For residential sales transactions in Florida, one contract form gets used more than any other – the Florida As Is Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase. The drafters intended it to be simple: just fill in the blanks. But, those blanks can be confusing. And that confusion, combined with time pressure and client expectations, can lead to errors, lost deals, and liability for agents and their clients.
We’ve crafted this Florida Residential As‑Is Contract Series for brokers and others who complete this form for their clients, as well as owners and prospective buyers who want to navigate a residential purchase and sale transaction on their own. In each article, we focus on one section of the form, moving through it step by step. We’ll explain what each section does, where people commonly go wrong, and how to get it right.
Part 2: Identifying the Property
Florida “As-Is” Contract, Line-by-Line: Section 1, Lines 6–25 (“Property Description”)
The prior section identifies who is buying and selling. This section identifies what is being purchased and sold. These lines define the property by street address, county, property tax ID, and (most importantly) the legal description.
Aside from the parties and price, no term in this contract is more consequential. A closing can often be saved when a date is wrong or a checkbox is missed. But it’s much harder to save a closing when the contract does not accurately describe what the buyer is actually buying (or intended to buy).
The Most Common (and Most Preventable) Mistake
The biggest error we see in this section is using the property appraiser’s abbreviated legal description in the legal description blank. The tax roll’s “short form” description is designed for assessment and indexing purposes. It is frequently truncated, simplified, or otherwise incomplete.
What you actually want is the same legal description that will ultimately appear in the deed of conveyance –clearly identifying exactly what the buyer will own when the transaction closes. If the legal description is wrong or incomplete, you can end up with unintended results: the wrong parcel, only part of a parcel, an omitted strip, the wrong unit or lot, or confusion when the title company prepares deed documents.
Best practice: Pull the full legal description from the seller’s vesting deed. As long as you’re certain that description covers the exact property being bought and sold, insert it fully or attach it as an exhibit to the contract. If there’s any uncertainty about whether that description is sufficient, pause and get help from a lawyer or surveyor. The importance of accurately describing exactly what you want to buy or sell cannot be overstated.
What’s Included in Real Property
The contract clarifies that “Real Property” includes the relevant land plus existing improvements and fixtures –built-in appliances, systems, and equipment, built-in furnishings, and attached carpeting and flooring. These items are included unless the contract specifically excludes an item elsewhere.
Personal Property: What Stays and What Goes
Later in this section, the form provides an opportunity to identify any personal property the parties want to include in the sale. It lists the standard items that are included in the purchase as long as they are owned by the Seller and exist on the property as of the date of the initial offer. There is also space to add “other” items if the parties wish, and a line to specifically identify excluded items.
If the seller intends to remove something that a buyer would reasonably assume stays (or that might otherwise be treated as a fixture), that expectation should be addressed expressly in the exclusion line.
Avoid Creating Problems with Personal Property
Parties sometimes defeat the clarity the form is designed to create by loosely describing extra items (“TV,” “chandelier,” “patio set”) without specificity, ownership confirmation, or exclusion language.
Additional issues arise when parties start assigning separate dollar values to personal property items. As a practical matter, this can create avoidable friction with lenders and closing agents—the loan is secured by real property, not furniture. It can also carry tax implications. An allocation of consideration between real estate and personal property may affect how the transaction is reported to the IRS and how each party characterizes basis and gain for federal income tax purposes. In other words: once you start itemizing values, you are no longer just describing “what stays.” You are potentially influencing “what was paid for what,” which is a tax-sensitive concept.
For most residential deals, the cleaner approach is to follow the form’s built-in premise: personal property is included and has no separate value. The exception would be if the parties have been advised by counsel and tax professionals to structure an allocation intentionally.
Why This Section Matters
This section carries equal importance with the sections that identify the parties and purchase price. It is critical that the parties review and complete it accurately to make sure that they understand exactly what they are contractually obligating themselves to buy or sell. Florida real estate case law is full of disputes based on errors from this section–parties failing to accurately and completely identify the real and personal property intended to be conveyed.
In the next post, we’ll cover purchase price and payment terms.
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