For those who want to buy a home in the U.S., they should also be aware of the laws related to home transactions in the U.S., such as the following.

  Termination Options

  For most people, the purchase or sale of a home is the largest investment of a lifetime, and it is not returnable like other items. Therefore, in order to protect the buyer's interests, many real estate purchase and sale contracts in the U.S. states have an important clause or similar, referred to as an Option, which is very important to buyers of U.S. properties.

  Such a clause is similar but varies from state to state in the United States. In Texas, for example, the clause is to give the buyer who has signed and deposited a deposit a certain period of time to cancel the contract for any reason, and the deposit will be returned to the buyer in full, and the buyer will only lose the Option Fee.

The Option Fee is a fee paid directly to the seller by the buyer in addition to the deposit when the buyer and seller sign the contract for the second home. If the buyer buys the house, the seller will refund the Option Fee to the buyer.

During this time, the seller cannot contract with another buyer and the buyer can terminate the contract without any conditions. This clause is very beneficial to buyers of U.S. real estate.

 Usually buyers hire a professional home inspector to conduct a full home inspection during this period. If there is a health hazard, the buyer can unilaterally terminate the contract with a refund of the deposit.

In most cases, only minor problems are detected, at which point the buyer will ask the seller to make certain repairs, and the seller will often accept the buyer's request to make repairs to damaged or non-working areas.

  Similar regulations in various U.S. states allow buyers sufficient time to consider and review the property, thus protecting the interests of U.S. home buyers.



  If a U.S. real estate broker engages in fraudulent practices that cause serious injury and substantial financial loss to a buyer or seller, the buyer or seller may sue, at which point the broker flees in fear, or the court has ruled that the broker has compensated the victim for the financial loss, but the broker does not have the money to repay.

In this case, it is not enough to rely on the comfort of public opinion and moral support without getting reasonable compensation, how to solve this problem?

Indemnity reserve system

  The establishment of the Broker Compensation Reserve System, which is available in every state in the United States, provides a solution, which is now briefly described.

The system is not set up by the U.S. federal government, but by each state government, so it is both similar and different.

Some states have set up compensation reserve systems where the compensation is paid by the brokers themselves and thus accumulated. Each broker pays about $10 when they first get their license, and then another $50 or so each year when their license is renewed, until they reach a certain amount of compensation.

Some states have a minimum reserve of $1 million, a maximum of $1.7 million, and generally maintain a reserve of $1.5 million or less.

There are also some states that have lower reserves, in the range of $500,000.

Generally, the maximum amount of compensation for a single accident can be $50,000.

 It can be argued that the indemnity reserve system truly protects consumers' interests.

  How is it handled in the U.S. when there are some less-than-reputable real estate agents who withhold deposits from buyers, take money from sellers for homes sold, or even take their clients' funds?

Title Search

    When the buyer and seller sign the purchase and sale contract, the title company's attorney will begin investigating the seller's title records, i.e., the history of the transfer of title to the property, as well as investigating whether there are any debts, property management, city fines, etc., on the title of the property.

If there are problems, they must be resolved before title can be transferred. If the seller is not willing to resolve the problems found, then the buyer can terminate the contract and return the deposit to the buyer.

Title Appraisal

  If there are no problems with the title, the title company will provide title insurance for the property and will be responsible for the title transfer and closing procedures between the buyer and seller, which are in the nature of an independent insurance company, independent of the buyer and seller.

In the event of a problem with the title of the property and an accident, the title company will assume the risk and pay compensation.



Provision of Third Party Accounts

  In order to maintain the fairness of real estate transactions in the United States, most state governments in the United States tend to prohibit the deposit from being controlled by the buyer's real estate agent or the seller's broker. Otherwise, if the seller defaults and the buyer requests a refund of the deposit, the seller's broker will often find various reasons to refuse the refund.

If the deposit is in the hands of the buyer's broker, once the buyer defaults and the seller withholds the deposit, the buyer's broker will also find various reasons to refuse to surrender the deposit.

Therefore, the deposit cannot be deposited with the broker, but only with a neutral third party, the title company, so that in the event of a dispute, the deposit can be quickly refunded to the buyer or withheld by the seller.

 Title Transfer Process

  All title transfer procedures are handled by a neutral third party, i.e. the title company. Once the buyer and seller have signed the required documents for the transfer, the buyer will pay the price of the property to the title company in the form of a cashier's check from the bank, or in the case of a mortgage, the bank will wire the loan to the title company's account before the property transaction is actually completed.

The title company will deduct some fees from the price of the property, such as: commission, miscellaneous fees for title insurance closing, etc., and pay the seller immediately in accordance with the relevant provisions of the real estate purchase and sale contract.

Therefore, many sellers are paid for their homes within hours of closing, which fundamentally eliminates the opportunity for real estate brokers to interfere with the control of home payments.