Contract owner

When listing a wholesale property, the seller must be defined as the contract owner. The term Contract Owner is used to describe a buyer who holds a valid, binding purchase contract on a property and seeks to market or assign that contract without taking legal title. When listing a wholesale property, the seller must be defined as the contract owner. The contract owner in a Single Family real estate wholesale deal is the individual or entity that holds the legally binding purchase agreement with the homeowner.

There is a required field (Contract Owner YN) on the Additional Info tab in Add/Edit that lets you confirm if the listing is a wholesale property:

If it is a contract owner/wholesale situation, select Yes. You must also upload two separate documents to your listing:

1. The attached Property Owner Consent form must be completed and uploaded as a Private- Property Owner Consent document.
2. The State of Connecticut Wholesale Disclosure Report must be completed and uploaded as a Private- State of CT Wholesale Disclosure Report document. Click here to download the most recent version of this document. 

Both of these executed documents must be uploaded (in addition to your listing agreement) before you can publish the listing to the MLS. If you have the Contract Owner field set to Yes and try to publish the listing without uploading both of these private documents, you will encounter an error and won't be able to proceed.

In addition, the words contract owner must be entered following the seller’s name, and the Public Remarks must state ‘sale dependent upon the contract owner’s ability to take title’. As long as these stipulations are met, the property can be listed as New even though the existing listing for the property has not yet closed.  

Scenario: Kathy agrees to purchase Shawn's property at 123 Main St. The sale of the property is not yet closed (Shawn isn't ready to close, for whatever reason), but Kathy is now considered to be the contract owner of 123 Main St.*  Kathy is a flipper, and she does not want to wait until the sale closes before putting the property back on the market for sale/rent, so she contacts her favorite broker, Jacquie, to list the property on the MLS.

* It is incumbent on Shawn (as the seller of 123 Main St.) to have a provision in her contract with Kathy (the contract owner) that allows Kathy to list 123 Main St. concurrently with the existing listing, even though that sale has not yet been finalized. This is a contractual issue and not something within the jurisdiction of SmartMLS to oversee or enforce.

Click here to visit CT DCP's website on House Wholesaling.