Today’s entry into the Durham Real Estate Attorney and Greensboro Real Estate Attorney blog discusses whether you need to hire a Durham Real Estate Attorney or Greensboro Real Estate Attorney to assist you with your Real Estate Closing.
In North Carolina, if you are taking out a loan to purchase your home, or if you are refinancing your home, your lender is typically going to require that you hire a Real Estate Attorney to act as a settlement agent for your matter. As a settlement agent, your Durham Real Estate Attorney or Greensboro Real Estate Attorney will assist you with “settling” or “closing” your transaction.
The primary activities your Real Estate Attorney will do are:
(1) conduct a title search of the property you are buying/selling to ensure that the Deed/Title is clear of liens/encumbrances/judgments/etc.;
(2) Draft a Title Opinion and submit to a Title Insurance Company;
(3) Draft the Transfer Deed (evidencing the transfer of the property from the Seller to the Buyer);
(4) Draft the HUD-1 Settlement Statement (this is the document that shows where all the money is going);
(5) Obtain signatures on all required documents;
(6) Record the Deed and Deed of Trust at the Register of Deeds Office; and
(7) issue checks and wire money to the individuals/businesses that are receiving money (e.g., paying off old loans, paying the real estate agents, paying the title insurance company, etc.).
As you can see, there are a lot of tasks that your Durham Real Estate Attorney or Greensboro Real Estate Attorney are responsible for. Technically you do not need to hire a Real Estate Attorney to assist you with your closing; however, practically, if you have not bought and sold a lot of houses and been through the process a bunch of times, it is going to be extremely difficult for you to buy/sell a home without the assistance of a Real Estate Attorney to handle the logistics for you. Also, the purchase/sale of a home is probably the biggest and most expensive financial transaction you will engage in during your lifetime, so if you are not 100% sure how to ensure the transaction is done properly you should involve professionals (this advice applies to obtaining appraisals, inspections, surveys, bug/termite inspections, etc. – don’t cut corners on your biggest investment).
If you are contemplating purchasing or selling a home in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill-Greensboro region, feel free to contact one of our Durham Real Estate Attorneys or Greensboro Real Estate Attorneys for a free conversation about your transaction. Our Durham Real Estate Attorneys and Greensboro Real Estate Attorneys are happy to give you an idea of the costs associated with your closing (typically our fee is between $400-$600).