BOSTON – Feb. 14, 2013 – Real estate agents should use caution when negotiating purchase transactions via email, given a court case in Massachusetts involving a seller who received a better offer and backed out of a deal before the email bid was signed.

The first buyer insisted that an email from the seller’s attorney with the revised purchase order attached sealed the deal. The judge agreed and rejected the seller’s motion to dismiss the case.

Under the Massachusetts Uniform Electronic Transaction Act, the judge’s reasoning went, an email signature block included in the email – or even in the “from” section of an email – could be considered a valid electronic signature when business is conducted electronically.

The court never addressed the issue of whether the emails amounted to a binding agreement because the buyer and seller later settled out of court, just the issue of an electronic signature. However, experts say judges elsewhere in the nation could use the ruling as a guide in similar cases.

As a result, listing agents would be wise to stress in emails that the seller must approve the terms, and that they are preliminary until an offer or contract is signed.

Buyer’s agents should seek confirmation that agreement has been reached on a deal.

Moreover, agents should add a disclaimer to their email signatures stating that emails “neither constitute acceptance of conducting transactions via electronic means nor create a binding contract unless a written contract is signed by the parties.”

Source: Realtor (02/13) Vol. 46, No. 1, P. 37; Vetstein, Richard D.

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