We charge for these documents to offset the amount of time our staff spends processing them, ensuring all of the documents are included and all information is accurate and current. Of course, some of this cost also covers the use of HomeWiseDocs.com to process these documents.
These services are intentionally not included in the management contract we have with your community for two reasons. First, there is no way to know how many of these documents we will need to process in a given timeframe to be able to account for it in our management fee. Second, by billing the homeowner who is selling their property it prevents all owners from having to share in the cost burden when there is no benefit to them, and it keeps the costs strictly allocated to the owner who is creating the need.
While our competitors all have their own processes that may differ from ours, we are not aware of any other competitor in our market who doesn’t charge for this process. Some charge at closing instead of upfront, some use different platforms such as CondoCerts or don’t use a third-party platform, but we aren’t aware of anyone who doesn’t charge in some capacity for this service.
We do receive anonymized data from HomeWiseDocs.com and review it once per year. We ensure the pricing is either in line with or below average for the market.
You can obtain this at HomeWiseDocs.com by ordering the Trustee Letter. If you have any questions about using their website to make your order, please contact them directly. We contract with HomeWiseDocs instead of other service providers to complete this process because they have excellent, US-based customer service when you need it. Do not order the Trustee Letter Package unless instructed to do so. The package includes documents you likely already received with the Resale Disclosure Package, and there’s no need to pay more to get the same documents twice.
However, before you do, even if you are following the instructions of your Realtor, please double check with the closer at your title company to make sure they want you to do this. The trustee letter, also called a demand letter, is a time-sensitive document your title company uses to prove there are no balances owed at closing and no unresolved violations. Or, if there is an outstanding balance or violation, the balance can be collected at closing and the buyer can go into their purchase knowing what violations they are inheriting liability for. If this is ordered too early the data will be out of date, and updates after a certain point cost additional fees. If it’s ordered too late, it may not be processed in enough time for closing. Usually, but not always, title companies will order these themselves and just ask you to provide the payment method. You don’t want to waste money double-ordering something already ordered, as once processed it’s non-refundable. You also don’t want to order this with the wrong timing. So please double check with your closer at the title company before you do this.
The resale certificate can be obtained by you our your Realtor at HomeWiseDocs.com. If you have any questions about using their website to make your order, please contact them directly. We contract with HomeWiseDocs instead of other similar providers to complete this process because they have excellent, US-based customer service when you need it.
The document you want to order will be called the Resale Disclosure Package. It is not called the resale certificate because this document has different requirements and different names in other states. The Resale Disclosure Package contains everything you need. Unless specifically instructed, do not order the Resale Disclosure outside of the package. This won’t include the required attachments you need.
You can read more about the resale documents available here.
