August 24, 2024- Special Guest Attorney Ron Schaulat: What Do I do if My Real Estate Deal Goes South?

September 05, 2024 00:43:14
August 24, 2024- Special Guest Attorney Ron Schaulat: What Do I do if My Real Estate Deal Goes South?
Oklahoma Real Estate on the Move with Becky Ivins
August 24, 2024- Special Guest Attorney Ron Schaulat: What Do I do if My Real Estate Deal Goes South?

Sep 05 2024 | 00:43:14

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August 24, 2024- Special Guest Attorney Ron Schaulat: What Do I do if My Real Estate Deal Goes South?

 

www.beckyivins.com

http://okcitylawyer.com

 

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[00:00:00] Speaker A: You wanna know by now, who needs a house out in Hackersack? Is that all you get for your money? And if that's what you have in mind, yeah, that's what you're all about. Good luck moving up. Cause I moving out. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Good morning, and welcome to Oklahoma real estate on the move. This is Martin Carr, team member of the Becky Ivins real estate team, here with Becky Ivins. [00:00:30] Speaker C: Well, good morning, everyone. Everybody. Thank you for tuning in with us, and we have an interesting show for you today. I think it's interesting because we're going to be talking about, if you need to go to court because your real estate deal went south, where do you start? What court do you go to? I mean, there's a lot of different courts involved, so we brought in our expert, Ron Shalott, who is my attorney at law, and so take it away, Ron. Where do we start? [00:01:01] Speaker A: Where do we start? How about we start with. There are a number of lawyers in Oklahoma. [00:01:07] Speaker C: Oh, there's a. Back when we had the yellow pages, I think that was the biggest section in the yellow pages was lawyers. [00:01:15] Speaker A: Well, it became that way originally. It wasn't because lawyer advertising wasn't legitimized, but then it became legalized and approved ethically. So all of a sudden, you had all the advertising, and now, of course, you've got advertising on this fine radio station, other places on tv, etcetera, etcetera. But, you know, there's 18,500 and some odd lawyers licensed with the Oklahoma Bar association. Not all those are practicing in Oklahoma, but that's a pretty good number. And in case you were curious, which I know you are, there are about 12,000 of those are men and 6500 are women. [00:02:01] Speaker C: Well, that's probably higher than in years past. [00:02:04] Speaker A: It has really escalated. When I went to law school, you know, it's been a few years, we were starting to have more women involved in law school and more in the legal profession. You know, in Oklahoma county, matter of fact, we have actually more female district judges than male, which is different. You know, we seem to have a lot of them, and those are elected. So do we. [00:02:30] Speaker C: The female judgment more evidently than the male. [00:02:35] Speaker A: I'm not sure why it's changed that way, but we have a wide diversity of judges in the Oklahoma county, at least system, which encompasses largely Oklahoma county. But yet it is something that is good to see, because it's good to see a lot of different thoughts and a lot of different judges, and not the same old guy judge we used to see back when I first started. But they're younger, of course, most of them are younger than me now, and they're a pretty diverse group of people. [00:03:15] Speaker C: Okay, I've got a question. A lot of people will say, well, I'm calling my real estate attorney. Is there such a thing as a real estate attorney? [00:03:26] Speaker A: That gets into a tricky question. Because of legal ethics, technically, we do not have specialties. Some states do have a specialization. Oklahoma does not have a specialization. We're just attorneys. But yet not every attorney practices every area of the law, and some of them are more limited in what they practice, so they have more of an expertise in an area. Originally, lawyers handled everything, but as you start to get certain areas of the law expand, become more complicated. For example, your wills and your probates, your real estate, your criminal law. Then you get into the civil disputes, civil litigation, your divorces and adoptions and all the other kinds of areas. Then you get administrative laws. You get matters involving governmental entities, which is itself having certain rules and procedures you have to follow. So there's a lot you have to know if you're trying to practice everything and you can't practice everything very well. So you tend to pare down that which you are more interested in and that which you seem to have more of an affinity for and desire to learn more about because the different areas of law are all different, and that's where we get to. There's also different court systems to be in as well. [00:05:02] Speaker C: Right. Well, let's just kind of dig a little bit deeper into the specialty. Like, I know that you do a lot of will's probate estates and stuff, but I also know that you sit on the Oklahoma Bar association committee for that. Right. [00:05:21] Speaker A: Well, I'm a member of the committee. I'm a member of the committee, which is a state planning, probate and trust committee. Very good committee, by the way, but also I'm a member of the real estate committee. Don't necessarily do a lot of