What you sign
Every document, named before you are handed it.
A sale on terms is not complicated because the ideas are hard. It is complicated because a seller usually meets the paperwork one page at a time, on the day somebody expects them to sign it. So here is the whole stack in advance, in the order it arrives, and which of it actually binds you.
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First
The written offer
This one does not bind you.
Terms on paper: the price, whether it is seller financing or us taking over an existing payment, the payment schedule, and anything about the property or the loan we would want addressed before a contract exists. It is an offer, not an agreement. Signing is not what happens next. Reading is.
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Second
The Missouri wholesaler disclosure, where the purchase may be assigned
This one does not bind you.
Missouri requires a separate written disclosure, signed and dated by the record owner, before a wholesaler acting as buyer can enter a binding contract. It is its own document, never a clause inside the purchase agreement. If the purchase is one we complete and keep ourselves, it does not appear in your stack at all. What it means for your situation is a question for your attorney, and it is written to send you to one.
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Third
The purchase agreement
This one binds.
This is the document that binds. Everything before it is conversation and paper you can set down. It names the parties, the price and how it gets paid, the condition the property is bought in, what happens between signing and closing, and what each side’s remedy is if the other does not perform.
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Fourth
A promissory note and a deed of trust, if you carry the financing
This one binds.
Seller financing means you are the one being paid over time, so two more documents exist. The note is our written promise to pay you — amount, schedule, interest, term, and what happens on a late or missed payment. The deed of trust secures that promise against the property and is recorded with the county, which means your interest is a matter of public record rather than a private understanding between us.
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Fifth
The title company’s closing file
This one binds.
A title company handles closing and prepares the file: the title commitment, the payoff statement if there is a loan, the settlement statement, the deed, and the tax forms that go with them. Your tax identification number is collected there, on that paperwork, at closing — not by email or text beforehand, and that includes us.
The name on the buyer line
On a purchase agreement, the buyer reads: Dwell Kept LLC DBA DK Property Solve, and/or assigns. Two things about that line, because it is not something a seller should have to decode alone.
“DBA DK Property Solve” is a trade name on the same single Missouri LLC. One company, two names, and you have now read both.
“And/or assigns” is a term of the contract rather than anybody’s name. It preserves our right to assign the agreement to another buyer, which is one of the ways a purchase can close. Where that is the path on your property, it is named on your paperwork and we say it before you sign, not after — and where Missouri requires the separate disclosure above, that document is signed Dwell Kept LLC DBA DK Property Solve, deliberately without “and/or assigns,” because a disclosure is signed by one identifiable entity and not by an open-ended set of parties.
What we will not do at any point
- Put a number in front of you before we have looked at the property.
- Ask you to sign the purchase agreement the same day you first hear from us.
- Fold the Missouri disclosure into the purchase agreement as a clause. It is a separate document by law.
- Ask for your Social Security number, bank details or loan documents by email or text.
- Tell you what the statute means for your situation. That is your attorney’s job, and we expect you to use one.
Where to take all of this
To your own attorney, and the tax question to your own CPA, before you sign rather than after. We expect you to, and we are happy to have ours in the room too.
Dwell Kept LLC is not a licensed real estate broker, agent, or financial advisor. Nothing on this site is legal, tax, or financial advice.
Some purchases involve Dwell Kept taking over an existing mortgage payment rather than paying the loan off. Most mortgages contain a due-on-sale clause that lets the lender call the loan due on a transfer of ownership, whether or not payments stay current. We only do this on conventional loans, never a government-insured one, and a seller should review their loan documents and any proposed purchase agreement with their own attorney before signing.
The offer costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Nothing above the purchase agreement can be signed into a sale.