Buying or selling real estate is a complicated undertaking. Real estate transactions are multilayered, and rife with potential pitfalls for the uninitiated. If you already know who both parties to the transaction are is then hiring an attorney to process the paperwork makes sound economic sense.

Our role can be comprehensive or narrowly focused based on your needs.

When real estate is changing hands, the buyer, the seller or both may retain an attorney to represent their interests. There is no "one size fits all" recipe for legal representation in a real estate transaction in California; the scope of a real estate lawyer's role can be as broad or as limited as the client wishes. There are a number of items in the process our firm can assist you with:

• Review, and if necessary, prepare, the purchase agreement, mandatory disclosures, and all closing documents.
• Review evidence of title to ensure that the title to the home is "clean," in other words, free from easements, leans and similar encumbrances.
• Work with a title company to acquire title insurance for the buyer to guard against title defects, including more unusual terms such as "owner will carry" notes.
• Draft payment notes and deeds of trust and facilitate the transfer of funds from a bank or some other source.

FAQ

What if the seller is working with an agent already?

• Our firm is not a licensed real estate broker. Although licensed attorneys in California can broker a real estate transaction under California’s Business & Professions Code section 10133, a real estate broker cannot under Bureau of Real Estate regulations split a commission with such an attorney if he or she is not a real estate licensee. In such a situation, the licensed California attorney drafts an offer by his buyer to receive a percentage of the listing brokerage’s commission where the buyer uses such a real estate commission split to pay his or her attorney.