Documents by Default or Design? Which do You Choose?

[Aaron Mazzrillo]

I'm sitting here writing up an offer for a $300K house with a $289K loan on it. My offer is to buy the property subject to the existing lien and give the sellers $1,500 cash for moving expenses. While I do have a few boiler plate offers written up for different scenarios; subject to, seller financed, cash, etc. I rarely just open them up and fill in the blanks with the exception of the straight cash offer.

I recently got copies of an associates foreclosure offer package and I'm scanning it for any good paragraphs or clauses I might be able to implement into my paperwork. Now, I don't mean I'm adding more weasel clauses because I use zero of those. When I make an offer, that deal gets closed at those terms. What I'm looking for is any language that might affect who gets the impounds when escrow closes, how things are prorated, or any anti-weasel clauses I might be able add to keep the seller from trying to cancel on me. See, that's a different mindset when a seller gets an offer full of escape clauses benefiting the buyer and then he/she gets my offer full of anti-escape clauses making sure they show up to sign the deed.

So, my question to you: Do you create your own documents or do you rely on what others have done before you? Are you using documents by default or design?