involvement in that one, but it does keep me up on the nuances of that area. And there are other committees you could be on, except you just can't be on all the committees because you just don't have enough time, time to do that or to be good at any one particular thing. But a lot of these things overlap. For example, if you're doing a family law divorce case that can overlap into real property, so you need to have some knowledge of real property in there. The same way when you're doing the estate planning, that will necessarily overlap into real estate and real property. So you need to know how to handle those particular kinds of situations. And then when things run afoul, where do you turn or where do you recommend people go to? [00:06:27] Speaker C: Well, and the first thing that our real estate contract calls for, I believe it's paragraph 14 or something like that. [00:06:38] Speaker A: It's 14? I think it's 14. [00:06:39] Speaker C: Okay. Is that the mediation clause you, when you sign your contract, you are signing that you'll mediate before you'll litigate. [00:06:51] Speaker A: And mediation is a process where the parties to a dispute get together with an individual, a mediator who doesn't make judicial determinations or make decisions, but instead tries to attain an agreement between the parties to where each side can walk away having made this agreement and settled their dispute. So it's a fine process. It works a lot of times, and sometimes it doesn't work if you have a party that is just obstinate and is not going to give an inch. But other times it does work, and it works more often than even I would have anticipated when those kind of things were coming up in the practice of law. [00:07:45] Speaker B: Both of you are correct. Paragraph 14, titled mediation. Any dispute arising with respect to the contract shall first be submitted to a dispute resolution mediation system. Yes, I love that system. [00:08:02] Speaker A: And there are places that you can obtain a mediator. Some of them are paid, and there's actually a couple of free mediation services that are available as well. But yet it's trying to find somebody who does a good job of getting the parties together, looking at where do they agree, and then where can there be disagreement, and trying to resolve the disagreements, because there's going to be an overlap somewhere. And trying to find where that overlap is, is the job of a mediator or the duty of a mediator to try to get the thing taken care of. [00:08:41] Speaker C: And the mediator really doesn't try to determine who's right, who's wrong, but just how to settle the dispute between the parties. [00:08:50] Speaker A: Correct. And oftentimes they will meet with the parties together and then separate the parties and go to each one and meet with them, and then come back and forth to see how close they are. It may be necessary to get the parties back together. It may not be. It may be something where the parties can forge an agreement that everybody can live with, because there, it's something that nobody is particularly happy and nobody's particularly unhappy, but it does get resolved because the alternative is to get into an expensive court battle. [00:09:25] Speaker B: And if mediation break down, does it go to county court? Is that the most often? [00:09:30] Speaker C: Well, we've got a lot to discuss about that right after this. [00:09:33] Speaker B: Maybe we'll keep you out of that county court or whatever court it may be when we come back, right here on Oklahoma real estate on the move. News Radio 1000 KTOK. Welcome back to Oklahoma Real estate on the move. We are here with Ron Shalott, attorney at law. Hopefully keeping you out of court, that's the thing. [00:09:55] Speaker C: But if you need to go to court, you need to know which court to go to. And that's a very entangled system, that court. I mean, there's many courts around, right? If your dispute over earnest money, where do you go, Ron? [00:10:12] Speaker A: Well, Mark, before the break talked about county court. Well, there really isn't a county court. There's a court in the county, and there are courts that span multiple counties. But Oklahoma has for quite some time now been divided up into judicial districts for the court system. But first you have to decide what court system are you in? Are you in a federal court system or are you in a state court system? Are you in a city or municipal court system? And then, as we've discussed quite a few times the last couple years here, are you in a tribal court system? And that really makes the situation quite interesting. The tribal court system is largely involving tribal lands and Native Americans, the indian population. So usually you're not going to see that unless you're up in the Tulsa county area, in which case you might find yourself there. But that's a whole different program that we don't go into today. Then your question is, well, what about city or municipal court? Would that be a place where I go? Well, city or municipal courts largely govern their city rules called ordinances. And they're usually things such as quasi criminal matters, I'll say, like traffic tickets or criminal disputes of that nature. And each city or municipality would largely have their own courts. You've got one for Oklahoma City, you've got one for Waracres, you got one for Bethany, even though these are all in Oklahoma county. And then you