Definition of "Duress"
Act of forcing an individual or business to do something against their will. It is a legitimate defense in court to reserve the effect of the compelled act.
Popular Real Estate Terms
Site where mobile homes are located. Mobile home parks are often mandated by municipal zoning laws. They provide necessary utilities to the mobile homes often including recreational ...
The right to possess, exclusively occupy, enjoy, control, and dispose of real estate. Ownership rights to realty are granted by the ownership of a title to real property. ...
Effect on the market price of houses as interest rate change. For example, when mortgage interest rates rise, the prices of houses tend to fall. ...
The Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is an exclusive database of properties created by real estate agents and brokers. The idea behind the creation of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) ...
Association of people not treated as a corporation. Examples are a limited partnership and a group of cooperative owners. ...
Privilege granted by a franchiser to a franchisee permitting the latter to operate using the franchiser's name. The franchisee must pay a franchise fee for such right. In addition, the ...
The appraisal approach is used to estimate the value of an asset, based on various factors to reach the closest educated guess of the asset. While an appraisal approach does consider the ...
The amount of a periodic payment, whether monthly, quarterly, or annually, including interest and principal, required for a mortgage payment. ...
Combined action of two or more people either for or against something. In real estate, used to indicate a common property ownership interest. Joint is also used to indicate a shared ...
Comments for Duress
I would like to know why a law does not exist that forces real estate agents to say to vendors to take sale contract home or to their lawyers to verify. They always place contracts in front of people and point a finger to the signatory spor and say "sign here". I once said "I need to take contract home to think about it" and the agent immediately said "No, you can't, the purchaser will place an offer elsewhere". Is this action not considered duress. They are pushy and play on people's emotions.
Aug 20, 2019 23:25:44Hello! Thank you for bringing up this issue. There must be clients who have the same question. However, the answer is quite simple. Don't go alone! Whenever you have to sign a contract, ask a professional to join you - ideally, a lawyer. There is a lot of jargon and many real estate terms that you may not fully understand. If you want to study the contract, I'm sure that nobody would mind if you actually took the time to read it. If they didn't feel comfortable with this, then it would be a good idea to leave and do business with somebody else. Contracts are very powerful documents and both parties must know exactly what they are getting themselves into. As for the fact that agents play on people's emotions, this is true for all businesses. Emotions are the essence of marketing.
Aug 26, 2019 16:14:05Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.