If you are getting ready to buy or sell a piece of real estate, you may want to consider using a real estate lawyer. Many people who participate in a real estate transaction don't quite understand the importance of a real estate lawyer, and they don't realize the ramifications that could come from not using one. So this article will outline the services that a real estate lawyer provides to allow you a further understanding of why their services are so important.

Contract and Price Negotiations

Your lawyer can help you before you even enter into a formal contract. Your lawyer can assist you with negotiations of the cost to purchase the property, as well as review the contract to make sure it's provisions are agreeable and legal. 

Title Review

This service is important if you are purchasing a piece of real estate. A title review is simply a review of who has previously owned the property, as well as finding out if there are any liens, encumbrances or even open mortgages on the property. With real estate, if someone owes money to someone else, that becomes attached to the property. The general consensus is when you sell property, those open liens and mortgages must be paid off before you can receive your proceeds from the sale. When you are buying a piece of property that may have an older lien, that lien becomes your responsibility when you purchase it, regardless of whether or not you were the original debtor.

Property Issues

Another important service a real estate lawyer can offer is reviewing and coming up with solutions for any property issues. This would mean finding out if you have any easements on the property or if there are any encroachments over your property line.

Easements are not necessarily a bad thing, but it's still helpful to know if there are any on the property. Easements give someone else the right to cross your property for specific reasons. An example of this would be a utility company needing to access your property to maintain utility lines that may be buried under your land. An encumbrance will be more of an issue, because if there's a large structure, like a home, garage or even a swimming pool, built over onto the property line of the land you wish to purchase, your lawyer is going to need to work with the owner of the encroaching structure to come up with a possible solution.

For more information, contact a local real estate lawyer from a firm like Drennan Law Office.

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