can even go down to Midwest City, to Mustang, Yukon, et cetera. So your city courts just govern your city. And what you're looking at is, does the court have jurisdiction? Does the court have the capability to decide the matter? Jurisdiction, the word judicial comes from that. So that's where does the court have the capability of deciding and then enforcing its matter? You bring an action in an Oklahoma court and the Oklahoma court decides. But if the matter really is in Idaho, can Oklahoma really decide something that's in Idaho? And that gets into the idea of, does the court have jurisdiction, the capability to decide on that, then you can look at. Well, I hear so much about the federal courts. We're reading a lot about that in the newspaper, in the news. What's that about? Well, that's the federal court system, which is United States laws, congressional laws, and enactments and things involving the federal government and the federal laws. But also, if it crosses state lines and you satisfy the jurisdictional requirements in federal court, you could bring it in federal court. Or to enforce a federal law, you could bring it in federal court. But if it's not a federal law, it has to be citizens of different states, and it has to be above $75,000 in order to bring into federal court. That's a technicality that you have to be careful on. Then you're looking at state courts, which is the most common thing we run into. Mark mentioned county courts, and I said, well, but we really don't have county courts. We have district courts. Oklahoma is divided up into judicial districts, and we have, the districts encompass many different counties. I believe it's 26 judicial districts by number, but you get some that go beyond more than one county. McLean County, Cleveland county are in the same judicial district number 26, for example. So you have that Oklahoma district, judicial seven, which is where we're located at. We have a. I said Cleveland county is in the 26th, 21st judicial district. 26th is canadian county. We number them canadian county. Oklahoma county used to be together. They have since split it. So Canadian county is 26, Oklahoma is seven, and it's the judicial district that governs the area where that gets confusing. Like Oklahoma City goes into seven counties. So if you got a matter that's involving an Oklahoma City matter, you have to know which judicial district would it be in? Because it's not necessarily in the 7th judicial district in, located in Oklahoma county in Oklahoma City. [00:15:19] Speaker C: Well, now, I've got a question about that. If it's. You're trying to determine which judicial. Judicial for me to say, right. Judicial district to file something in. How is it where the property is located or where the buyer or seller are located? [00:15:42] Speaker A: That gets into two kind of questions. One is who's got jurisdiction, and the other, what is the proper place to bring it called venue? And those are things that we study in law school. And then we try to keep abreast of as we're practicing law. And they changed, these statutes have changed as to where you can bring certain actions. So you have to be knowledgeable about it and you have to be careful as to where you're bringing it. So you bring it in the proper place. Generally, and this is very general, but generally, if it's a real property matter, where the property is located is going to be a good choice to bring an action. If it's located in Oklahoma City in the 7th judicial district, then you could bring it here. If it is, however, in, for example, in Cleveland county, then you're in a different judicial district, even though it's Oklahoma City, and that would be the 21st judicial district. So you would bring it down in Normandy, Oklahoma, then. Are there other places you could bring it? Well, possibly, because the venue statutes allow you to do that jurisdictionally. An Oklahoma court has jurisdiction over the entire state area, but that doesn't make it the proper place to bring the action because venue is important, too. Where the property is located, where can you find the other individual called the defendant? That's a place you could bring it as a matter of venue. But then again, to good lawyers, you'll look at that at times and go, well, if all the witnesses are not where the defendant is located, perhaps you would go for a change of venue. So there are technicalities involved in it. [00:17:42] Speaker B: Okay, what happens if plaintiff or defendant is out of state or out of country? [00:17:51] Speaker A: Well, out of state depends upon what kind of action it is. If it is a situation where they were here, the contract was made here, the property is here, you would assume that they would be subject to jurisdiction here if they want to try to claim that it is an inappropriate place to bring it. It depends upon the kind of action that you've got. If it's just a simple contract action, again, you look at where was it signed? Where is the place that it's supposed to be performed at? Because that's where you would look at. You can still bring the action, and potentially you can litigate it to its conclusion. Now, how do you enforce it? That's going to be the other aspect of it. Or if it is above a $75,000 limit, you could bring it in federal court because the federal court systems can go further beyond it. But that is something that, when you're involved in litigation, that