YodZiaN

Does your real estate agent have a legal responsibility to you? That exact question has been misinterpreted for years. For a seller, the fiducicary duties of the real estate professional has always been a given. For a buyer, that is another story.

During the entire time the agent was representing the seller. The agent never before had met the sellers of the homes they were showing, yet these were the laws. The buyers had no idea and could only assume that the agent represented their best interests.

The rules have changed. Buyers, including sellers must acknowledge a real estate form that states who the agent represents. By no means is this a commitment from the buyer or seller to work directly with that agent; it is only a means of “disclosure” to the buyer and seller.

Many buyers actually believe they can save money by dealing completely with the listing agent, since the buyer and seller would only be working with one agent. The buyer does not recognize the agent has a fiduciary duty to the seller, and will not collaborate a deal with the best interests of the buyer. The agent cannot discuss price, provide any recommendations, opinions, or anything relevant to market value to the buyer.

The agent’s legal duty to the buyer is critically important and should not be taken frivolously by the buyer. One example might be this; the listing agent or the agent who represents the seller, shows the buyer a home. The buyer unquestionably loves the home and wants to make an offer. The buyer makes a proposal that is lower than the sales price. However, in conversation, the buyer mentions to the listing agent they would be willing to go higher on their offer. The listing agent has a fiduciary (legal) duty to reveal to their seller that you, the buyer, are willing to move higher on your offer price.

Another example is the buyer who walks in a new home subdivision. The sales agent discusses their models, floor plans, and upgrades. The salesperson works for the builder/seller and their duty actually is to look out for the best interests of the builder/seller.

As a buyer, always consider employing a real estate professional who will exclusively represent you. Have the agent take you to the new model homes on your first visit. Model home sales offices will not allow an agent to represent the buyer if the agent does not escort them on their first visit to the subdivision.

As a buyer, be sure to inquire about the real estate form called a “Buyer Broker Exclusive Employment Agreement”. Many buyers tend to shy away from signing this disclosure form upfront, but it truly protects the buyer. It is not an agreement that forces the buyer to purchase a home, but rather an agreement in writing, whereby the agent agrees to “solely” represent the buyer. The agent works for the buyer, making sure they get the best possible price for the home.

All our international transaction occurs in USD & not in INR. This occurs no matter whom we trade with. For example we buy crude oil from Saudi Arabia, yet we pay them in $ & not in Rial or INR. Why should we use $ in payment, why not INR or some other country be the trading currency. This not the case with India, all over the world they do this. Other dominant currency is euro. But why should international monetory be controled by rich nations, why not it be poor nation. Why should a fate of one country be decided by other country ?

Before, if you still remember, I have talked about online saving account. Today, I will discuss about a quite similar thing which is online banking. Actually, it is quite a common trend nowadays to do banking activities online but for some countries like Malaysia (my home country), online banking is not been used widely. Maybe, the banking system there is not strongly developed yet. But, I expect online banking to be widely used in Malaysia in maybe 5 years time.

Okay, enough with some background of online banking in Malaysia. Let us talk about why we should or should not use online banking.

Advantages

From online banking, almost every transaction can be done from home. This is good as it saves a lot of our time. Now, we do not have to go down to a bank to do a transaction like transferring money from current to saving account. Before, this transaction only can be done at the bank since ATM machine cannot handle this.

By having online banking, we can monitor our account balance easily. This gives us more control over our budgeting plan (see this post about controlling main expenses). For example, I can now how many should I spend for the rest of the month by looking at the online statement. So, I don?t have to wait for monthly bank statement which sometimes will not be posted at all (I am currently using National Bank as my primary bank and have not received my bank statements for the last 2 months).

Disadvantages

Some banks charge online banking under service charge. For my National Bank online banking, they charge me about $1.00 a month although they said that I will not be charged as I Read more…

Avoiding ATM Fees

I don’t know how you feel about it, but I really hate the idea of paying fees to use an ATM to get my own money from my bank.

In fact, my wife and I have never paid any because we faithfully use only our bank’s ATM machines.

But our discipline puts us in the minority. Last year ATM users paid fees that poured an estimated $4 billion into financial institution coffers.

