No, but this is not necessary because the form produced includes all of the information that would be on those standard forms. We have very rarely been asked to also complete the 2141 or 2141A forms in addition to the resale certificate form produced by HomeWiseDocs.com. If a party in the transaction insists upon this, contact Adam Jenning by email at adam[AT]ajenning.com. (Replace [AT] with the “@”symbol when emailing.) Adam will insert a comment on a blank form to refer to the HomeWiseDocs.com resale certificate for the answers to the questions on the form and will provide a signature on it. We will not complete the form separately because of the time required and obvious redundancy, but on the rare occasion this has been required, the comment to refer to the HomeWiseDocs.com form accompanied by the signature has been sufficient.
Category: sell-tm20
I ordered and already obtained a resale document, but it requires an update. How do I obtain this?
A trustee letter can be updated if you log into HomeWiseDocs.com again and use the feature to request an update. Contact HomeWiseDocs.com customer support if it is not clear to you when you log in how to accomplish this. Depending on the timing between fulfillment of the original order and the time the update is requested, costs range between free and $20 for the update. In most cases, where closing is just delayed by a few days, the update will be free.
Updates to resale certificates and lender questionnaires are not possible via HomeWiseDocs.com. Updates to lender questionnaires must be ordered from HomeWiseDocs.com and paid for again, and unfortunately there is no way around this or other method to obtain this.
With resale certificates, usually all you will need are specific attachments updated. This may include more recent financial reports, meeting minutes or insurance documents.
You can obtain updated financial reports and minutes via your Resident Center account under the Documents section. Updated insurance documents, particularly if association policies renewed in the middle of your transaction, may or may not be available in the Documents section of the Resident Center. Unlike most consumer level insurance policies where you can obtain policy documents instantly when purchasing new policies, the same usually doesn’t hold true for these large commercial policies. It is very common for it to take between 30 and 90 days from the renewal of a policy or purchase of a new policy for us to receive these documents.
If you need to provide updated insurance documents for the resale certificate and don’t see it published in the Documents section of the Resident Center, contact us at service[AT]ajenning.com. (Replace [AT] with the “@” symbol when emailing.) You can call, but we recommend you email so we can start an email chain with the association’s broker to expedite the information you need and provide it to you directly as an email attachment.
If any information on the resale certificate form itself requires an update, it is usually to verify balances or the lack thereof on your account, a lack of or verification of resolution of any outstanding violations, etc. If a buyer insists an entirely new form is completed, you can order the Resale Disclosure instead of the Resale Disclosure Package for a new form, but if they will accept written statements from us to update or verify no change to the form, we are happy to provide this via email at no cost. Email us at service[AT]ajenning.com to request this and include the specific information from the original form that requires an update or verification that it is still current. (Replace [AT] with the “@” symbol when emailing.)
At what point in the sales process should I obtain each of these resale documents?
The resale certificate, sold as the Resale Disclosure Package on HomeWiseDocs.com, should be ordered right before your listing begins, especially if you’re own a condominium for which it is legally required. This way you will have it ready to produce as soon as you get a buyer under contract. The next best time to order it, and when it is most commonly ordered, is once you go under contract. This isn’t ideal because you may be on a deadline as a condition of your sales contract as to when this is due, and depending on the processing time with HomeWiseDocs.com, this may require you to pay more for a rush order. Thus, to avoid spending more than necessary, it is recommended you order this before listing. The standard processing time is 10 days for HomeWiseDocs.com, so the perfect timing is 10 days before you list. This will ensure you have the information ready to produce for a buyer immediately while not being so far in advance that the information begins to become dated.
The trustee letter, also sometimes called a demand letter, should be ordered at the time a closing date is set, all contingencies have been satisfied, and there is no obvious pending impediment to closing. The standard processing time is 10 days, so it should be ordered in enough time for the title company to receive it and have sufficient time to review it and include the information in the closing documents they will prepare. Generally the title agent will order this to ensure they receive the information in the proper amount of time. We do not recommend buyers or sellers order this document themselves unless specifically instructed to do so by their real estate agent or title agent.
The lender questionnaire, also sometimes called a condo questionnaire, should be ordered at the time the buyer is proceeding with the final application for a specific mortgage offer. Generally the lender will order this to ensure they receive the information in the proper amount of time, and any lender-specific forms which must be completed beyond the standard form produced by HomeWiseDocs.com are included. We do not recommend buyers order this document themselves unless specifically instructed to do so by their real estate agent or loan officer.
