Real estate transactions involve complex legal concepts dating back centuries. Real property is treated as special because it lasts forever. Your property might have provided a place for you to live or conduct business. Therefore, it’s likely one of your most valuable assets.
Some people may question why sellers need a real estate attorney. However, most understand that navigating the legal considerations of selling property can ensure that they handle the transaction cleanly, thereby avoiding delays and costly mistakes.
Working with a real estate attorney for property transactions from Linn Legal can save sellers money and time, while protecting them from legal liability. Here’s everything you need to know about what these important legal professionals do.
The Seller’s Perspective in Real Estate Transactions
Sellers can have many goals when listing real estate.
First and foremost, you want to get a good sale price. Second, you want contract terms that are fair and achievable. Finally, you want to participate in a transaction that satisfies your legal duties and complies with your obligations under real estate law to minimize your risk of losing the sale or ending up in court.
With these interests in mind, a qualified real estate attorney can play many roles in real estate transactions. Whether you’re selling a residential or commercial property, an experienced real estate lawyer can help you in the following ways.
Protecting Your Interests as You Negotiate Contracts
What does a real estate lawyer do for the seller before the property goes under contract?
Most real estate sales involve give and take from both the seller and buyer. Perhaps the home inspection uncovered some maintenance issues that the buyer wants the sellers to resolve. Or maybe the seller has multiple offers and wants to negotiate with prospective buyers to make sure they take the best one.
Before you accept an offer, an experienced real estate attorney can help you with the following tasks:
- Understanding the legal implications of the buyer’s offer
- Identifying the potential risks and costs of accepting the offer
- Crafting a counteroffer
- Interpreting the buyer’s response to your counteroffer
While most sellers don’t impose any concrete real estate lawyer sales responsibilities, they do expect their legal professional to help consummate the sale.
A real estate attorney can act as your legal advisor and representative, providing guidance about what you can and can’t do under real estate and contract law. Once you settle on a strategy, the lawyer will execute it as they negotiate with both the buyer and their legal counsel.
Drafting and Reviewing the Real Estate Contract
Real estate contract terms can be complicated because of the archaic language and concepts that underlie real estate law. Moreover, property law limits what can go into a purchase contract.
Legal rules like the centuries-old “rule against perpetuities” still apply to real estate sales in Ohio today. Newer laws, like the Federal Fair Housing Act, also limit the terms of purchase agreements, lease agreements, and mortgage documents.
Attorneys who practice real estate law can spot any issues in the sales contract immediately. By having a lawyer draft and review contracts related to the sale of your property, you can avoid future disputes about the legality of the contract terms.
Even if your transaction doesn’t involve any special or unique terms, you may still need a lawyer to review documents before the sale.
Real estate agents often use form agreements that may not apply to your situation or may contain terms that neither you nor the buyer contemplated. You’ll find it worthwhile to get a contract review by a real estate lawyer for seller interests before agreeing to the sale to ensure that the contract contains the terms you and the buyer agreed on and nothing else.
When you account for the risk of losing a promising sale or signing a contract filled with terms you didn’t agree to, you’ll likely find the cost of hiring a real estate lawyer for sellers to be worthwhile.
Navigating Title Issues and Liens
One of the buyer’s primary interests in a real estate transaction is obtaining a clean title to the property.
A clean title generally means that the deed is free from any prior interests in the land or buildings, as well as any liens against the property. The role of a real estate lawyer for sellers can include conducting title searches, reviewing the results, and advising sellers about the implications of what was found.
What does a real estate lawyer do for the seller that a title company can’t do? Performing title searches is tedious work. When you have the title company run a search, they may have an intern or a clerk without any legal expertise review documents going back to the creation of your parcel.
A real estate attorney will have the legal knowledge and experience to understand any problematic language in the past transfers of your property that may have created additional interests that don’t belong to you.
Similarly, a prior owner may have faced legal or financial issues that resulted in a lien being imposed against the property. Finding and resolving these issues can be vital for completing your transaction without fear of future litigation.
For example, a prior owner might have granted an easement on your land. Alternatively, your land might have been owned by a partnership, and the subsequent sale might not have included all the partners.
An attorney can spot these and other legal issues early in the transaction and advise you about how to deal with the prior interests and how to disclose them to the buyer interested in your property.
Managing Seller Disclosures and Compliance
State and local laws impose dozens of requirements for disclosures. Additionally, sellers have a duty of good faith and fair dealing. Under this duty, you may need to disclose something about your property even if no statute or ordinance specifically requires it.
In many cases, the buyer will protect themselves with a home inspection. However, sellers can’t rely on a home inspector to fully inform buyers of every potential issue. A seller disclosure requirements lawyer can help a seller understand their legal duties to disclose information about the property, independent of any inspection report.
For example, an inspector doesn’t have access to the building’s history. If the seller knows about any structural issues that have slowly grown worse over time, they may be obligated to disclose that information to the buyer to avoid future legal disputes.
Counseling a seller regarding these issues requires a detailed and honest discussion with real estate professionals.
Under the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct, any legal discussions you have with your real estate attorney must be kept confidential. Under Rule 1.6, the attorney must maintain the confidentiality of anything you disclose, as well as any advice they provide.
This legal duty allows you to disclose everything you know about your property to your lawyer so they can advise you about the following:
- The information you must disclose to comply with the law
- How you should disclose it
- The risks you face by withholding the information
Many sellers wonder how lawyers help sellers avoid disputes when they’ve already hired real estate agents.
While realtors have a basic understanding of real estate law, they don’t possess deep knowledge of the legal side of these transactions. By hiring a real estate attorney, you can make sure you’re complying with all your legal obligations during the sale of your property.
Overseeing the Closing Process
Once closing day arrives, you might feel like you’ve reached the finish line. However, legal problems can also arise during the closing process. A real estate lawyer can oversee the closing to ensure that everything goes smoothly.
Possible issues that can arise during closing include:
- Mistakes in the closing documents
- Last-minute concerns raised by the buyer’s lender
- Escrow problems
- Issues with you or the buyer signing the closing papers
While deal-breaking hangups are rare at closing, they do occur.
What does a seller’s attorney do at closing, exactly? A lawyer can play an important role in keeping a transaction moving forward when unexpected issues pop up with the buyer or their lender. They can also document what occurred for future litigation, mediation, or arbitration.
Why Sellers Benefit From Hiring a Real Estate Attorney
Ohio property law is complicated for both sellers and buyers. An attorney for real estate transactions will understand the law and know how to conduct real estate transactions efficiently. During the sale of residential or commercial real estate, a property lawyer can offer the following legal services for home sellers:
- Providing general counsel
- Negotiating sales contracts
- Preparing and reviewing legal documents
- Managing legal risks and verifying compliance
- Overseeing the closing and addressing any last-minute issues
In short, having a property lawyer on your side when you sell real estate provides legal protection and peace of mind.
Contact Linn Legal to Speak With a Qualified Real Estate Lawyer
If you need legal help selling a house or commercial property, the seasoned attorneys at Linn Legal offer a wealth of knowledge and decades of legal experience. Contact us today to discuss your real estate transaction and the legal support we can provide.
