Why Agents Can Not Fill Out Real Estate Disclosures For Sellers

Real estate agents are not allowed to complete seller real estate disclosures.

Even in today’s world I still need to explain why I cannot complete the California real estate disclosures for my clients. Because they don’t know the reason. In fact, some Sacramento Realtors don’t know, either. Not everybody knows that when I was first licensed by the state of California to sell real estate in the 1970s, I had also enrolled in law school. I am intrigued by law still; it’s fascinating. Although accepted into law school, I did not go. As I sat in the conference room filling out my paperwork, a law student stopped by, poked in his head and hissed, “Don’t do it.”

True story. Although that wasn’t the reason I decided against a second career in law. Basically, I couldn’t live on the salary of a lawyer, and that plan was simply to supplement my real estate income by doing legal things for my real estate clients like divorces, wills and estate planning. Turned out I didn’t need supplementation, so I dropped out. But it doesn’t mean I don’t have respect for the profession because I do. I pay attention to the new lawsuits that pop up in real estate, and many cases focus on real estate disclosures. A properly prepared real estate disclosure can be the catalyst for a dismissal.

I am also cognizant of the fact that I am not a lawyer. Nope, didn’t finish law school, didn’t get a law degree and I am not licensed to practice law. Completing real estate disclosures is not a real estate function of a Sacramento Realtor. Can’t so much as touch my pen to that paper. Even when I am tempted to speed things up or make the process easier for all of us. And an agent can be tempted when she is working with an elderly client who might have difficulty reading or writing or maybe struggles with DocuSign.

It is why I invested 2 hours yesterday to verbally “walk” a client, question by question, through completing the forms over the phone. This client recently sold a home in the Bay area. His Bay area agent had filled out the disclosures for him, he insisted (which probably did happen, not all agents are on the ball). Well, if anything, this client will remember that this Sacramento listing agent did not, LOL. Although, I spent several hours explaining what the questions were, why he needed to answer them, and we discussed each question over the phone. I am hopeful he has a sense of relief now that he has completed his real estate disclosures. It is his house. He is the individual who needs to disclose.

This will probably be a seller who will never get sued. Lots of sellers are never served with a summons, even in our litigation-prone world of real estate in California. Non-disclosure or inappropriate real estate disclosures are often the source. If you eliminate that from the equation, odds are in a seller’s favor. This does not mean that I can assist another seller through his own set of real estate disclosures if I do not represent that seller. THAT, I’m afraid, would be practicing law.