you have to be wary of, and that's where lawyers become involved and usually earn their keep. [00:19:05] Speaker B: So you said the threshold of 75,000 for federal court. Okay. [00:19:10] Speaker A: To do federal court? [00:19:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:11] Speaker A: If you're below that or falls below that, the federal court will simply dismiss for lack of jurisdiction and will let you refile it in state court. [00:19:23] Speaker C: Okay. So we've got an awful lot to kind of untangle here because we know a lot about the courts. But really, where do you go if you're having a dispute over earnest money? Where do you go if you're having a dispute over property boundaries? You thought you were buying a certain amount of land, and then the neighbor comes out and says, hey, why are you putting that fence on my land there? We can give you some real world experience on this. And we are going to when we. [00:19:51] Speaker B: Come back with more right after this on Oklahoma real estate on the move. News radio. One thousand K t o k. Welcome back to Oklahoma Real estate on the move. This is Mark Carr, team member of the Becky Ivins real estate team, here with Becky Ivins and our special guest, Ron Shalott, attorney Athenae Law. And it is time for our word of the day. Our word of the day is brought to you by Robbins roofing, where their word every day is trust. You can trust Robbins roofing from a small repair to a complete replacement. Give him a call at seven two eight 3700. That's 405 728-3700 becky, what's our word of the day? [00:20:59] Speaker C: Well, our word of the day is district. [00:21:02] Speaker B: District. Let's throw it to Ron. How do we, how to define a district? [00:21:08] Speaker A: Becky, when you said that word of the day, Mark's eyes got real big. Like, what? What in the world are we talking? Where'd you get that word out? Well, you brought up county court, and so I brought up district court as the remedy. [00:21:23] Speaker B: We go by districts and not county. [00:21:25] Speaker A: Exactly. We go by districts. So district is a good word. And I'm glad she picked that one. That's amazing that she pulled that out of the hat. But a district, what is a district? It's a territory under jurisdiction, and it used to be the jurisdiction of a lord or an officer. That was the origin of it. Came from French and came through Latin. Comes from the same latin root as the word distress, which doesn't sound like it, but distress used to mean a sense of constraint or to compel someone. So it gets into an area of pulling or putting together, such as pulling together as an area. So it's the area, the territory where an entity, a lord in this, in that case or now we have governments have jurisdiction or the capability of making decisions. We call them judicial decisions. So we have district courts. Your attorney for the state government that brings actions, whether criminal or civil is called a district attorney. They're not county attorneys, they're district attorneys. They're elected four districts, but that's the territory that they have authority over. [00:22:55] Speaker C: You know, I never really thought about that, but that's that's kind of an eye opener for me. District attorney is over a district, so I was always thinking the district attorney was over, like, a county. [00:23:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:09] Speaker C: And it's not. [00:23:10] Speaker A: No, it's over a district. [00:23:12] Speaker C: Wow. [00:23:12] Speaker A: Okay. Over your district. [00:23:14] Speaker B: Lincoln county and Pot county are one district. [00:23:18] Speaker A: Yes. [00:23:18] Speaker B: Counties. One DA for two counties. [00:23:21] Speaker A: And if you go to those county courts, one's in Shawnee, the other's in Chandler, and you will have a district judge that will go over both, actually. So it is interesting how it's divided up. And when you're looking at that, what you find out sometimes, though, as an attorney, that if you're going to file in a certain judicial district, you have to file find out, well, which county do I go to? Because your judicial district doesn't mean that they all go into one spot. You actually, for example, what Mike was talking about, you may have to file it in Chandler or may have to file it in Shawnee. So it depends upon where the districts even divided up. So now I've confused you. [00:24:16] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, I mean, the thing is, we kind of need to clarify and simplify this. [00:24:23] Speaker B: And somehow I got so many curiosity questions going on my mind, I don't know what the answer is of them. So I'm like, I don't know to ask. It's like lawyer, you never ask a question you don't know the answer to. But I got curious, do you have districts that you would prefer to put things into? Do they run really differently from one district to another? [00:24:45] Speaker A: Well, some districts are in areas that are not very well inhabited. There's more sparse population, so your judges are not going to have a whole lot of cases. And we find this in the more rural districts in Oklahoma. Oklahoma County, a lot of cases. Oklahoma, Cleveland County, a lot of cases in Cleveland county. And of course, you know, like Lawton, Komachi County, Canadian county, you would, you know, Logan county, not as many. Potawatomi county is not as many, but you even get