Typically, a realtor/property manager conducts a detailed investigation concerning the prospective buyer/tenant to ensure that this person is capable of performing his obligations under the subject transaction. However, how many realtors/ property managers perform the same due diligence with their clients? In this market, it is vital that you as a realtor/property manager perform proper due diligence when asked by an owner to sell and/or manage a residential property. At minimum, prior to accepting the listing/management agreement you should perform the following due diligence of your potential client:
1. Research the public records to ensure that your client is the title owner of record to the property.
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Have you heard in the news that you can get paid for letting your home go through foreclosure? There is a new government program that does provide financial incentives to the borrower. The U.S. Treasury Department issued Supplemental Directive 09-09 which is being called HAFA. HAFA is a part of a previous program called HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program).
HAMP provided guidelines for Loan Modifications while HAFA provides guidelines for Short Sales and Deeds-in-Lieu of Foreclosure. Click here to read more »
- Use caution when proceeding through intersections, look to the left, then right, then left again.
- When stopping at a traffic light and the light changes to green, use the “5 second rule” and wait 5 seconds before proceeding.
- Leave a safe distance between your car and others. A general rule is for every 10 miles per hour of speed, leave at least one car length space between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead.
- Maintain a constant speed. Don’t continually slow down or speed up.
- Don’t encourage or participate in aggressive driving.
- Properly maintain your vehicle, including checking the tire pressure and tire condition.
- Adjust the seats and mirrors.
- Be aware of road conditions and reduce your speed below the speed limit if the road conditions warrant doing so.
- Keep your lights on at dusk and dawn and during the rain.
- DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE!
- Look, as far ahead as possible while driving, this will give you the maximum amount of time to react. Keep your eyes moving; do not fix your eyes on only one spot.
- Pull over when using your cell phone, picking up items from the floor, checking maps, changing music, eating or engaging in personal grooming.
- Make certain your children are properly restrained in the back seat so they will not be a distraction.
- Avoid being late which will increase the chance of careless driving.
– Alida Darias, Esq., is an experienced personal injury attorney with Bogin, Munns, & Munns, P.A., a full service law firm with offices in Orlando, Clermont, Kissimmee, Deltona, Daytona Beach, Ocala, Melbourne, Gainesville, and Leesburg, Florida. Ms. Darias works out of the Clermont office of the firm and welcomes questions and comments regarding the above and can be reached at adarius@boginmunns.com
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My first boss always told clients that there are three things you need for any claim. First, you need liability. Somebody had to do something wrong. In a car accident this usually means someone hit you from behind, ran a stop sign or red light, or otherwise engaged in some improper driving. If someone has fallen in a store or other facility, this element is sometimes often hard to explain. The general public, and even some lawyers (who are misinformed), believe that just because you fell on their property and got hurt that they are responsible. This is not true. The store operator must have done something wrong that caused or contributed to the injury. Often times this may be that they failed to correct a dangerous condition that they could have discovered with reasonable effort. For example, where a freezer is leaking water and a small puddle accumulates causing someone to slip, that is going to create a tough question for the jury. However, the larger the puddle, the longer that the condition was there to have been discovered by the store operator. If it can be shown that the store operator would have discovered it with reasonable inspections, and did not, then they have done something wrong, and hence have at least some liability in the matter.
The second element that is required is that you have to have damages. Generally in my personal injury practice this means you have to be injured as a result of the liability mentioned above. If you were in an automobile accident with no damage to you or the car, you have no claim regardless of how wrong it was for the other driver to have run into you.
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