Selling High-Dollar Personal Property (Hangars, Boat Docks, Structures Not Attached to Land)

The situation: Your client is buying or selling a structure that isn't attached to land — a hangar, boat dock, storage building in a shared community, etc. The land is typically owned by an HOA or community association, and the transaction involves only the structure itself. No title company is involved.

The rule: You cannot draft, modify, or contribute any language to a bill of sale or contract for personal property. This is not a real estate transaction. Writing contracts for non-real-estate transactions is outside the scope of your license.

What to do

1. Advise both buyer and seller — in writing, via email — to hire an attorney. Use language like: "I advise consulting an attorney for everyone's protection." An attorney will typically charge $500-$1,000 for the paperwork on a transaction like this. For a six-figure sale, that's cheap insurance.
2. Do not draft, modify, or contribute any language to the agreement. If the parties bring you a document they've written themselves, that's their choice — but you are not authoring or editing it.
3. Send the transfer agreement to your ASM for brokerage review.
4. The brokerage will create an invoice to the seller so there's a clean paper trail for your commission payment. Reach out to your ASM to coordinate this.

Why this matters

These transactions may feel simple, but the consequences are real. A $200,000 hangar sale gone wrong is a $200,000 problem. When consequences are high and there's no title company providing guardrails, an attorney is the right call — every time.

How often will you see this?

Rarely. Austin has maybe two hangar communities and a handful of similar setups. But when it comes up, now you know exactly what to do.