Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Florida
A good friend of 40 years is a realtor in Florida. Having moved here 6 months ago I bought two properties through my friend. Realizing that I had several million dollars left in NJ to sell and that I wanted to buy the same amount of real estate in Florida, I decided to get my real estate license in both states and pocket the commission.
I had already completed my coursework but not my Florida state exam when I had lunch with my friend. He was telling me about his work, listings, sales that closed, when he mentioned a client that was coming in from China to look at Model homes in a certain subdivision as a possible purchase/leaseback. I was not interested in the model homes but it came up in conversation that the builder would probably have Model homes at a new subdivision that was just made public that he thought his client might really be interested in. When he mentioned the location of this new community, I told him he should move there.
On my own accord, I went to see this new subdivision which was just dirt, then drove 20 minutes to see the homes that would be available for this particular subdivision. Because the subdivision was just newly announced, the builder didn't even have a sales office there so I lined up a sales meeting at a third location 30 minutes away with the builders salesman.
After making the appointment, I was talking with my friend the realtor and said he was more than happy to join me, to which he agreed because he wanted to become more familiar with the development for when his client comes to town.
When we showed up, he immediately gives his card to the builders salesman. I personally didn't mind then if he got credit for my sale since I had not procured my license and was happy that he would get a commission. As it turns out, the lot that I wanted wasn't available at the time. Its now 5 weeks later, I have a license and now the lot I want is available. Question: Who should be mentioned as the procuring agent, me or him?
1 Answer from Attorneys
If it is the same lot, he is.