When buying or selling a property, there are lots of decisions you’ll face right from the beginning – the right realtor, of course will be your first big decision. In the case of buying, you’ll also need to choose the right lender, the right insurance broker, and, naturally, the right property! Something you might not think about right away, however, is which lawyer you will choose to represent you on your sale or purchase. 

Not all lawyers are created equal. If you do not already have a trusted real estate lawyer with whom you are familiar, where do you start looking? Your best bet is to turn to the professional you already trust: your realtor. Your realtor will have extensive knowledge of the local lawyers available. Your realtor will have dealt with good (and not so good) lawyers, and will guide you in the direction of a lawyer that is efficient, reasonably priced, and competent. Your realtor will give you several lawyers to consider. 

Once you have a few lawyers to choose from, you can call their respective offices to get an idea of who will work best for you. Here’s some tips for that process: 

• Call around early! Spring and summertime are busy for real estate law offices and they will turn business away once they reach capacity. 
• Get estimates of the closing fees. Some lawyers will commit to a fee with a quote, others will give you a range with an estimate.
• Make sure you ask about disbursements. On top of the fee that your lawyer charges for their professional work in representing you, they will also add office disbursements, such as performing title searches, paying couriers, long distance phone calls, transaction levies, software charges, and so on. These can add up, so it’s good to find out what your total bill from your lawyer will look like. 
• Your lawyer should tell you about outside disbursements, too: fees your lawyer has to pay to outside bodies, such as the provincial government for Land Transfer Tax, municipal government for property taxes, title insurance fee for your policy, etc. These are fees fixed by outside entities, and should be relatively the same, regardless of which lawyer you go to.
• Often times, a clerk will be speaking with you when you call the lawyer’s office. Clerks are very competent and experienced within their role, but if you want to get a “feel” for who you’d like to work with, try to speak to the lawyer themselves as well. 

If you are buying or selling in a location far from your current residence, you should also consider the lawyer’s location, (you will have to make at least one trip to the lawyer’s office for signing the documents before your closing date). There are also lots of specific circumstances when you will want to contact a lawyer earlier in the homebuying/selling process: for example, if you are a foreign buyer or seller; if you are using a Power of Attorney; if you are an estate executor; if you are separating or divorcing; if you are buying an income property or multi-unit dwelling, to name a few. All these scenarios, and more, will be explored in future blog posts, but anytime you are in doubt, ask your realtor for advice! They are happy to assist you in making the best choice possible. 

Thanks to Kristna Tesser from Johnson McMaster Law Firm for todays blog post!
For more information on the legal aspects of real estate, or to search for a lawyer in your area, visit the Law Society of Upper Canada’s website: http://www.lsuc.on.ca/