Unimproved Land Contract: Seller’s Disclosure

Earlier this year, I had a situation representing a buyer on a land deal. While working on the offer, I noticed the promulgated unimproved land contract included a section for the Seller’s Disclosure. I drafted the offer, and let my clients review it. However, I did not have them sign it. I sent the unsigned offer to the listing agent and let her know we needed the Seller’s Disclosure portion completed first before my clients would sign it. She was unaware of this section and was hesitant about even asking her client to complete it. I had to insist that we could not submit an offer that was signed by the buyers until the seller completed this portion. The seller, of course, was resistant as well, since the listing agent had not been able to prepare him about property disclosure for unimproved land. I put my foot down and said they had to complete it before we could send in the full offer. Eventually, we were able work everything out, and my clients ended up buying the property.

It is important that I look out for the best interests of my clients. It would not have been wise to have the clients sign the offer without knowing some of the information that the seller’s disclosure provides. Even though a buyer needs to do their own research on the land, the seller is also obligated to disclose what they know about the property. I’m not sure that I would have slapped the disclosure in the middle of the contract like that, but I’m not a lawyer. If you come across this same situation, I would suggest a listing agent add a completed and initialed page of the contract with the Seller’s Disclosure section to their listing documents. Buyers agents, if the page is not already provided, I would suggest sending just that page with the Seller’s Disclosure section to the listing agent, informing them that it needs to be completed by the seller before you have your buyers sign their offer.

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To preview the form in question: https://www.trec.texas.gov/forms/unimproved-property-contract-0