Inside Florida Real Estate Law: Deeds, Homestead & Disclosures with Attorney Crystal Golm

In this episode of Jim Sells the Suncoast, Jim welcomes Crystal Golm—a seasoned Florida real estate and business attorney with 20 years of experience. From the nuances of quitclaim vs. warranty deeds to the importance of getting a survey, Crystal provides legal insights that can protect your investment and keep your transactions running smoothly.

Key Highlights

• Types of Deeds
  • Quitclaim vs. Warranty: Quitclaim deeds merely transfer whatever ownership interest the grantor has (if any), whereas warranty deeds guarantee the full transfer of property—offering stronger protection for buyers.
  • Specialty Deeds: Personal Representative’s deeds (for estates) and Trustee’s deeds (for trusts) allow authorized individuals to convey property on behalf of an estate or trust.
• Homestead Exemption & Portability
  • Multiple Benefits: Beyond reducing property taxes (with a 3% annual tax cap), Florida’s homestead laws also protect your primary residence from most creditor claims and preserve property for spouses/minor children.
  • Qualifying & Portability: You can only homestead one property in the world, and you must intend it as your primary residence. Selling and then buying another Florida property may let you “port” some of your existing homestead savings.
• Co-Ownership & Partition
  • Joint Tenancy vs. Tenants in Common: Understand who “inherits” if one owner passes away, or how to handle disagreements between co-owners.
  • Partition Lawsuits: When co-owners can’t agree on selling or splitting proceeds, a costly partition action may force a sale of the property.
• Surveys & Title Work
  • Why Surveys Matter: A simple boundary error or encroachment can spiral into expensive legal disputes; always verify lot lines and structures before closing.
  • Title Agents vs. Real Estate Attorneys: While both can issue title insurance, an attorney-led closing offers additional legal guidance—often at no extra cost.
• Contingencies & Disclosures
  • Contract Contingencies: Financing, inspections, HOA docs, and even certain “hidden” contingencies all protect buyers and sellers—if dates and extensions are managed correctly.
  • Seller’s Duty to Disclose: Florida law requires full disclosure of known defects that aren’t readily observable, or sellers risk liability for future damage (e.g., past pest infestations, structural issues, etc.).

What’s Next?

If you want to dive deeper into Florida real estate law—or have pressing questions about homestead, contingencies, or title work—reach out to Jim at jim.ahearn@gmail.com or visit Jim Sells the Suncoast for more expert insights. Whether you’re buying, selling, or investing, the right legal guidance can make all the difference on the Suncoast!

A Personal Note from Jim:

Hey there, I’m Jim Ahearn, your go-to real estate guide and host of Jim Sells The Suncoast podcast! 🎙️✨ Dreaming of Florida life? I’ve got you covered! As your dedicated buyer's agent, I’ll handle everything from walk-throughs to closing, making your home-buying journey as smooth as a Florida breeze.

Whether you're local or tuning in from afar, I’ll bring the Suncoast to you with virtual tours and expert advice. Let’s chat about your dream home and I'll connect you with all the right people to make it happen.

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Transcript

Jim: 0:51

Welcome to Jim Sells the Suncoast. Today I have the honor and pleasure of having Crystal Gome, who is a lawyer, real estate lawyer in the area. So welcome.

Crystal: 1:01

Hi, Jim. Thank you for having me today. I'm a real estate and business attorney. My office is based in Bradenton, but I work all over the state of Florida, focus on the Southwest coast, Sarasota, Manatee County, Pinellas. The focus of my practice is real estate and we do all types of real estate transactions, commercial and residential. We do Loan documents. We do things pertaining to condominium and homeowners associations, et cetera. And then I also handle quite a bit of business law as well. I've been a real estate attorney for 20 years. Right here in Bradenton, and I've had my own firm for 17 of those years. I have a great staff. collectively, we have 130 years of experience, a pretty deep bench, which is great.

Jim: 1:59

So if something happens, you've already seen it at least once.

Crystal: 2:01

Not surprised very often.