Why doesn’t the Resale Disclosure Package on HomeWiseDocs.com include the trustee letter?
It can be bundled with a Resale Disclosure Package order, but we generally don’t recommend it. There is no cost savings for doing so, and if you are ordering them together you are either ordering the Resale Disclosure Package too late or the Trustee Letter too early. It is not included for the same reasons: It would not provide any cost savings, and these documents should not be purchased at the same time.
I am a potential buyer. Can I receive a copy of the association’s governing documents, financial reports, insurance information or other documents?
No, not directly. We have answered as much as we can publicly on our website and we are happy to review and other questions you may have, but we can not provide this information publicly. It is proprietary to the association.
If you are a buyer under contract, this information can be obtained, but it needs to be provided by the seller, usually via what’s called a resale certificate. A resale certificate is essentially the association’s equivalent of a seller’s disclosure. Just as the seller answers quite a bit of information about the property, the association provides quite a bit of information about the association as a whole, including all pertinent documents. But resale certificates are issued to the seller, so as the buyer, you must obtain it from them. Ask your agent to request this via the listing agent.
I have a question or problem related to the use of HomeWiseDocs.com. Can you help me?
We can’t provide assistance with using HomeWiseDocs.com to obtain the documents you need other than the information published on our website at https://ajenning.com/services/resale and here. For questions and troubleshooting issues experienced with using HomeWiseDocs.com, you will need to contact their customer service. Both phone and email contacts are provided on their website.
There are a small number of businesses which exist to process these documents. We specifically chose to work with HomeWiseDocs.com for their excellent US-based customer service. Providing assistance for using platforms we don’t directly control can be difficult or impossible, so we specifically chose HomeWiseDocs.com to partner with so we could rest assured any needs you have will be promptly and fully addressed by their staff.
Is it necessary to obtain a resale certificate and trustee letter separately from the Montclair Master Association?
It is not necessary to obtain a resale certificate from Montclair Master Association, and we’ve been instructed by their management company, Community Property Management, that they don’t offer one to Townhomes at Montclair home sellers.
It is also not necessary or possible to obtain a trustee letter from them because you don’t pay assessments to them directly. Your portion of the Montclair Master Association assessment is collected in your monthly assessments paid to us. Then, once a month, we send one large payment to Montclair Master Association on behalf of all 138 townhome homeowners for each person’s portion. Because Montclair Master Association doesn’t maintain an account ledger for you individually, it is impossible for them to produce a trustee letter for you, nor is there any need to do so.
I’m on autopay and I’m selling my property with a closing date before the next payment is due. Do I need to cancel my autopay or will it stop automatically?
To be safe, you should cancel your autopay before the closing. It will stop automatically once we process in the new owner’s information, but that is dependent upon us receiving the closing proceeds from the title company. If you are closing near the end of a month and/or mail runs late, it is possible we will still have you in our systems when the next month starts, and you could be charged.
If this happens, we will issue a refund as soon as the buyer’s closing proceeds are received and processed. And if any charges were allocated to your ledger for a date after your closing, they will be removed retroactively. But it is much easier for you and for us if you cancel your autopay and prevent any mishaps from needing to be corrected later.
How is proration of the final month’s assessment payment handled in the month my property sells?
If you will own the property on the first day of the month, you should pay the entire month. When you close, your title company and the buyer’s title company will handle prorating the assessment and crediting you back for the days of the month you will no longer be the owner. Basically, the proration process is handled by the title companies, not on our end.
If I obtain all of the required documents from the Resident Center, do I still need the full resale certificate package, or can I just order the form without the package to save the $30?
You can do this, but we will be forced to add a disclosure to the resale certificate form that any attachments being provided were not provided by us and can’t be guaranteed to be the most current, complete or accurate documents. This disclaimer must be offered because we can’t be certain of which documents you will use.
This is especially important as it pertains to current financial reports. Often we receive resale certificate orders which need a more current financial report that isn’t completed yet. We will then hold the order, not past the due date, until the most current report is completed. This is not a possibility if you exclude the document package.
Another area you may fall short on trying to do things this way are the governing documents. Often only the documents currently in effect are shared to the Resident Center to prevent confusion. For a resale certificate, all governing documents from the formation of the association should be included, including documents that have since been rendered obsolete by newer documents.
For the additional $30 you aren’t just getting the documents themselves; you are also getting our time and coordination to ensure all documents are complete and up-to-date. It is thus recommended to just get the full package. This also shifts the liability to us instead of you if anything is incorrect or inaccurate.