Revised Agreement of Sale debuting July 1

A revised Agreement of Sale (Form ASR) will be available for use as of July 1, 2019.

The only substantive change to its content is in Paragraph 8(I), which relates to FHA and VA financing. For an application for 203(k) financing to be approved, the lender must make sure that the contract for the sale of the property contains a statement indicating that the buyer is willing to make any and all repairs to the property that the lender requires. Since that statement was missing, a lender would have to provide an addendum in order to comply with underwriters’ guidelines; now it will be possible for the transaction to proceed without needing an additional form (but that’s not a guarantee). The guidelines for consumers and members have been updated accordingly.

What you will not see is a change to Paragraphs 13 or 14 of the agreement from the additions made in January. The revisions to those paragraphs were not done on a whim and, after a year or so of debate between members at the task force, feedback panel and committee levels, it was decided that adoption of the new language would be in the best interest of our members. Understanding the frustration that comes with a change of practice, in January, the committee promised to revisit the issue at their next meeting. Members and staff actively solicited feedback between meetings, but all indications were that business continued as usual.