The Blog

Have you heard the news? The Escondido Transaction Coordinator at Transaction 911 is here to tell you that the RPA—the Residential Purchase Agreement—is changing again this November. It seems like just yesterday that the Escondido Transaction Coordinator experienced the last change to the RPA.

The RPA is such a lengthy and detailed document. We at Transaction 911 recommend that real estate agents take a RPA class in order to get familiar with the changes to this form.

Here is a list of 8 things to know about the new Residential Purchase Agreement which were gleaned from SDAR’s recent Risk Management meeting:

1. There are more than 24 new or changed paragraphs in the new RPA coming this fall. Only five paragraphs remained the same.
2. The risk management team recommends that you check with your sellers on all listings, and obtain (in writing) their permission to instruct all buyers that offers received on or after 11/24/2014 must be on the new RPA.
3. There will now be a table of contents to reference items.
4. Certain documents in addition to the BIA (such as Agency Disclosure) will automatically be included in zipForm® Plus with the RPA.
5. If you add specific language and the space isn’t large enough to fit all of your text, an overflow addendum is automatically created to include your verbiage.
6. The option to have loan Contingency Removal in place until funding is gone. You must specific this in the contract or the default will be 21 days.
7. The WPA form has been removed.
8. With respect to escrow documents, all parties agree to return the escrow documents within five days.

There are plenty of other changes to the California RPA. We at Transaction 911 believe that with so many changes, it is important to get a head start, if you want to hit the ground running in late November.