further out, Jackson county, etcetera. You love those kind of places even less in terms of numbers. So you're kind of looking at that situation as to the judge is not going to have as many cases. And consequently, you have to wonder, do they even have knowledge of this kind of a case? Although really all the judges are. Well, they're good judges, every one. Would I prefer one over there? Not necessarily in Oklahoma. I've had good experiences in all the county that I've been to and all the judges I've been before. Some judges, I probably get along with a little better, simply because of factors that have nothing to do with being a judge. But just sometimes they're personality questions. I've never really felt unwelcome in any of the district courts that I've gone to. I always thought I was treated well by judges. Maybe I'm not so wise because I don't notice when I'm not being treated well. I don't know, but I tend to like them all. I tend to like them all. So you have more variety in Uncle Makani, obviously, because you have more district judges. You got 15 district judges in Oklahoma county. So consequently, it's going to be a different judge. Whenever you file a case, it's random selection. [00:26:55] Speaker B: So, question for Becky, and you love to hear your opinion on what is the most litigated area within real estate contract, like what has brought the most litigation. [00:27:08] Speaker C: Well, I can tell you what I think. Many times it's earnest money dispute. And in that case, you go to what's called an inter pleader court, which is typically a, I think the interpleader is kind of like a, what do you call a small claim court? Small claim court most of the time. But condition of property, I would say, by far, is the number one litigated thing is the buyer feels like the property wasn't what the seller said they presented. They're covering up something. And so that's my opinion. What's your opinion on that? [00:27:51] Speaker A: I think those are a couple of really good choices. I haven't really given it a whole lot of thought as to those kind of things. Title, I see more of simply because those cross into my desk more. Is there a claim of title? Lien claims? Those are litigated quite a bit because those are things that don't get resolved very well. You're talking about inner pleading. That's where whoever's holding the money actually puts it into court and says, look, we don't know who's supposed to get this judge. We're throwing it into the court, and you guys decide it, we're out of here. You know, that's, that's the idea there. But sometimes there are situations where it's not inter pled, but instead, you do have a party holding the money, in which case you do file an action for that money. And then it depends upon where do you want to go in terms of the court system. If it's, you know, under $10,000 or $10,000 or underdeveloped, you can go small claims, which is a faster and without lawyers, but otherwise you go to a regular district court, then you're going to involve lawyers and more of the paperwork. [00:29:12] Speaker B: So, question on earnest money Becky, I know we don't want to get too deep into the weeds here, but earnest money listener, if you know it's money that is held, that's put down, is held by someone, and that's the question I'm going to get to you, Becky, is the someone holding the earnest money that basically keeps the feet to the flame that if the buyer cancels out the contract during the inspection period, most likely that money is returned to the buyer. And then if they break contract, then there's dispute on the earnest money. My question, and we're right before break here, is who is the best person to hold earnest money? It can be the one of the brokers, it can be the title company, or it can be a lawyer I believe can hold earnest, but it has to be held by someone. [00:30:03] Speaker C: Someone or some entity needs to hold the earnest money. And we'll talk about that when we. [00:30:08] Speaker B: Come back with more right here on Oklahoma real estate on the move news radio one thousand K t o K innovative comfort solutions takes pride in bringing the best comfort possible to you and your family. They work on all types of heating and air conditioning systems as well as indoor air quality and smart controls. Their five star rating means you can trust innovative comfort solutions to provide you with fair and honest service for all your heating and air conditioning needs. Call innovative comfort Solutions at or go to icsheatair.com newsradio 1000 KTOK never bought a home before? [00:30:55] Speaker D: Where do you start? Start with us First Liberty bank is a local community bank with branches in Oklahoma City and Norman offering competitive mortgage rates with superior service. Our experts are here to guide you through the process every step of the way so you can find the perfect place to call home. With interest rates nearing all time historical lows, our staff of caring mortgage professionals are ready to help you take the next step in your home buying journey. Call us today at 405-608-4500 member FDIC Equal Housing Lender we all like to. [00:31:29] Speaker E: Save money and State Farm can help you with discounts. When you combine your car insurance with state farm homeowners insurance, you get big savings. So talk to your neighborhood state farm agent and experience the good neighbor service that has made State Farm