OH Real Estate common mistakes
OH Real Estate · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Hands the buyer the Consumer Guide to Agency Relationships and then immediately starts advising on offer price and negotiating strategy, assuming an agency relationship now exists.
Candidates memorize the 'first substantive contact' disclosure rule and stop there, treating the guide as if it created representation. The guide is only a disclosure; Ohio representation must be established in a written agency agreement signed by the consumer before the licensee acts as agent.
What to do instead
Treat it as two separate steps on every file: (1) deliver and explain the guide at first substantive contact, (2) obtain a signed written agency agreement before giving advice or negotiating. If the brokerage ends up representing both sides, obtain written informed consent to dual agency from both parties before proceeding.
In a dual agency situation, tells the buyer what the seller 'will really take' or what the seller's deadline is in order to keep the transaction moving.
Candidates carry over the advocacy instinct from single-agency representation and forget that a dual agent must not advocate for either side or disclose either party's confidential information. They also forget that confidentiality obligations survive termination of the relationship.
What to do instead
In dual agency, disclose facts about the property, not the parties' motivation, bottom line, or urgency. Build a file checklist item that reads 'confidentiality survives termination' and review it before any post-closing conversation with a former client.
Receives a returned purchase contract with the price crossed out and a lower number handwritten in, treats it as accepted, and orders inspections and the appraisal.
The candidate sees signatures and assumes agreement. Any change to the terms of an offer is a counteroffer that terminates the original offer, so no contract exists until the counteroffer is accepted and that acceptance is communicated.
What to do instead
Compare every term of the returned document against the original before doing anything else. If any term differs, treat it as a counteroffer: get written acceptance, confirm delivery under the contract's notice provision, and restart the deadline calendar from the new acceptance date.
Lets the inspection, financing, and closing dates slip because they are 'about two weeks out,' and accepts a phone call as notice that the buyer is waiving the inspection contingency.
Candidates count days from the wrong starting point, underestimate how a missed notice deadline can waive a contingency or put their own client in breach, and forget that contract notices must be in the form and delivered the way the contract requires.
What to do instead
Convert every relative deadline into a calendar date at signing (the day after acceptance is day one), confirm calendar versus business day counting, and require all waivers, extensions, and notices in writing and delivered per the contract's delivery clause.
Prorates the year's property taxes at closing as if taxes were paid in advance, producing an incorrect debit and credit on the settlement statement.
Candidates compare property tax to an insurance premium paid ahead of coverage. In Ohio, real property taxes are collected in arrears, so the bill paid during a calendar year covers an earlier tax period, and the closing must use the last certified bill.
What to do instead
Identify exactly which tax period the last available bill covers, charge the seller for the days the seller owned the property through closing and credit the buyer accordingly, and show the arithmetic on the settlement statement instead of estimating.
Recommends the loan with the lowest quoted note rate as 'the cheapest' without comparing origination points, lender fees, or the APR.
Candidates conflate the note rate with the APR and skip the total finance charge. A rate bought down with discount points can cost more over the borrower's likely holding period, and lender fees vary widely between otherwise similar quotes.
What to do instead
Compare Loan Estimates side by side on note rate, points, APR, total finance charge, total monthly payment including escrows, and cash to close, and ask the borrower how long they expect to keep the loan before recommending a buydown.
Accepts a commission check directly from a builder or FSBO seller, or pays a $500 'referral fee' to an unlicensed friend who sent a buyer.
Candidates focus on getting paid and overlook the compensation chain: a salesperson may only be compensated by and through the sponsoring broker, and brokerage compensation cannot be shared with unlicensed persons for brokerage activity.
What to do instead
Route all compensation to the sponsoring brokerage and let the broker disburse to the salesperson. When an unlicensed vendor is paid, pay for a distinct non-brokerage product or service (photography, cleaning, staging) and never for a referral or for brokerage work.
Holds a buyer's earnest money check in a desk drawer 'until we know the deal is going through,' or deposits it into the office operating account to cover marketing expenses.
Candidates treat trust money as ordinary office cash flow and never apply trust-account discipline. Commingling and delayed deposit of trust funds are frequent rule violations and heavily tested licensing concepts.
What to do instead
Follow the brokerage's written trust-account procedure: deposit earnest money into the trust account within the required time, keep a separate record for each transaction, never use trust funds for business expenses, and disburse only as the contract directs or as the parties agree in writing.
States '1,850 square feet' and a named school district as verified facts in the MLS and to the buyer, then does not correct the listing after learning the tax record figure includes a finished basement.
Candidates want to be helpful and assume public records are accurate, but tax-record area figures follow different measurement standards than living-area calculations, and school attendance boundaries change. An uncorrected misstatement becomes a misrepresentation.
What to do instead
Attribute every such statement to its source ('tax record indicates...'), advise the buyer to verify independently, order a licensed measurement when accuracy matters, and correct inaccurate advertising in writing as soon as the error is known.
Tells the buyer the deed is only 'final' once it comes back from the recorder, and assumes that a signed deed still sitting in the seller's lawyer's desk drawer has not transferred anything.
Candidates confuse recording with validity. Title passes on valid delivery of a properly executed deed that the grantee accepts; recording protects priority and provides constructive notice to later purchasers.
What to do instead
Verify three things on every conveyance: proper execution and acknowledgment, intent to deliver (actual or constructive), and acceptance by the grantee. Then record promptly to establish priority and protect against later purchasers and lienholders.