Jim: 2:03

So in the 20 years that you've been in this area, so much has changed, so much is growing on with the growth in the area. I wanted to, pick your brain on the real estate law side of what goes on. I think most people go out, Oh, I want to paint the color, but let's talk about all the things that go into it. Maybe starting with the types of deeds. I know there's several types and when should they be used? Warranty, quick claim starting at the very beginning, okay.

Crystal: 2:30

The simplest type of deed and the deed that conveys the least amount of rights and property is a quitclaim deed. And a lot of people think that a quitclaim deed basically deeds over or conveys the property to another individual, but all it really does is conveys the portion of property that the conveyor owns. There's no guarantee that person a owns the entire thing, but what person a is conveying is all that they do own. It's basically without a warranty so that person B could not go back to person A and say, Hey, you were supposed to sell me five acres or deed over to me five acres, but you only deeded over to me That's probably because person A only owned the two to give

Jim: 3:26

Yeah. Okay. Would it be right to say that they're really just giving up their particular interests? In that property, not necessarily guarantee all of the interest in that property.

Crystal: 3:36

And then we have warranty deeds, which are the most common in traditional real estate transactions. And in those deeds, even without title insurance, the seller or the grantor, as the case may be, person A, we'll call him is guaranteeing. the complete transfer of the property to person B such that person B could come back to person a under that warranty basically and sue them. And so that's say if it's ineffective or incomplete that would be one remedy under a warranty deed. And then there are different types of deeds, a personal representative's deed, that happens in probate where the personal representative or executor, so to speak, can convey the property on behalf of the estate, which makes sense because the PR sort of stands as the boss or the CEO of the estate. And then we have the trustee deeds, which are the same type of thing. The trustee is acting in its capacity as the trustee, as the boss of the trust. So can convey that way. So then it's a quick. Claim deed. When is that used? Is that for like specific scenarios? No nothing.

Jim: 4:58

Okay,

Crystal: 4:58

Appropriate or non appropriate it, as a blanket statement, but definitely a warranty deed is best. People often find them online and give them, a college try thinking that they do more than they actually do.

Jim: 5:12

That they're implying things that aren't necessarily there.

Crystal: 5:15

Yep. So we use quick claim deeds. say it's a husband and wife who have divorced and they've come up with an agreement where one is going to, come off of the property title. Basically, that's a perfect example of a quick claim deed because they already own it. A simple quick claim deed where the husband conveys his portion to the wife as agreed is perfectly fine. Because they're already co owners, so claim deeds work well that way.

Jim: 5:46

Okay.

Crystal: 5:47

Yeah.

Jim: 5:47

So as a potential buyer seller, don't just assume because a quick claim deed is being proffered, that's going to solve all your issues. You need to pay attention and Follow up on it,

Crystal: 5:57

right? That's really bottom, bottom of the barrel and not what you want for your hard earned money.

Jim: 6:05

Yeah, I can get pricey

Crystal: 6:05

exactly.

Jim: 6:07

Can you explain how the homestead exemption works and how it benefits homeowners?

Crystal: 6:12

Sure. So homestead in Florida has several different parts. Most people think of it only as a homestead exemption. So I'll start out with the misconstrued portions. Number one. A lot of people think that it's just a homestead exemption which is just a, basically a tax reduction. there are other parts guaranteed by the Florida Constitution, which I'll get into in a moment. When it comes to the homestead exemption, a lot of people mistakenly think, and I'm surprised at the number of realtors who also think this, that so long as A person resides in their home for six months and one day that they qualify for the Homestead Exemption, or if they have a Florida driver's license, or if they have their car registered in Florida. None of those things grant eligibility for Homestead Exemption, none of them individually, and none of them together. What the Florida Constitution says, and as Most constitutions are. It's intentionally vague says that you can number one, only have one homestead in the world,

Jim: 7:27

right?

