Do You Need A Real Estate Lawyer?

Video: Do You Need A Real Estate Lawyer?

FAQ’s With Roy Oppenheim

Question people ask is do you need a real estate attorney? I presume this is going to be in the context of residential, because on the commercial context, you have no business buying or selling real estate without a lawyer. And in fact, I’ve rarely seen someone do that. So it’s obviously whoever is asking this question probably hasn’t bought real estate before and they’re somewhat new to the game, and they want to know do they really need a real estate attorney.

Why You Need A Real Estate Lawyer

My advice would be that yeah, it’s highly recommended. And you’re saying, ” Well, you’re saying that because you’re an attorney.” No, I’m saying that because I’ve seen, over the course of 30-some odd years what happens when someone doesn’t have lawyers involved in the transaction and how deals can go bad. I mean just as one example, I know people who were trying to buy real estate at foreclosure auctions, and they didn’t have an attorney and they thought they were buying a first mortgage.

Meaning that they thought that they were buying the real estate on the first mortgage, but instead they bought a lien on a second mortgage, and so they end up with the property for maybe six months and then they get a knock on the door and they get served with papers from the first mortgage, and then they lose the entire piece of real estate because they have no idea what they’re doing.

Now, that’s an extreme and that’s happened probably about a half dozen times to clients of mine who walk in after the fact, they aren’t clients of mine obviously before because that typically wouldn’t happen if I am representing. But that’s an extreme of why you would need a real estate attorney. But there are many other situations where if you’re buying real estate, and again, if the seller doesn’t want to sell after they’ve signed the contract. What do you do? Do just say, “Okay, that’s okay with me,” or do you then put, you know legal pressure on them or even end up suing them if necessary?

I’ve seen situations where realtors haven’t acted professionally and where you need lawyers to make sure that the realtors are acting professionally. So it’s always good to have a real estate lawyer by your side when you buying real estate. After all, it’s one of the biggest transactions that you’re going to do in your life and you should have a professional there for you. I mean typically, you know, when you have a toothache you don’t end up, you know, trying to pull the tooth by tying a string to the door and pulling the tooth.

You may do that if you’re a little kid and if it’s a baby tooth, but normally as an adult, we do not do that. And it’s the same thing here. We should not be doing something that we don’t typically do every day. And so you need to have the professional advice of an attorney when you buy real estate.

Oppenheim Law | Real Estate Attorneys Fort Lauderdale
2500 Weston Rd #404
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33331
954-324-2240