America's number one insurance company together. They can make sure you get the discounts you deserve and coverage you need. [00:31:47] Speaker B: Call Brad Russell at 947-2812 once again, 947-2812 like a good neighbor state farm is there. [00:31:56] Speaker F: Are you frustrated because you're trying to sell your home, but all you're getting are excuses? Hey, Sean Hannity here to tell you about a great american right in your backyard who can guarantee to sell your home at a price and a deadline that you agreed to or she'll have it bought for cash. I'm talking about Becky Ivins of Movers real estate. Now, she services the entire Oklahoma City area. She has a system that out markets and outsells 99% of agents in Oklahoma City. Now, I've talked to a lot of agents and invested millions of dollars into real estate. So believe me, I know one mistake can mean losing a lot of money. Becky spends thousands of dollars every month to attract hundreds of buyers, which helps home sell fast. And for the most money, you risk nothing because if at any point you're not happy, well, you can get out of the contract free and clear and pay nothing. But trust me, that's not going to happen. Call Becky Ivins now, 7223 232-722-3232 or check out her reviews [email protected]. that's Becky ivins.com. and consider your home sold. [00:32:56] Speaker G: Hi, I'm Joe McKinney with McKinney Investments. And I'm here to talk about Robin's roofing. They're reliable. They're honest. They're not a fly by night group. They're here for the long haul. They've hit the mark every time with one what they said they're going to do at the price that they said they were going to do it and the time frame that they said they can do it. I couldn't recommend any other roofing company any more than I can. [00:33:17] Speaker B: Robin's roofing for roofing at its very best. [00:33:20] Speaker C: Trust r o b b I n. [00:33:23] Speaker D: S. Visit robinsroofinginc.com cib number ok 800251. [00:33:32] Speaker B: Welcome back to Oklahoma Real estate on the move. It is time for our smoking hot deal. Hot, hot. Our smoking hot deals are brought to you by Casa Perico Mexican Grill, located on the south corner of 122nd in Penn on 63rd just west of Meridian and at 505 East Main street in Yukon on Route 66. Typically we bring you a particular smoking hot deal, but on this week we want to encourage you to go make your own smoking hot deal. [00:34:08] Speaker C: Our website is really easy to maneuver and is a direct link into the multilist system so you can search live just like we search when we go on the multilist. It does have a little bit more limited search than what a realtor can search for. I mean, like, you can search, we can search for, we want to buy, find something with taxes between 1000, $801,900 a year. I mean, well, that's not a very viable search. It's not very useful search for most people. But the main things that a buyer would look for are available to search by. And we can tweak your search by just having it. You set up your search, and then we can tweak it on our end to get exactly the properties, expose you to exact properties you're looking for. [00:35:00] Speaker B: And if you have especially something that you go. If I knew a house would come available in a certain neighborhood or in a certain waterfront or a certain whatever it is that's meaningful to you, whatever encourages, give us a call. Because often those smoking hot deals we know are coming to market before they hit the market, if we know what you're looking for, you know. Beautiful. So the number at the office is 405-722-3232 that's 722-3232. And help us create your own smoking hot deal. [00:35:38] Speaker C: Right. Okay. Now, right before we went to break, we were talking about, like, an inner pleader court and interpleter court being that's just what it's called in real estate. Right? I mean, is it called something else in a different area? [00:35:56] Speaker A: Well, it's an interpleter action, inner pleader action, right. It's brought in the district court, but it's interpleter action. It's a specific type of action, or can even be an aspect of an action. If you have a dispute between two parties and somebody else holds the property or the funds, they can interplead it to keep them out or to get them out of a case. Sometimes you'll file an action against more than one party, and maybe one of the parties is actually holding something, but they don't really have a dog in the fight. So they say, fine, we don't care. Here it is, but they need to put it somewhere. And so if it's cash, you know, they pay it into court, inter plead it in and say, okay, we've done all we can do. Get us out of here, dismiss us. [00:36:41] Speaker C: Well, and then earnest money itself is a good faith deposit, right? [00:36:47] Speaker A: Well, earnest means that you've got a sincere desire and intent. And so to prove that you put forth a sum of money, you put forth something. And to make sure to show that I am serious about this, and I will agree to lose this if I back off of it. Otherwise, you would just sign for example, a purchase contract. Don't put any money down, and you can sign them all day. And I'll cancel this one, I'll cancel that one. And the seller, they take it off the market, and they lose money, they lose other opportunities. So the idea of the earnest money is to show that there is an intent, there's a desire, right. [00:37:33] Speaker