Real estate lawyer
"It's
tangible, it's solid, it's beautiful. It's artistic, from my
standpoint, and I just love real estate."
—Donald Trump
Your real estate lawyer should be beholding to you and no one
else.
That is why I suggest that you retain a lawyer before you sign with a
real estate salesperson.
Primary
function
The lawyer's primary job is to insure that the property you are buying
has a clear title and to register you as the new owner and register
your mortgage and line of credit, if you will have one that is
guaranteed by your home equity. (This line of credit is actually a
second mortgage.)
Second function
Most offers to purchase a condominium unit contain a clause saying that
the offer to purchase is conditional on your lawyer reviewing the
information on the status certificate.
Most lawyers just take a look at the status certificate and ignore the
attached Declaration, By-laws, Rules and Regulations and the Reserve
Fund Study.
It is up to you, the owner to carefully review those documents and see
if there is anything there you cannot live with. You should ask your
lawyer for clarification on any points you do not understand.
Only a few lawyers will advise a client not to purchase a condo in a
particular condo corporation. This is because they may take only a
causal look at the status certificate and not see anything amiss or
they are concerned that the real estate agents will stop referring
clients to him if he advises too many clients not to buy.
After all, he has dealings with real estate agents every day and he
will see individual clients only every few years so he cannot risk
losing referrals from the agents.
If your lawyer advises you to buy elsewhere, do as he or she says.
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