Do I need a real estate lawyer to sell a home?

Selling your home might be one of the biggest financial transactions of your life. Real estate law can be complicated, especially for homeowners. You might sell a home once or twice in a lifetime, making it difficult to navigate market volatility and ever-changing laws with limited experience. Having a real estate lawyer in your corner can help ease potential snags with the selling process and protect your financial interests. 

Our firm, Adam Diamond Law, works with a lot of sellers in McHenry and Lake County, Illinois. Boasting over 15 years of experience in real estate law, our knowledgeable team can make the process of selling your home less of a headache so that you can move on to the next chapter of your life.

You might be surprised to learn how much a real estate attorney can benefit you.  A good realtor is a critical part of your home selling team. But, they cannot provide legal advice and cannot draft customized real estate contracts. A lawyer, on the other hand, can advise you on the legal ramifications of selling your home, customize or amend your contract, and ensure that all of your obligations and deadlines are executed properly. 

A real estate contract is a complicated legal document.  A lot of contracts now have information automatically filled in when they are created.  Automated contracts can contain errors that might affect the sale of your home and even increase your costs. Real estate attorneys’ expertise with contracts is advantageous to sellers–especially when errors are present. An attorney can quickly detect and correct potential issues with a contract so that they are resolved with minimal risk to a seller. Resolving contract issues can save significant amounts of time and money. 

Certain aspects of a real estate contract, if executed improperly, can significantly increase your closing and legal costs. Moreover, unresolved attorney review or home inspection issues can delay the closing process or even cause the sale of a home to fall through. Hiring a real estate lawyer helps ensure that your legal obligations are met, and met on time. 

Since a lawyer can represent you, you likely won’t have to attend closing. This means your lawyer can attend in your place where you do not have to watch buyers pore over and sign hours worth of paperwork.

Deciding to work with a real estate attorney is a great choice but it’s important to know what to look for in a real estate law firm. Your real estate agent can likely refer a great attorney to you but you can also vet lawyers by looking to see if they are a member of any real estate-specific professional organizations.   Attorneys that are members of trade organizations like the Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association and the Illinois Association of Realtors, are usually active in the real estate community and keep up with current events and developments.

Ideally, real estate law firms operate with open communication, transparency, and dedicated client service. Communication with clients is key for explaining the transaction process and resolving potential issues early on. Since real estate transactions are large, transparency with legal fees and closing costs is important to many sellers. Many firms provide flat fees for their services, which helps eliminate unanticipated expenses. 

Before choosing an attorney, we recommend reading a law firm’s reviews and testimonials online.  Looking at google and redfin reviews can help narrow down your choices. A lot of five star reviews typically mean that a lawyer has a great reputation among their peers and their clients. 

Adam Diamond Law works with sellers throughout McHenry County. We pride ourselves on performing excellent client service with open communication and transparency.

Disclaimer:  This blog post is for informational purposes and is not intended to be legal advice or to create an attorney-client relationship.  Every situation is unique and it is always best to review your individual situation with a local attorney to understand your options.