Crystal: 7:27

Number two, the homestead is defined. Primary place of residence, and if you are absent from that place for a period of time, you intend to return to it. Let's say you go and visit your mother up north for four months, as long as you're coming back. Same is true. If you decide to go on a world tour, a year long world cruise, you will not lose your homestead exemption as long as you only have one and you intend to return. And importantly, you do not use it for commercial purpose. So the other parts of Homestead, which I can go a little quicker on, but very interesting. number one is the protection for the family. So Homestead property cannot be conveyed away from the family without the other spouses agreement written signature. Let's say a husband and wife own a house, and for whatever reason, they each have a will, one wants to give the property to Save the Whales Foundation that will not work. The homestead is preserved for the family, that is for the spouse and minor children. And then a lot of people don't realize this, but creditor protection is another homestead protection. And that's part of the reason why all the crooks moved to Florida, because just think Bernie Madoff and OJ Simpson, whether you believe he did it or not, that's part of the reason these folks move here is because their homestead, even if it's a 50 million mansion, is 100 percent protected from claims of creditors. So if you have a 10 million judgment and someone wants to collect against your home and that's your homestead, they cannot do it. Whether it's a car accident, a credit card, so super important. You asked a little bit about portability and I have to be honest with you. I have a cheat sheet on that because it is complicated and it seems like even after 20 years, probably because I only have to answer the question once a year or so. But I will tell you the clerk's offices, at least in our area here on the West Coast, have very good websites, very detailed, very thorough. They've got checklists, they've got forms and they're really friendly when you call or go down there. And that's not just in my experience as a lawyer, but also as a member of the public, very helpful to call and say, listen, I sold this house. I'm buying this house. Do I get portability? They will answer your question over the phone. Very simple.

Jim: 10:16

And I would concur about the website. Pretty close to what you have in there that if you needed to use it, it's available.

Crystal: 10:23

Exactly. It's Very user friendly. So not to dodge the question about portability, but basically if you sell a house and it's your homestead and you buy another one in Florida and it's going to be your homestead, you can port over your homestead either in whole or in part, It's your right as a Florida resident.

Jim: 10:44

Absolutely. And there's so many potential benefits from doing homestead. There's no reason not to do it. And unfortunately, I don't think we talk about it enough when we're selling a house, when we're buying a house

Crystal: 10:56

And the deadline is in March. I really hammer this hard on my Facebook page at the beginning of the year. I say, check your smoke detectors and check the property appraiser site and make sure you have your homestead exemption. I have a friend who followed my advice last year and did that and indeed had purchased their homestead seven years ago. And they still had no homestead exemption.

Jim: 11:22

Yeah, it slips right through the cracks.

Crystal: 11:24

goes to the bottom of the stack and you don't get to it.

Jim: 11:28

And again, you can do everything online now. We did ours, was able to go in there, send him a thing in the mail. Actually, I emailed it. Done.

Crystal: 11:37

Very simple. Free. Of course. The other thing I forgot to tell you about Homestead, and this is really important. Homestead also caps your property taxes. So when you have a Homestead exemption, which is a tax reduction, you're also given a 3 percent cap so that your property taxes cannot increase more than 3 percent in any given year, no matter what the market does. So that's called the save our homes cap.

Jim: 12:08

Oh, sure.

Crystal: 12:08

And it was running people out of the state because people couldn't afford it. They were still the same family who could afford a hundred thousand dollar house 30 years ago.

Jim: 12:18

And it's particularly evident now when we look at the run up in this area from 2019, where homes are 80 percent more, you might've gone up 15 percent in total taxable taxes versus 80 percent more.

Crystal: 12:32

Yeah really important. I don't know how you handle talking about property taxes with buyers, I think a lot of people are surprised when they get Their first tax bill and it's significantly higher than what was prorated at closing.

Jim: 12:48

right.

Crystal: 12:50

Buyers should always take the purchase price. And go into the tax collector's website and find the last tax bill, take the millage rate and multiply that out against the purchase price that will get you pretty close. It should be more like the purchase price times about 80 percent and then that number times the millage rate that will get you pretty close. So that you're not shocked when the tax bill comes, particularly if you're buying from somebody who's lived there a long time.

Jim: 13:27

You're on the opposite side of that Save Our Home 3 percent cap, where it's escalated and all of a sudden you're now paying on this new value.

Crystal: 13:34

That's right. the taxes are artificially low when somebody has owned a home that long.

