Civilian Contractor As A Euphemism ???

Q: I don't know how things are done in Florida, but in California and Arizona, Realtors basically take the place of an attorney. They write the purchase contract. They negotiate the sale. They protect the interests of their clients in all aspects of the deal, from start to finish. In CA and AZ, attorneys are *not* involved in the sale of real estate as they are in other states, such as New York. All those duties are performed by the Realtor and the escrow officer. (Don't know if lawyers are involved in the purchase of real estate in Florida. I kind of doubt it. But then again, there are so many New Yorkers there...)

A: -They certainly don't here, and I'd wonder if they do anywhere. The real estate agent here fills in the blanks of a pre-prepared document. The actual structure of the document is standard for all transactions and was written by some lawyer(s) that prepared it for all transactions in Florida. The standard document may be appended or may have sections deleted by either the buyer or the seller, but it is the framework for the transaction. There are some points that a real estate agent must be careful about. He/she has to be careful that what is being sold is being specified. If the sale is to include a washer or dryer, an outdoor playset, or a mirror on the wall but not part of the permanent construction, then the blank has to be filled in carefully. The writing of the contract is limited to filling in blanks. The legalese is not done by the real estate agent. -I am finding this discussion utterly amazing. I could not imagine signing a contract committing myself to laying out hundreds of thousands of dollars without having a lawyer to represent my interests. The idea of having a real estate agent do that instead would be totally unacceptable. When we bought our house in 1989 we had a lawyer, the mortgage company had a lawyer, and the seller had a lawyer. It was suggested that we share the lawyer used by the mortgage company, but we declined. Since we were spending a huge amount of money to buy the house, the few hundred extra that the attorney cost was neither here nor there.

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