Dear Forms Committee: How do I make sure the Buyer Representation Agreement clearly outlines that if a seller agrees to cover the fee in a Sale Agreement, that the buyer does not have to pay it?

Page 1, section 4 of both versions of the OREF Buyer Representation Agreement (050 [lines 28-29] & 052 [lines 27-28]) state “If a seller, lessor, or optionor agrees to pay compensation to the Firm, that compensation will be credited against the Fee.” This default language means if a seller agrees to pay all or a portion of the amount owed by the buyer through the negotiations of the Sale Agreement, then the amount the seller is paying will be credited towards the total amount of compensation agreed to in the Buyer Representation Agreement.

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