Are you buying or selling real estate in Port Angeles or Sequim? If you are, who is your transaction coordinator? A transaction coordinator is extremely important, perhaps one of the most important people in your entire transaction. This is the person who coordinates everything about your transaction from the minute a Purchase and Sale Agreement is signed by buyer and seller. Top producing Realtors have a full time transaction coordinator, and there are some Realtors who do their own, but there is much much more to being a transaction coordinator than just baking a pie (although that would be pretty hard for me).
- The Purchase and Sale Agreement must be reviewed for legal sufficiency, with signatures by all parties on the title, and in Washington (because we are a community property state) by all spouses even if not on title.
- Initials must be on the bottom of every page of the agreement marked for a signature, and each edit or change must be initialed and dated by all parties.
- All attachments must actually be attached, i.e. the legal description, and it must be incorporated by reference (and best if also initialed).
- All amendments and addendums must be properly attached and incorporated and signed.
- Legal disclosures must be signed and distributed to the proper parties, and certain docs must be acknowledged and returned by key deadlines.
- Contingencies and feasibility items must be calendared and handled at the right time.
- Third party involvement, such as lenders, inspectors, contractors, escrow and title companies, building departments or other government agencies, must be diplomatically encouraged and monitored to do their job at the right time.
- Continuing documentation must be accomplished, which often means waiver docs or extensions or other amendments.
- Status of transaction information must be entered into the MLS, and multiple MLS’s for some of us.
- Review of all third party documents for compliance with the client’s terms in the agreements, and for timeliness.
- A transaction coordinator must be well organized, good with technology, software, database management, composing letters, good with time management, diplomatic with people, good on the telephone, experienced with all legal documents and requirements, and AND MUCH MORE.
Your transaction coordinator does all this. Missing or ignoring one or more of these items could kill your transaction! Seriously. Is your transaction coordinator good? P.S. Don’t assume your real estate agent is good at all these things. Ask. In other words, interview a Realtor before you hire him or her.
Last Updated on September 20, 2019 by Chuck Marunde
