What Does A Real Estate Attorney Do For Buyers?

Video: What Does A Real Estate Attorney Do For Buyers?

FAQ’s With Roy Oppenheim

Full Transcript: Another question we get is what do real estate attorneys do for buyers? I presume this is in the residential context. So what we’ll talk about if you’re buying a home, so a real estate attorney is going to first negotiate and review the contract that you’re going to enter into with your seller, in some states that the realtors may actually prepare the contract, in other states a lawyer has to prepare the contract.

So that’s in the preparation of the contract. Then they’re going to review the contract, ultimately once the seller has made their changes and signed it, the buyer signed it to make sure that the contract is, in fact, enforceable. Then the real estate attorney is going to make sure that the earnest money is deposited to the appropriate escrow agent. If in fact the real estate attorney, the buyer’s attorney is also the escrow agent of the title company, they will take the deposit and they will hold it.

Title Insurance Commitment

The next thing that will happen is as a buyer you will be issued a title insurance commitment by the title company, whether it’s a title company that’s owned by the attorneys or a separate title company, and they will review the title commitment to see if title is clean, to make sure that what you’re buying is in fact what you’re getting. And if there are problems they will outline what those problems are, and they will contact either the seller’s attorney or the seller’s realtors and say, “Hey, these problems have to be resolved. You got these outstanding mortgages.

Outstanding Leins & Tax Issues

You got these outstanding liens. You have these outstanding tax issues either with the IRS or back taxes that haven’t been paid,” and you’ll confirm how in fact these issues will get resolved. Then if the buyer is getting a mortgage, there may be some discussion that the buyer’s attorney has with the mortgage company, or may review the mortgage commitment to make sure that it’s conventional and is consistent with market standards.

And then through the process, if anything pops up, whether a lien or any other issue that comes up, the attorney is going to be there to jump in and help resolve the problem to get the deal done. It could be a tenant in the building. There could be some liens that they need to be addressed. So easements have to be addressed. It could be some survey issues where the survey’s not surveyed properly.

There could be a legal description issue, where the legal description’s not consistent with the prior title policy. They’re all these kinds of things that just kind of percolate up from time to time. And so, having an attorney who represents you as a buyer is probably peace of mind, especially if you a, do this professionally for a living, or if this is a once in a lifetime or one of the big investments of your life, you should have a real estate attorney by your side.

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Oppenheim Law | Real Estate Attorneys Fort Lauderdale
2500 Weston Rd #404
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33331
954-280-5739

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