Jim: 13:38

I do know the Hillsborough County site has it on it where you can put in a price and it'll tell you within a small range the approximate taxes on this new purchase price.

Crystal: 13:46

yes, I heard that which is great.

Jim: 13:51

Let's talk a little bit maybe about some co ownership pitfalls. What are some common legal issues that arise with co ownership, such as joint tenancy versus tenancy in common?

Crystal: 14:01

So there are three types of ownership in Florida. One is, the easiest, is tenants by the entireties. that's married couples then there are tenants in common, which are non married couples or people who own the property. It can be by percentages, but to the extent the deed does not have a percentage, then it is presumed that both people own the whole home. So they both own the whole pie. The pie is not split in half. Because the house can't be split in half. most non married people own homes as joint tenants in common. And then the third way is joint tenants with right of survivorship, With the right of survivorship so that the last man standing, so to speak, owns the home without claims from the other's heirs or creditors or anything like that. The issue that arises, of course, is some people don't get along as co owners, whether they were Boyfriend and girlfriend or family members or business partners or whatever, for whatever reason they no longer get along. And so usually one wants to sell the house and the other wants to keep it. There's usually a disagreement about who's put in more money, who's put in more sweat equity. Things like that. And so it becomes challenging. And so in Florida we have a cause of action that can force co owners to sell that is called partition. And it basically says to the court, we own this house together. We cannot agree on. A sale price or that it even should be sold. And if it is sold, what the breakdown of the money should be. So we need you to do it for us. It's expensive. It takes quite a while. All of the attorney's fees and the expert fees like appraisal fees, realtor fees, et cetera. All of that comes out of the proceeds of the house. So suddenly you've got a house that's. A depreciating asset all of a sudden, because all of these fees are going against the proceeds of the sale. So it happens. It's always best for people to agree upfront to the extent possible, but people don't think that way when they enter into these relationships.

Jim: 16:30

but it's going to be perfect forever.

Crystal: 16:33

That's right. And look what I tell people is, I hope that you and your sister never fight about this house. I hope that you guys never break up. I hope whatever, but just in case, let's just draft up this contract that spells out the rights, the responsibilities and what happens if. The worst happens and we're no longer simpatico in this house. you can spend 1 now or you can spend 4 later. It's up to you, but the money is going to be spent probably.

Jim: 17:04

So the best way really to protect yourself is to be proactive and talk about, maybe a situation that you hope doesn't happen. Here's how we're going to solve it if it does. Exactly.

Crystal: 17:14

Maybe that contract never even comes back out of the drawer once it's signed. And listen, you don't even really need a lawyer to draft it up. It's a contract. It's about real property. It's a big deal, right? But anything that you can get down on paper with respect to what you're agreeing to at the time you're agreeing to it is better than nothing.

Jim: 17:37

And when we're talking houses down here that maybe it's in the family for a while, You're talking some big dollars and a lot of them.

Crystal: 17:44

And this happens to when people unwittingly or involuntarily become co owners. This often happens in cases of probate where somebody dies and say five kids inherit a house. That's the most basic example. if you've got five kids, the chance that they all get along perfectly, I think is pretty slim.

Jim: 18:06

idea of what to do.

Crystal: 18:07

do, who helped mom the most, who helped with the fence. It just goes on and on. So

Jim: 18:14

yeah,

Crystal: 18:14

it happens.

Jim: 18:17

So what about, we talked a little bit about deeds but going into that or following that with survey and titles, why is it essential to have a property survey done? And what are some of the common issues that come up?

Crystal: 18:31

It's interesting.

