Travels through Property Law by Tom Brodersen, Esq.
Successful Realtors® work extraordinarily hard to assist their clients, from setting a realistic asking price for their home, staging it for sale, taking pictures and/or drone videos, nailing down all the details for the MLS, marketing the property, showing the home and writing offers. And this is a very short partial list, compared to all of the things they are actually responsible for.
But sometimes, you already have a buyer, whether it’s a friend, family member or neighbor whom you’ve known for years, who told you just last week/month/year to “be sure to let them know if you ever decide to sell.” So, the marketing is already taken care of, and you just need to write a contract and get it closed. Of course you don’t want to be responsible for paying a substantial commission to someone who doesn’t have to do what it takes to market your home.
These are the things that real estate lawyers excel at. That plus counseling you about tax ramifications and many other complications, explaining every stage of the detailed, legally complicated process of buying and selling, helping you negotiate with that friend (without losing the friendship in the process), telling you what to expect as your buyer seeks a mortgage (including the appraisal, inspections and other due diligence), and sharing information with your buyer to protect yourself from allegations of hiding defects, so as to avoid damaging lawsuits in the future.
As you go through the process, you start to understand how complicated buying and selling real estate really is, hopefully before you need to, rather than too late afterward. And ideally, with sufficient in-depth knowledge and not just a little bit of “bed-side manner” so that you actually sleep at night while navigating those waters.
The surprising thing is that there is often very little cost involved in providing that assistance and guidance, and you may even save some money over what you would pay a title company to conduct the closing. Title companies do a surprising amount of marketing just to get your business, and ultimately, it’s you who pays that cost.
Sometimes, even if you pay Realtors® to market your home and title companies to close the deal, you may still need to hire a lawyer to write leases, seller-mortgages, complicated contract contingencies to protect you, and other documents which are sometimes required, which neither Realtors® nor title companies are licensed or competent to draft.
And, SURPRISE! We never charge for initial consultations.
ANDERSON & BRODERSEN, P.A.,
350 Corey Ave., St. Pete Beach, FL 33706
(727) 363-6100
www.PropertyLawGroup.com