C: And that's just kind of an insurance that the buyer will perform on their contract. [00:37:40] Speaker A: And it's not going to be an onerous amount of money. Like, it's not going to buy the house, but it is hopefully enough to make a buyer think twice if they're just going to cancel it for no good reason. There can be contractual reasons that are good. [00:37:56] Speaker C: A common earnest money amount is about 1% of the cost of the property. And that is not a requirement at all. It's just. That's pretty common to put up about that much money. [00:38:10] Speaker A: Sometimes it depends upon the different parties. One of the first trials I had as a lawyer was on returning earnest money. And so that's back in 1983. In fact, it was right after Thanksgiving. I remember. [00:38:26] Speaker C: How did you find the bank to. You probably couldn't find the bank that held the mortgage on the property in 1983, right. Because they were going out of business, one right after the other. [00:38:35] Speaker A: Well, this actually was two private individuals. It was an individual, two individuals who were having a property dispute over a purchase. I don't remember. I remember the names. I don't want to say them, but I remember the names very well. But it was right over. It was the Monday after Thanksgiving, my first trial. I was scared to death. But anyway, the idea was that one party had given the money to another party to hold, and the deal went south and they wanted their money back. And there was a dispute over whether they should be entitled to get it all back or part of it back, etcetera. But the earnest money is just simply a way for a seller to know that, okay, if they've withdrawn the property from the market or they've incurred expenses, that they'll get some of that back. [00:39:26] Speaker C: Right. Well, and now they get all of it back. Typically, if it's a clean, clean break on the contract. But they can negotiate somewhere in between, too, if. If the parties agree to that. So, okay, so where's earnest money held? Many times it is held with a title company now instead of a real estate broker. Now, real estate brokers are required once a year. I read the little book as to what I'm required to do earnest money wise, and how you hold it and how it has to be labeled in your bank account and stuff like that. But, and there's rules about what you can do with earnest money or what you must do with Earnest money. However, there's, those rules don't apply to a title company. They don't have, they're not bound by the rules of real estate. They're not a licensed real estate entity. [00:40:29] Speaker B: So, so in, like, one of the things, Becky, if I'm correct on this, is, like, title companies are not required to go to interpleter court, is that correct? [00:40:39] Speaker C: They are not required to. [00:40:40] Speaker B: And broker you are. [00:40:42] Speaker C: Yeah. You're not required to know, but you can. [00:40:47] Speaker B: Okay. [00:40:47] Speaker C: I mean, as a broker, I can make a decision. [00:40:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:50] Speaker C: As to who gets the earnest money. But then that leaves me wide open for a lawsuit that somebody disagreed with you. [00:40:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:57] Speaker C: And I would rather hand over the money to the court and let them decide. And that way, nobody comes back to say, well, you made the wrong decision. [00:41:06] Speaker B: Right. [00:41:07] Speaker A: And that's because, Becky, your lawyer is very expensive and you don't want to. [00:41:12] Speaker C: This could be a partial reason. Ron. Yes. [00:41:16] Speaker A: States, actually, lawyers are part of the real estate transaction. That used to be a fairly common rule. So lawyers would hold the money and be the one to arbitrate it, for example. That gets into some ethical questions, because if you're a lawyer for one of the parties and you're holding the money, would you give it back to your client or who's your client? And so it can get into some ethical problems in that regard. So it's a good reason for lawyers not to be involved in that, either. [00:41:49] Speaker C: Well, and in other states, many other states lawyers actually close the transactions, whereas we don't. We use title companies, closing companies. [00:41:59] Speaker A: Quite a bit of difference. [00:42:01] Speaker C: Any last word? [00:42:03] Speaker A: Well, if you're going to be going to a court, I would suggest that you seek legal counsel, if nothing else than just to give you an idea of what you're getting yourself into. Where do you go and what the expenses are? Because sometimes the expense is more than the whole argument is worth. [00:42:21] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a good idea, too. [00:42:23] Speaker B: Well, I tell you, if just talking about lawyer and attorney at law pings something in your mind that you need to talk to, one, I encourage you, reach out to Ron Shalott. You can go to Becky ivins.com. that's b e c k yde, ivins.com. click on Becky's favorites. You'll see them right there. As always, thanks for being with us here on Oklahoma real estate on the move, Newsradio one thousand k t o. [00:42:46] Speaker A: K. Always watch over you. And may all of your hopes turn to wishes. And may all of your wishes come true. May each day in the month.

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