All real estate agreements expire. A specific date is always included to identify to the consumer the time period that they have agreed to receive services from the brokerage. Once the agreement expires, the client has no longer agreed to receive those services and, thus the brokerage must not continue to provide those services after that time.

When a consumer completes a brokerage agreement, service contract or purchase agreement with software to secure an electronic signature, and the signature field includes a date stamp, there is no requirement to fill in the ‘Dated’ line in the final section of the form.

For example, a signature provided by dotloop identifies the date and time the signature was placed on the form, as seen below.

There are times when a seller may ask to co-list a property with another brokerage. This could be in hopes of greater exposure, or for assurance that they will have support should they want to work with a smaller brokerage who may not have the means to cover when licensees are out of town.

When co-listing a property, there are small but important differences to the paperwork requirements. Those requirements depend on which brokerages are co-listing the property and what their agency models are.

Becoming a first time home owner is the result of making one of the largest financial transactions in your life and embarking on the exciting, though sometimes stressful and intimidating process of finding the right home for you. As a first-time home buyer, instead of simply hoping to stumble upon your very own pot of gold, it is best to prepare yourself as much as possible for this new chapter in your life.

COVID-19 UPDATE—Trading in Real Estate
As the regulator for real estate trading in Nova Scotia, we felt it necessary to reach out to the real estate industry respecting the current health crisis we’re all facing.