Jim: 18:32

and

Crystal: 18:32

I won't make it long, but the most expensive Time consuming issue that I've ever seen raised by lack of a survey was this, I had a client many years ago who purchased a property in Myakka out in the country. It was a long, narrow piece of property. I had a house. Out by the road and then a big field out in the back and it was cross fenced for cattle. So the 1st part, the front part was the house, as I said, with a yard, a landscape yard, and then the back part was cows and stuff. So it was advertised as 10 acres. At the road and she purchased the property. She was purchasing for cash, which means that there was no lender who requires a survey. So that's who typically requires a survey. And for good reason, because the lender wants to know that they have a lien on the property. Entire property. They think they have a lien on. She paid like 500, 000 for this property. She decides she wants to Build a house on that back portion. She goes and gets a survey and indeed the legal description in her deed only included the front portion, that front fenced portion, which was five acres, not 10. So assuming it was a mistake and this clothing didn't go through my office, but assuming it was a mistake, she hired me, asked me to call the sellers, which I did. Ask them, Hey, can we fix this deed? We need to add on that other piece that must've been left off. And they refused and they said, no, we didn't sell you 10 acres. We sold you five, even though she paid a 10 acre price, it was advertised as 10 acres. And ultimately she had to go to arbitration because of the contract. Arbitration is expensive because You have to pay the judge, The arbitrator. You're paying the lawyer. Now you're paying the judge. It took two years to resolve. My client paid about 50, 000 in fees and ultimately The judge slash arbitrator forced them to convey what they were supposed to convey to start with

Jim: 20:48

right?

Crystal: 20:48

It would have been caught. It would have said this legal description only has 5 acres in it, or the survey, only has 5 or 5 acres on it. You're right. And that's how we catch those things. So that was the most egregious. The most common are fences overlapping the boundary sheds over lapping the boundary, or so much of this in new construction. It's so annoying. The air conditioner pad because the lot lines are so narrow now.

Jim: 21:20

The air

Crystal: 21:20

conditioner pad overlapping the. lot line. So what we want to see and what lenders want to see, what surveyors want to see is whether that encroach, we call those encroachments when they're over the line, whether it can be easily moved. If it can be easily moved, we don't really worry that much about it. Fences, some people want a fence agreement with the neighbor that we're just going to leave it as is, Sheds, you're getting a little bit into semi permanent, depending on if they're on a slab or whatever. Air conditioner pads, same thing. God forbid you had to come through there with something for some reason. The air conditioner on the pad could be moved, it's still not great. The house next door is 12 feet onto my client's property. And when my client purchased the property, he did not obtain a survey. And now he's in a lawsuit with his neighbor because his neighbor is going to have to tear his house down, basically, at least 12 feet of it.

Jim: 22:28

it seems pretty

Crystal: 22:29

important

Jim: 22:30

for something that's, a couple hundred thousand dollars or more,

Crystal: 22:34

500

Jim: 22:34

for a survey seems like a smart decision.

Crystal: 22:37

And you can use it for all kinds of stuff. If you want to build a pool, if you want to put up a fence, if you want to, put in a patio or anything like that, you're going to have a survey anyway, and it's yours to keep forever. So it's good to have. Yes.

Jim: 22:53

And in your house, you just pointed that out. If you're there 20 years, that survey is still good. Nothing's changed.

Crystal: 23:00

Exactly. That's exactly right. As long as you don't change anything near the boundaries.

Jim: 23:05

So how does a title company differ from a real estate lawyer?

Crystal: 23:10

That's a really good question. Not all real estate lawyers are also title agents,

Jim: 23:15

right?

Crystal: 23:16

Title agency is governed in Florida by the office of insurance regulation. So title agents who are not lawyers have to take a class and they have to take a test and they have to have certain insurance and then they have certain continuing ed requirements, et cetera. As an attorney, I don't have to take a test nor a class to become a title agent. I just apply with the title underwriter and I'm in assuming I meet all the other qualifications like insurance and my bar license is still good. So obviously that doesn't teach me in particular how to do title work. But it's something that has developed over the years. The knowledge and skill has developed over time. The question about whether to use a real estate attorney versus a title company is this of course I'm going to advocate for using an attorney because the party hiring the title, or paying for the title portion, at least gets the benefit of an attorney without having to pay extra for it. So my office charges. It's the same amount of money in title fees that other title agents charge, obviously, or I couldn't be in business. I have to be competitive. You will never see attorney's fees on a settlement statement or a closing unless either the buyer or seller hires me for that purpose, hires me to be their lawyer. Otherwise I'm just an insurance agent who happens to have a law degree. Which is beneficial, and it's beneficial for their agents too, because I help, real estate agents with their contract language, with addenda, with extensions, with problems, with survey problems, all the time, completely for free. Because I want these deals to close, I want to maintain a relationship with the agents. And I want, The buyer and seller to get what they want, which is the purchase and sale. In a roundabout way, the client ends up benefiting from the realtor having my ear as well. So I think it's beneficial. I have no problem with title agencies. I think they do a fine job. It's just, you basically get a lawyer for free,

Jim: 25:50

Cool. What are some of the most misunderstood terms in a real estate contract that buyers and sellers should be aware of?

