Real estate: Working with a lawyer

A real estate deal is often the largest transaction, whether purchase or sale, many people make in their lives, and issues in the process can give a great deal of financial and emotional stress. Obligations to the other party, to government regulators (such as land transfer taxes), financial institutions, and insurance, make it much more complex than buying and selling of other goods usually is. The process can involve a number of different professionals; realtors, mortgage brokers, home inspectors, tradespeople, tax professionals, and lawyers.

Thankfully, with an experienced lawyer's help, the process can be made much smoother and you can have far more peace of mind up to and after closing. You can make this much easier if a few basic steps are followed.
Whether you are purchasing or selling the property, be aware of the following:

• Tell the whole tale: Why are you buying or selling? Have you owned a home or other property before? How is the transaction being financed (is money being borrowed from a bank or someone else? Disclosing any possible problems to a lawyer as soon as possible is the best way to deal with them. Earlier knowledge leads to earlier solutions. Telling the lawyer as much as possible about the property in question (and providing supporting documents) will guarantee an easier time for all involved.
  
• Keep your lawyer in the loop! Update the lawyer on major milestones, such as plans for securing funding (if necessary), telling them when the property is vacated and for how long, if there are any physical problems (anything significant enough to require paid work to fix, in general), timing of home inspections and visits, etc. During consultations and later communication, the lawyer will let you know which are your responsibilities (updating addresses, property tax information, accounts for hydro, heat, et.c) and which are the lawyer's.
  
• Ask questions if you are not sure! Whether meeting the lawyer in person, or going over documents electronically, feel free to ask about anything you read that you do not understand. In many areas of law, but especially in real estate, contracts and other important documents are often written using  technical, and even old-fashioned vocabulary, obscuring meaning to anyone but experts. This does not have to be the case; ask if you have questions!
  
• Provide requested documents as soon as possible. For example, in order to verify identities and reduce the use of real estate deals in criminal activity, lawyers are required to keep scans of ID documents provided by a client in our files. Similarly, we need to be made aware of any amendments to the Agreement of Purchase and Sale as soon as possible, as there may be knock-on effects on all aspects of the purchase. This is especially important when closing dates are approaching, and certain time-sensitive actions need to be taken. Failure to be timely may result in a financial penalty being passed on to the client, or at the worst case, the deal being cancelled by one side or another, with litigation a possibility in addition to all the disruption caused by being suddenly unable to move in or out of a home as planned.
  

Many court cases begin as nothing more than accidental neglect of a seemingly minor issue.  A lawyer can help with dealing with sudden complexities and emerging issues, advising you on what actions to take, and just as importantly, not to take. Thankfully, the vast majority of transactions go off without a hitch, allowing you the to relax and enjoy your new home, or the profit from your sale.