What Can a Real Estate Lawyer Do for You
It is common knowledge that you need a real estate lawyer when they buy or sell a home, but many people are not entirely sure what their lawyer actually does for the transaction. This is something we intend to clarify in this article, and it should help you make the right decision when choosing a Mississauga real estate lawyer for your real estate deal.
Selling Real Estate
When you sell a property, your real estate lawyer’s job is to ensure that you only provide the buyer with things that you have agreed to provide. It is also their job to ensure the proper receipt of funds before the deed is released to the buyer. Your lawyer will also deal with other details, such as pay any outstanding mortgages and real estate commissions, deliver the keys, and notify the municipal tax department of the property changing hands.
If you are selling before making a purchase, it will also be the lawyer’s job to make sure the funds from your sale are applied toward the new purchase. If it’s the other way around and you are buying before you sell, the lawyer will handle the bridge loan for you and make sure everything is in order.
Buying Real Estate
When you buy a home, condo or townhouse unit, the first most common step is to sign an Agreement of Sale and Purchase with the current owner. This agreement will outline the rights and obligations that apply to each of the sides for the closing. Agreements of this sort are both binding and complicated. As such, they are not to be treated lightly and are to be signed only after you had them reviewed by a real estate lawyer. Some people might expect the agreement to include all those things that were discussed verbally beforehand and might treat it lightly, not paying attention to fine print and other important nuances. This practice has landed more people than we care to think about in dire situations when they have signed onto things that were not at all in their best interests.
This is doubly important when you are making the purchase from a builder, as this category of agreement will include numerous provisions that have to do with extra charges and changes to the date of closing. When you bring the new home purchase Agreement to your real estate lawyer, he will review it and advise you of how this contract will affect your purchase, often recommending alterations to the form that would better protect your interests as a buyer.
Taking the agreement to your real estate lawyer is your opportunity to find out exactly what you are agreeing to, and to avoid making any mistakes that can cost you more than you want to know. One of the most important ways this protects you is by making sure that you obtain a title to the property that is free of liens, debts, mortgages, title defects, etc. The last thing you want to do is buy someone else’s legal problems along with the new property. Once the corrections are introduced and the agreement is finalized, it will be your lawyer’s job to ensure that you get all that you are entitled to according to the agreement.
Title Insurance
Title insurance is one of the most efficient methods of obtaining an assurance of title and is also a service that you will need a real estate lawyer to obtain. It is a policy guaranteeing your title to the property in advance of the closing.
This works together with the title search that will also be conducted by your lawyer, but does not cancel the need for it. A full and thorough search should be performed in any case. The title insurance policy is there to grant protection against cases of fraud or forgery that may have occurred on title. For this, the title insurance will have to contain a provision for “defense of title”, in case an unexpected claim is made against your title later.
If you are obtaining a mortgage for your purchase, your lawyer will prepare all of the paperwork for the bank, receive the mortgage money and transfer it to be applied towards the purchase. The real estate lawyer will be your go-to person for practically everything, as the lawyer’s office will be the place where you will sign the mortgage documents, and the lawyer being the one to whom you provide the balance of down payment and land transfer tax. Eventually, the lawyer will be the one to obtain your new house keys for you as well.
As you can see, there are very obvious benefits in choosing to hire a lawyer to conduct and assist with your real-estate deal. Hiring one is a step that will simplify things for you and make the whole transaction almost effortless. If you need more advice, call us now.