Crystal: 25:57

This is great. I'm actually going to make a blog on this.

Jim: 26:00

Yeah.

Crystal: 26:00

I would say that number one, the thing I hate to see is the closing date to be on or before X date, say January 1st. it adds an element of uncertainty that is unnecessary. Say we really want the contract to close on January 1st. We're open to a closing early. That is always an option. As long as the parties agree and the title company and lender are ready, you can close whenever you want. You don't need to write on or before. Remember the contract is an agreement between the parties that can be modified by the parties. So if you want to close on December 30th instead, you can do that. You're not tied to that January 1st. So that's one. Number two is when agents fill in any part of that paragraph 20, which is the miscellaneous paragraph,

Jim: 26:58

right?

Crystal: 27:00

And their agents are almost invited to do that because there's 20 lines there.

Jim: 27:07

It's a big open space.

Crystal: 27:08

Yeah, the Florida courts have said that agents should not be writing anything in there because it's really the unauthorized practice of law. But certainly no, no big paragraphs with lots of details or differences or anything like that. And then the thing that trips up a lot of people, and actually I've seen this last year, tens of thousands of dollars lost in deposits is this. Say there's a financing contingency, the financing contingency Ends 30 days from the date of the contract that can always be extended, say, the lender is taking a little longer, whatever you run into that can always be extended and often is, or there's an inspection problem, or you have 3 hurricanes and 2 months or something like that. And so some date gets extended. Let's say the inspection date gets extended. Because there was a hurricane. and then we have another hurricane, right? 10 days later. So now that it's extended again, the inspection date and extended again, what agents forget and buyers probably never knew is that 30 day financing contingency is still ticking tick tick. What I prefer to see with extensions of time is that all timeframes are extended. 10 days, all timeframes are extended 20 days, not just one timeframe because the other timeframes are still tick, ticking away.

Jim: 28:44

And

Crystal: 28:44

this year alone, I think I've seen probably 25, 000 in lost deposits where the financing contingency expired while some other extension was being granted, whether it was on the closing date or an inspection. And Then the buyer can't qualify or whatever but the contingency is gone and they lose their deposit Why because the sellers had their place off the market for two months. So It's for buyers and sellers But buyers in particular to have a really experienced agent helping them really

Jim: 29:20

important. I think you're right there too, because it is very easy to get tunneled into, Hey, we're going to push this one back and maybe the things aren't necessarily contingent on each other, but they're all intertwined. That if any one of them fails, the whole deal is going to be gone. And you've got to protect yourself by making sure that they're all still carrying forward. That's right.

Crystal: 29:42

That's right. The contract is everyone's Bible. We all use it, we all utilize it the same way toward the same goal.

Jim: 29:51

How can contingencies we're just talking about in a contract help or hurt?

Crystal: 29:56

So the contingencies that are built into the contract, of course, as a financing contingency, which may or may not be selected the inspection contingency, which may or may not be selected, but usually is, and again, I'm just talking about the as is contract. And then there are other contingencies that don't look like contingencies that are. The word contingency is not written, but if a let's say that a homeowner. A seller lives in an HOA and the dues are 500 a month and it's an absent seller. They live up in Michigan or whatever, and they didn't realize they didn't get the notice that there's a 20, 000 special assessment while the title company is going to get that information and relay it to the buyer and seller. And maybe at that point, the. The buyer says I don't want to deal with that in a year, 20, 000 special assessment. I want out. And by the way, the dues are going up to seven 50 too. I don't, I want out. So there's a provision in the contract and in the homeowner association rider that provides that a buyer can get out of the contract if those terms are different than what the seller initially represented. It's also, they're also. Documents, I'm sorry, a provision that says if the buyer is able to read the declaration for the condo or the HOA and doesn't like what's in there, maybe it says you can't park a pickup truck in the driveway and that's what they have is an 80, 000 beautiful pickup truck that won't fit in the garage. That's going to be a deal killer for them. Those are contingencies that are not written in very obviously, but they are contingencies. And then, of course, the title contingency, if there's a problem with the title in the chain in the past or with liens or things like that there's provision in the contract that allows the seller to attempt to remedy that situation. So in that way, the contract is contingent on the title being good, basically.

