When comparing the price you pay of hiring an experienced real estate attorney to the price you pay with the lack of legal representation, the several hundred dollars to hire an attorney is one that should not be eliminated. The money that you saved without legal representation could end up costing you double, even triple with the tiniest of overlooked errors. Your CENTURY 21 Alliance Realty agent will have experience in this area and will be able to help you with this decision.

Consider retaining an attorney who specializes in residential real estate. Even if you have a friend or relative that is an attorney, they might not be familiar or updated with the laws in residential real estate contracts.

Have your real estate attorney look over any contracts that you sign. Most contracts allow for a attorney review period of at least five business days. Determine that your contract allows for this review period, if it is not the case with this specific contract, have your attorney review the contract BEFORE you sign. During this time period, you will be able to make changes that are necessary, or even void the contract.

Check on the legal description of your property to make sure that it has been updated. Have your attorney look this over to catch any mistakes that could have an impact on the property that you are buying/selling.

Request a title insurance policy. The history of the title will be provided and should be reviewed by both sides attorneys to look for any possible irregularities before the title insurance is delivered. The buyers attorney can request that any questionable items be removed or insured by the insurance provider.

Your attorney should receive and review the property survey before closing or escrow to check for encroachments, easements and to verify lot dimensions.

Your attorney should attend the closing or escrow to verify the smooth transfer of your property. Most attorneys will want to review all of the recorded documents related to the sale of a property AFTER they are recorded, to verify that they were recorded as agreed to at the closing. These documents included the title, deed, mortgages, and satisfaction of mortgages.

An experienced real estate attorney that has handled and most likely seen it all in real estate, is your best asset when a closing a deal!!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Buyers Advice and Tips, Sellers Advice and Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.