'MO - June 2008 - (Page 14)

community LEGALLY SPEAKING Real Estate Buying Basics By Mona Smith & Jonathan Bowman The purchase of a home is one of the most signiﬁcant personal and business transactions a person makes in his or her lifetime. Having a team of professionals with the right knowledge base to help you successfully navigate the purchase and sale processes will protect your interests during the buying process and beyond. THE CONTRACT A written contract is required for the purchase and sale of real property in Washington state. If you have a licensed real estate agent, s/he will likely use the Northwest Multiple Listing Service residential real estate purchase and sale agreement and applicable addenda when presenting an offer. If you do not have a real estate agent, you may want an attorney to draft or review your contract in order to satisfy all legal requirements and protect your interests (you may choose to retain legal counsel to represent you with the legal aspects of your home purchase, even if you have a real estate agent). Your agreement may also contain addenda such as ﬁnancing, inspection, title commitment, and neighborhood review contingencies that condition the purchase on the buyer obtaining funding or the property meeting the buyer’s expectations. You may require the sale of your current home as a contingency for buying the new home. Also, a seller must disclose property conditions including lead paint existence if the property was built prior to 1978. If you purchase a condominium, the seller must provide a resale certiﬁcate, which includes the homeowners’ association bylaws, CC&Rs (Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions), ﬁnancial records, board minutes and discloses pending lawsuits, repairs and special assessments. TITLE ISSUES The title commitment discloses encumbrances against the property. Recorded liens, judgments or deeds of trust against the seller should be removed by the date of closing to insure transfer of clear marketable title. The title commitment also discloses easements or access limitations against the property. You should understand the nature and extent of each easement and obtain a copy of that information. While some easements are for utilities access, other easements grant ingress and egress rights through your property to neighboring property owners (i.e., a driveway or walkway). Easements may also contain a maintenance agreement for the affected area. Easements run with the land, which means that the easement survives transfer of either the burdened or beneﬁted properties and continues through new ownership. DOMESTIC PARTNERS If you’re buying a property with your partner, you need to determine how you want to title your property. “Title by joint tenancy with the right of survivorship” means each partner owns an indivisible 100% interest in the property. Upon the death of one partner, the other will become the sole owner of the home outside of probate. “Title by tenants in common” is where each partner owns a divisible, transferable interest in the property. While there is no right of survivorship, a partner may bequest his/her interest in a will. However, domestic partner legal issues may also come into play. Whether title is by joint tenancy or tenants in common, partners may want to consider protecting their interests through a real estate or domestic partnership agreement. You should consult an attorney about domestic partner or estate planning issues. Mona Smith (mona@smith-law.net) and Jonathan Bowman (jonathan@bowman4law.com) are attorneys, whose practices of law include real estate, business, domestic partnership, and estate planning. Their ofﬁces are located atop Queen Anne in Seattle. 14 celebrating seattle’s gay community

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of 'MO - June 2008

'MO Seattle - June 2008 Contents Letter From The Editor Voices Instant Activist Pet Project: Do You Dream About Your Pet? ’mo-BIZ: Anne Levison, Co-owner of the Seattle Storm Legally Speaking: Real Estate Buying Basics The Things We Do: Getting “Out”doors this Summer Seattle Pride Events Calendar ’mo Magazine Interview with Sandra Bernhard Anatomy of a Myth Form & Function: Turn Up the Heat on Your Triceps Gay City: National HIV Testing Day San Francisco: If Gay Had a Headquarters Book Review: Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited by Andrew Holleran Augusten Burroughs Coming to Showtime Network Sex and the City Romances the Big Screen SceneOut: People@Places Capitol Hill Guide

'MO - June 2008

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