In most jurisdictions, you will find a few attorneys who concentrate their efforts on real estate matters. Title insurance companies sometimes hire real estate attorneys to prepare closing documents for their customers for a modest fixed fee. Some states require that a attorney draft the documents that a title company uses at a real estate closing even if neither the buyer nor the seller desires legal representation. Many large law firms have real estate law departments. For run-of-the-mill residential closings, however, their fees may be prohibitive, and unless some special twist is involved, employing a high-priced attorney to review routine residential closings is overkill. The title-insurance policy covers most contingencies, but you may want to have a attorney review the exceptions that are cited in the title commitment. For commercial real estate matters, the real estate department of a larger firm may have the collective experience and expertise necessary to coordinate the various aspects of complicated deals. Mid-size law firms may also have rather impressive real estate departments, so some attorney shopping is in order. You should not assume, however, that because a law firm is large or because its real estate department has a good reputation, the individual attorney assigned to you is necessarily a good one. You should go through the same process for choosing a attorney that was introduced at the beginning of this website, interviewing several of them before you make your final selection.
real estate attorneys
Fees for work on residential real estate transactions are often fixed and sometimes can be quite reasonable, but for the larger commercial deals, the attorney will usually propose some other method for calculating them. Beware of percentage fee arrangements on real estate transactions: such schemes frequently produce windfall earnings for attorneys. Whatever the fee structure, you should strive for an arrangement that provides for a rational relationship between the work to be performed and the compensation proposed. The seller's attorney does the bulk of the legal work in a residential closing, preparing the deeds, deeds of trust, assumption papers, promissory notes, and other documents needed by the parties to the transaction. A few days before the closing date, the seller's attorney sends copies of (he closing statement and all supporting documents to the buyer's attorney for review and comment. The buyer's attorney then checks the documents and points out any problems. If you are a buyer in a residential real estate transaction, review your attorney's fee statement carefully to see what your attorney did for the fee. In days gone by, when the buyer's attorney performed a title search to certify clear title, the buyer's attorney had more work to do and accepted some rather substantial professional risk. With title insurance now the rule rather than the exception, however, the role of the buyer's attorney has diminished.
Nonetheless, you, as a buyer, should not try to close a deal without a attorney. Only sophisticated buyers should attempt to close without a attorney's reviewing the closing documents beforehand. Even if the seller purchases title insurance, and a attorney for the seller or a attorney selected by the title-insurance company drafts the documents, you should have your own attorney review that work to ensure nothing is overlooked. Such a review should not cost very much, and your security and peace of mind are worth the expense.
real estate attorneys
If a title-insurance company performs the closing, and a attorney drafts the closing documents, that attorney normally will not prepare the closing statement. You should make sure that you understand exactly which documents the title-insurance company's closer will prepare and which ones will be the attorney's responsibility. The attorney does not calculate the money amounts that are to be inserted into the promissory note and other documents, but simply copies into the note the numbers provided by the title-insurance company, the broker, or the parties. If the amounts are incorrect, the attorney may not be responsible. You should make certain that the closing statement correctly reflects the transaction as set forth in the purchase agreement. Of course, your broker and the title-insurance company's closer should calculate the amounts correctly, but people make mistakes, and it makes good sense to ensure that the attorney receives accurate information.
If your real estate problem consists of a court action involving real property you need a trial attorney who is familiar with
such questions. A real estate office practice differs from a real estate litigation practice. Many transactional real estate attorneys never see the inside of a courtroom. For real estate litigation, ideally you should employ a trial attorney who has litigated real estate issues. If, however, you are forced to choose between a trial attorney with no real estate background and a real estate attorney with no trial experience, you should choose the trial attorney. A good trial attorney can learn the real estate principles applicable to a particular situation and do a competent job, but a real estate attorney cannot learn to be a trial attorney while preparing for one case.
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