&quot;Lesson: Read the contract.&quot;<p>I did a year of law school, then left because I was miserable and it was too much money to be miserable for. I did, however, take contracts, and I cannot stress this enough. Read the contract. Read it again. Anything that looks off, ask about. It might be innocent, standard, or something you don&#x27;t need to worry about, but it might be important. As you mention, it&#x27;s also a great signal about the intentions of the other party. Finally, anytime someone tells you something is &quot;standard&quot; in a contract, it&#x27;s bullshit. &quot;Standard&quot; lease agreements (the ones you can get by Googling) regularly contain unenforceable language. The only standard elements a contract needs are: an offer, an acceptance, mutual assent to be legally bound by the terms, and consideration (the promise of an exchange of value for something else of value). Anything else in the contract doesn&#x27;t have to be there.