Don’t sign on the dotted line before you take the time to read the contract.

Electronic contracts, digital signatures, automatic date and time stamps -all part of today’s real estate transactions. However making the buying and selling process easier by eliminating faxing, midnight drives to get signatures causes some people to just click on the signature lines and to skip reading the fine print.

Listing and purchase contracts contain paragraph after paragraph of small print outlining do’s and don’t’s,  dates, seller obligations, and buyer requirements.  And of course how much the buyer is willing to pay for the property. Today many buyers and sellers receive a notification to link to a “digital contract” and then complete digital signatures without discussing the details with their agent or actually reading the contract themselves.

It’s important to read and understand all the contract details before you sign on the dotted lines.

It seems pretty simple and I’m sure some of you are shaking your heads.  Contracts arrive all times of the day and night and while many clients can review on a large screen but lots of people are reading and reviewing contracts on their smartphones or small size tablet screens.  On the small screen, it’s easy to miss small changes and while the other party initialed and dated the change- be sure you have discussed the pros and cons with your Realtor® before clicking to sign.

Taking a few extra minutes to read the contract and the contract changes before you sign can save you tons of time and money later on.