The lawyer should go through the transaction in detail with the client to ensure the client fully understands every aspect of the transaction, not just handle the paperwork.
Real estate can be complicated, so not all lawyers practice in that field. If you are undertaking a transaction and need a lawyer, you should ensure you understand what the lawyer’s rates are, and associated disbursements (out of pocket expenses, such as title searches). You should also ask the lawyer if title insurance may be of value to you (if you are the buyer).
For the most part, a real estate agent's help is not legally required, though agents can help you with tasks that border on legal ones, such as preparing a home purchase contract. In some states, however, only a lawyer is allowed to prepare the home purchase documents, perform a title search, and close the deal.
The job of a real estate lawyer is to protect their client’s interests in the transaction, whether the client is the vendor or the buyer. The specific issues that may arise would vary based upon the type of transaction (e.g. residential vs. commercial real estate transaction), and the laws specific to that jurisdiction (e.g. tax & residency laws). The lawyer should go through the transaction in detail with the client to ensure the client fully understands every aspect of the transaction, not just handle the paperwork.
Established in 2009, Tenenbaum and Solomon - Markham Real Estate Lawyer was formed as a continuation of the established practice of Alan Luftspring after his retirement. In January, 2019 the law practice of Jack Zwicker will be continued at the firm. Jack will continue on as a Judge and mediator. Led by two tenured lawyers, Samantha Solomon and Sheldon Tenenbaum, the firm currently serves clients in real estate, lending, family, small business, franchising, wills and estates; and civil litigation. Sheldon Tenenbaum provides services to Legal Aid clients in family law matters.
Transactional Real Estate Lawyer can review a purchase agreement and make essentially draft the paperwork to avoid litigation. They may also figure out property taxes and if there are multiple owners of a property figure out the best legal ownership i.e. Joint Tenancy or Tenancy in Common.
Often if a transactional real estate lawyer is not involved before the deal and something goes wrong litigation ensues. Classic example is if while a house is in escrow it burns down. The question becomes who is responsible the seller who still technically owns the property or the buyer who was in the process of becoming the owner.
Typically you would have a risk of loss provision in your contract to determine that and the real estate lawyer would have figured out some way to address that issue, but if that is not in there you go to court and litigate.
However, there are certainly times when you have a very simple agreement and everything goes great even though it was done 100% perfectly.
In short there is no exact answer to this question the possibilities of what a Real Estate Lawyer is summarized in numerous thousand page textbooks, but above are some examples of what a Real Estate Lawyer might do.
There will almost certainly be a mortgage on the property, perhaps more than one. If the buyer doesn't pay off all the mortgages at closing, the remaining mortgages are still enforceable. In some cases, there are old paid off mortgages on the property that haven't been properly removed and the lawyer either has to get confirmation that they have been paid off or a court order that they are no longer enforceable.
The lawyer can also check if the property can be used for the buyer's intended purpose. For example, a seller might be able to run a factory on the site as an existing non-conforming use, but the buyer may not be able to tear it down and build a new factory.
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