Jim: 32:13

So

Crystal: 32:13

it's not written that way, but That's what it means.

Jim: 32:16

And it's there to protect both sides that if it's not going to work, great, close the deal out and let that seller get back on the market so they're not losing time with it sitting there doing nothing.

Crystal: 32:27

What

Jim: 32:27

rights do buyers have if a seller fails to disclose known issues with a property?

Crystal: 32:32

Oh, boy, I've got some stories on that, too. We'll start first with the law. The law in Florida is that residential sellers, not commercial, residential sellers must disclose all known facts that materially affect the value of the home that are not Readily observable to the buyer. What the heck does that mean? It means that if the seller knows of a problem with the house, whether it be past, present, or future, and that problem materially affects. So we're talking, in the thousands of dollars affects the value of the home, the seller must disclose it, period, the end. Even if the problem happened in the past. Such as the case I had with these nice sellers had a rat infestation in their house. They were young couple, first time home buyers. They worked to with their. Pest control folks to get rid of this problem. Finally, the rats were eradicated after about a year and they finally went to sell the house after a couple of years, used the same agent who had helped them buy it, They asked, do we need to disclose the rat problem? The agent gave the wrong answer, which was no, you don't because it's been fixed. And so they closed another young home buyer, first time home buyer bought the house. And a fire broke out because of the wiring in the attic caused by an expert testified was caused by the rats. Had the seller disclosed the rat problem, it would have given the buyer the opportunity. To pay particular attention to those items that are affected by rats, insulation, wiring, drywall, things like that, but because she didn't know, the inspector didn't know, and they didn't pay particular attention, and her house, Was significantly damaged and in that case that young couple got sued and they lost. Yeah, I don't know how they ever really came back from that.

Jim: 34:46

000.

Crystal: 34:48

Yes. So had it been disclosed and the fire had broken out there, they would have had no liability whatsoever, right? None. They would have been completely absolved of it. So good lesson over disclose, let the buyer figure out if they want more information or if they want to look into it more, but over disclosed.

Jim: 35:08

Yeah it's better to disclose it and maybe you don't get the sale, but you're not on the hook for 70, 000 down the road.

Crystal: 35:15

So another good time, to just check in with an attorney. Hopefully you have a very experienced agent. They will give you the correct advice, but It really is a legal question. Does this problem with my house meet the definition legally? Of something I have to disclose. It's really a legal question. Certainly. I wouldn't charge money to give my opinion on that. Just, 10 or 15 minute conversation, but another reason to use a law firm for your real estate transaction.

Jim: 35:46

Yeah. The difference there is that you have the knowledge and the legal ability to make that. Information to them,

Crystal: 35:54

Commercial is completely different. Strangely commercial. And I know that's not what we're really talking about, but commercial is buyer beware. Commercial is like buying a car. As long as the seller doesn't out and out lie about something, the seller can say not one word, not a word.

Jim: 36:13

Amazing.

Crystal: 36:14

Yep. Real estate's a pretty cool thing.

Jim: 36:18

Every time I think I've got a good grip on it, I turn around and go, Ooh, look, there's another whole field.

Crystal: 36:23

I know,

Jim: 36:26

Crystal, I have so many more questions, but I've taken up a lot of your time today. I would love to be able to do another one. Go through, do some more questions, maybe next month or in a couple of weeks and we'll get back together I appreciate your time today and early enjoyed it. So thank you.

Crystal: 36:41

Thank you, Jim, for the opportunity.