Forms Update Resources
2019 Update
The Real Estate Examining Board recently approved revisions to the WB-11 Residential Offer to Purchase form. The optional use date is November 1, 2019, and the mandatory use date is January 1, 2020. A version approved for educational use only can be found
on the DSPS website online here. The final form will be available beginning November 1, 2019, on zipForm.
Check back regularly for additional WB-11 resources that will become available over the coming weeks and months.
Revisions were necessary to update language, incorporate statutory changes and clarify some provisions:
- Organized to follow the logical flow of a transaction rather than jumping from provision to provision due to formatting constraints of the past.
- Includes a radon testing contingency, which might allow some agents to draft offers without additional addenda.
- Financing Contingency is now the Financing Commitment Contingency to better reflect that what a buyer is obtaining is a loan commitment.
- Satisfaction of Financing Commitment Contingency with buyer’s signed loan commitment.
- Default deadlines for the blank lines in the offer.
- Bump Clause is its own section and can be attached to any contingency.
- New section on the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA) that prompts the parties to think about federal tax implications when the seller is a foreign person as defined by the Internal Revenue Code.
Learn more about the 2020 WB-11
- "Surprise on the Horizon" in the September 2019 Wisconsin Real Estate Magazine: www.wra.org/WREM/Sep19/Surprise.
- "WB-11 Revisions: A Three-part Discussion," three-part article in the October 2019 Wisconsin Real Estate Magazine: www.wra.org/WREM/October2019.
- LegalTalks video series at www.wra.org/WB11changes, which includes 23 short videos highlighting each section of the WB-11 that has been updated or is new in the 2020 version. (WRA login
required.)
Educational use form samples
To view the full PDF of the educational sample form, click the small image below. The final form will be available beginning November 1, 2019, on zipForm.
2020 WB-11 Residential Offer to Purchase Form Changes [23 part video series]
Click the stacked playlist button in the upper right-hand corner of the video to view a complete list of topics.
July 2018 Update to Disclosure Reports
Recent legislation modified the Real Estate Condition Report (RECR) and the Vacant Land Disclosure Report (VLDR). The new forms are required beginning July 1, 2018. Changes to each form include the following:
- The seller is posed a question rather than a statement.
- The form includes check boxes rather than lines.
- The report has been redesigned by offering categories such as structural and mechanical; environmental; well, septic and storage tanks; taxes, special assessment, permits; and land use. Therefore, the seller won’t be shocked when the section called
"environmental" asks about radon and radium.
- Provides examples to the seller of what types of defects might be included.
- Offers blank lines for the explanation of "yes" responses at the end of each section rather than blank lines for all explanations of "yes" responses only at the end of the form.
- Provides a statement reminding sellers that licensees are not permitted to answer sellers’ questions about whether an item is or is not a defect.
- Includes new disclosures.
New Real Estate
Condition Reports (RECR) and Vacant Land Disclosure Reports (VLDR) will need to
be used in transactions effective July 1, 2018. The new versions of RECR and
VLDR the must be used when condition reports are first furnished to buyers on
or after July 1, 2018. For reports already given to buyers before July 1, there
is no need to go back and amend the report or provide a new form.
- If the buyer has been provided the RECR or VLDR before July 1, 2018 — no further action need be taken.
- If the seller has completed the RECR or VLDR before July 1, 2018, and the buyer will not be provided the RECR/VLDR until July 1, 2018 or after, then the seller must complete a new RECR/VLDR.
Previously, the WRA created a two-page RECR and a three-page RECR. The three-page form included supplemental explanation information for the seller. The law now includes such explanations and, therefore, the WRA has created only one RECR.
For
more information about the changes to the RECR and VLDR, see the June 2018 Wisconsin Real Estate Magazine online at www.wra.org/WREM/June2018.
WRA products
Rental Weatherization Update 2018
The Wisconsin rental weatherization program has ended as of January 1, 2018. Any rental weatherization provision in a WB form is no longer applicable. Rental weatherization provisions may be struck from a WB form containing it. To reflect the termination
of this program, the rental weatherization provision has been struck from the following forms obtained through zipForm or through the WRA forms library subscription.
- WB-11 Residential Offer to Purchase
- WB-12 Farm Offer to Purchase
- WB-14 Condominium Offer to Purchase
- WB-15 Commercial Offer to Purchase
- WB-16 Business Offer to Purchase — With Real Estate
- WB- 24 Option to Purchase
- WB-35 Simultaneous Exchange Agreement
More Information
Also see the rental resources page about updated rental forms.
How are the new forms developed?
The WB forms are prepared and approved for use by the REEB. Prior to approval, drafts are reviewed by the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association Forms Committee, chaired by REALTOR® Tom Sykora, and comments are forwarded on to the
DSPS Real Estate Contractual Forms Advisory Committee. Once the DSPS state forms are finalized, WRA-drafted forms are examined to see if changes are warranted.