get the seller a higher net than they might normally expect.

Multiples are extremely common on bank owned homes in the Phoenix real estate market these days, less so on owner-owned homes … but they still happen.

Buyers’ multiple offer addenda? Those still are blessedly rare.

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Yesterday was a first in my youth soccer coaching career. A handball was called against an opposing player and my team was awarded a free kick, which about 90 seconds later was converted into a goal.

“Timeout!” yelled the other coach, stomping onto the field. “I have an issue.” (I tend to think she had more than one issue, if you know what I mean, but I digress.)

Her argument was her player shouldn’t have been whistled for stopping the ball with her elbow. Alllllrighty then.

Later in the game we had a goal kick and I elected to have someone other than the goalie, my daughter, take the kick. “You can’t do that!” the coach screams. “It’s a goalie kick.”

Except it’s not a “goalie kick.” It’s a “goal kick” and anyone can take one. It’s even in the rules, somewhere or another. (I suggested she Google them after the game.)

This is my ninth season as a soccer coach for the YMCA. I give all the credit in the world to someone willing to volunteer their time to coach a group of kids, most strangers, and try to enrich their lives.

But getting a T-shirt that says “YMCA Coach” doesn’t really make you a soccer coach - not if you don’t know the rules.

Likewise, getting a real estate license doesn’t really make you a real estate professional - you’re not if you don’t know the rules. And the rules involve more than calculating what your commission will be based on the co-broke in the MLS.

The rules involve knowing the contract - not just knowing of it, but knowing the contract backward and forward to the point that your client won’t be disadvantaged when you run into an agent who really does know the contract.

The rules involve knowing the local MLS rules. There was a long debate in my office on Thursday about the best way of avoiding short sales in the local MLS (at the instruction of a buyer, of course.) One agent suggested a search for listings without “short sale” in the agent remarks. Which is fine, except agents aren’t required to use the words short sale anywhere in the listing.

Agents are required to mark the “Lender/Corp Approval Required” field. Not that all do. In 90 listings last week I found two dozen violations.

(Another agent argued that you may lose REOs - bank owned homes - if you exclude the Lender/Corp Approval Required field because some listings agents mark that field for these properties as well. Those agents are doing their client a disservice since there’s a separate field for Lender Owned Properties.)

None of us come out of real estate school knowing all there is to know. For all of us, there is a constant educational curve. Assuming, that is, we choose to pay attention to such things.

For many, a license is enough and the rules of the road aren’t too important, at least until they are. Just like not knowing that there’s no such thing as a “goalie kick” isn’t all that important until it becomes so.

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Let’s bring back an old topic for a brief revisit - the so-called “mandatory” adult communities addendum some agents in the Phoenix real estate market, particularly those working in any of the Sun Cities or other neighboring communities such as Westbrook Village and Ventana Lakes say are “required.”

In short, these addenda are not required. These forms date back before the 2005 changes to the Arizona Residential Resale Purchase contract and some of the language regarding the fees to be paid and who is responsible for the fees contradicts the new contract.

Virtually no fees automatically are signed in the contract. Not title policies. Not the cost of the appraisal. Not discount points. Not the cost of the home warranty. Not even the loan origination fee for the buyers’ loan. All of these are negotiable.

So too are the fees common to active adult communities - capital preservation fees, resale disclosure fees, transfer fees, etc. You wouldn’t get this impression reading many listings in these areas as there’s often language that the buyer must pay the fees - as if this isn’t open for discussion in a market where homes remain on the market for months.

One of the things the adult communities addendum does is lock the buyer into paying what traditionally are buyer expenses. Which is well and good, unless you represent the buyer and are trying to negotiate the best possible deal on their behalf.

Two weeks ago, my clients closed on a house on the water in Ventana Lakes. We did so without the “mandatory” addendum (the listing agent apparently shares my view as no demand to include the addendum was made.) And we did so with the seller picking up the cost of the transfer and preservation fees.

One of my objectives when I started working in Westbrook Village was to change the way business there was done, even if only by a little. Conceited? Perhaps. But we’re already on the way simply by attracting buyers electronically through the Internet, something some skeptics in my own office said couldn’t be done.

Of course a pretty website with some Google juice isn’t enough. You need to know the ins and outs of the homes on the market. And you need to know what really is required and what truly is negotiable. Otherwise you could be costing your buyers hundreds of dollars in the name of what’s always been done.

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Yesterday one of my sellers conducted the “final” walkthrough on the home they are purchasing in Ventana Lakes. Or at least, that was the plan. Once we got to the home we discovered both the water and gas had been turned off, making it rather difficult to determine if the leak from the hose bib out front had been corrected.

In addition, the termite treatment that was to have been completed had not yet been done. In fact, it was delayed two days and is taking place Thursday morning - the day we’re scheduled to close.

Until 2005, such issues would be immediate cause for a buyer to void the contract and walk away from the home if they so chose. But that was before the advent of the “Cure Period Notice.”

Under the terms of AAR’s Residential Resale Purchase Contract, when one party does not do what they’re supposed to do within the specific timeframe, the other party can’t cancel the contract. They need to issue a Cure Period Notice. This notice gives the receiving party three days to correct the issue and, if not corrected within the three days, then the contract can be canceled.

Back to our scenario … repairs are supposed to be completed three days before the close of escrow per the contract. That wasn’t done. So my buyer and I sent a cure period notice to the seller, letting them know everything needs to be completed or else my buyer has the option to cancel at the end of the three days.

Why the cure? To hold both buyers and sellers to the contract. A purchase contract is a legally binding document and shouldn’t be treated capriciously, as had been the case in the days before the Cure Period Notice. It also forces both sides to work in good faith to see the transaction to which they both agreed get completed.

Next up on the agenda … why you shouldn’t paint a screened security door with a brush. That’s one cure that’s a little harder to come by.

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