“ATMs are a cash cow for banks,” says Edmund Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group)consumer program director who also runs http://www.stopatmfees.com/. Even though it is cheaper for banks when you use an ATM rather than going into the bank, he says, they charge more for it.

Expect to pay even more
And the fees are rising. According to the 2001 U.S. PIRG survey of banks and credit unions, the cost of using another bank’s ATM machine is now $2.86 per transaction, up from $1.01 just five years ago.

You pay two fees when you stray from your own institution’s ATMs. The first hit, charged by your own bank, is called the foreign, or “off-us,” fee; it currently averages $1.39 per transaction according to the U.S. PIRG survey. (At big banks, the average is $1.52.)

About 30 to 70 cents of this fee is known as the interchange fee and goes to the bank whose ATM you used as compensation for handling the transaction. Even if your bank does not charge you when you use another institution’s ATM, it pays this fee.

The second fee, a surcharge imposed on you by the other bank for using its ATM, is now $1.47 ($1.55 for big banks) according to U.S. PIRG. These fees show up right on your ATM receipt.

This fee is drawing a lot of heat from consumer advocates and some states. So far, Iowa is the only state with an active ban on ATM surcharges. The ultimate fate of the ban is still tied up in court, and there are ongoing court challenges of other bans such as those in San Francisco and Santa Monica, Cal.

The newest fee twist, according to U.S. PIRG, is that some banks, especially large ones, have started “renting” ATM cards to customers for a monthly fee of $1 or so, which would mean adding another $12 or more to your annual cost of using ATMs. Banks point out that the fees pay for more ATMs, making ATMs even more convenient for consumers, and to maintain, protect and advertise ATMs.

Minimize the pain

Whenever possible, use your own bank’s or credit Read more…

There is a trend in the industry in this day and age of not taking deposits from Buyers, when it comes to servicing accepted offers prior to the conditions precedent being removed. The rationale behind this is to make the offer ?less onerous? on Buyers. Additionally, there is the widespread belief that since once a deposit is received the brokerage firm must open immediately a trust account, all this may become wasted effort in the eventuality that the conditions precedent are not removed by the Buyer.

A deposit is the amount of money normally paid by a Buyer at the time the offer is signed, or alternatively a short time after the offer has been accepted by the Seller. Many people wrongly believe, that unless a deposit is paid when the offer is made, there is no binding contract. This is untrue.

The three main requirements for a contract are offer, acceptance and consideration. The offer and acceptance are pretty clear, but some confusion exists as to what consideration really is. Consideration is something to be done, or promised to be done, by one party in return for something to be done, or promised to be done, by the other party. A Contract of Purchase and Sale is in essence an exchange of promises. The Seller promises to convey title to the land to the Buyer on completion date, and the Buyer promises to pay the purchase price to the Seller on the same date. Thus, paying a deposit is not a requirement at law for a contract to be binding on the parties to it.

A deposit is part of the down-payment of the Buyer, that is the portion of his own money the Buyer uses, that does not involve financing. It can be any amount or, sometimes, no amount at all as in the case of a one-hundred percent financing transaction.

If the Seller refuses the offer, the deposit must be returned to the Buyer forthwith. This is done by the broker drawing a trust cheque on his trust account. A problem arises when the original deposit cheque is uncertified. The broker would be unwise to issue a cheque on his trust account, until he knows that the deposit cheque from the Buyer has been honored. In the meanwhile the Buyer will likely be annoyed, because he probably cannot make another offer on a different property until the deposit is returned from the broker.

There are two ways to avoid this inconvenience to the Buyer. The prospective purchaser can be advised to pay the deposit in cash, or by money order or certified cheque. Or a very small deposit, or no deposit at all is obtained at the time the offer is signed. However, the agreement provides that if the offer is accepted, the deposit will be paid, or will be increased of a certain sum with 24 hours of acceptance, or some other reasonable time within the context of the offer. Sometimes a further increase is required either at the time all conditions precedent are removed, or shortly thereafter.

The general idea behind a deposit is to allow the Seller to have Read more…