Following the date, the words

"between............hereinafter described as the seller, and............hereinafter described as the purchaser," indicate the place for insertion of the names of the seller and purchaser. The names of both should be correctly written and for convenience should be followed by the address of each, as it is usually necessary to have the addresses of each party for use in preparing the instruments later required to consummate the contract.

Each of the parties approach the bargain from a different viewpoint. The seller is about to undertake to deliver his realty at a future date upon payment of an agreed price. Until the closing of title he obligates himself not to seek other sale, although he has only a small part of the price in the form of a deposit. The purchaser on his part is about to pay a deposit to secure the property and will incur additional expense in examination of title, as well as abandoning further search for a location. Each of the parties, therefore, is interested in the financial capacity and good faith of the other.

The seller wishes to be sure his purchaser can and will fulfill the contract. This is so particularly if the market is falling, for if the purchaser later default, the seller will very probably sustain a loss. If the market is rising the danger is much less, as, in case of the purchaser's later failure to complete the contract, the seller has an opportunity to sell at a greater price. Of course, the seller may protect himself to some extent by requiring a larger deposit when he has any doubt as to his purchaser's good faith or knows him to be a "dummy."

The purchaser should at once satisfy himself that the person recited as the seller owns the property. He should know that the person to whom he pays his deposit has the right to sell the realty. He may and should ask the seller to produce indicia of his ownership. This the seller usually does by exhibiting his deed of the property. Or if opportunity offers the purchaser may examine the public records and get sufficient information to justify payment of the deposit. If the seller is an executor, trustee, attorney or agent, he should show the instrument appointing him as such, so that the purchaser may be satisfied that he has power and authority to sell.

If the seller does not produce proof of his ownership and authority to sell, it is often advisable to deposit the initial payment, which would in ordinary course be delivered on signing the contract by the purchaser to the seller, with some third person agreed upon to hold in escrow until the seller produces such evidence. Occasionally the seller has not title but has contracted to buy from the owner, and is now undertaking to sell before he has taken title. In such a case the purchaser must consider this third person before he signs a contract. He will best protect himself by paying only a small deposit, and having the contract provide for a definite closing date without right of adjournment.

"Witnesseth," the word following the names of the parties, means nothing legally or practically and might just as well be left out. Anciently it had a meaning and it survives only because it usually has been used.

"That the seller agrees to sell and convey." These words are the seller's promise. He promises not only to transfer his rights but also to deliver the necessary instrument (deed) to transfer his title. "And the purchaser agrees to purchase" creates the mutual obligation by the purchaser's acceptance of the seller's offer, thus completing the consideration which supports the contract.