On this episode of the Toe-2-Toe Podcast, hosts Jenn Murtland and Monica Weakley duke it out over this question: do you need attorneys involved in the sale? Do Monica and Jenn disagree or are they just bumping heads? Decide for yourself!
Episode Highlights:
- Neither Jenn nor Monica works in a state that requires attorneys to close a real estate deal.
- In attorney states, attorneys handle the same tasks that agents handle in other states.
- Both Jenn and Monica think it just complicates the entire process when attorneys handle those tasks.
- There is no point for an attorney to re-review a contract that has already been reviewed.
- Monica thinks that while it is annoying, you can never be too careful so having an attorney isn’t always useless.
- One case that an attorney would be needed is if there is an addendum on the contract.
- Agents cannot give legal advice but might be able to work through the problem.
- These contracts have already been stamped, so going through that extra step wastes more time.
- Monica likes to have additional trusted resources as she always airs on the side of caution.
- Buyers and sellers can both bring their own attorney to the table.
- Attorneys begin to become a problem when it becomes overkill and returns are diminished.
- Contracts that become too long and complicated have been known to scare clients off.
- This week’s tiebreaker, Rachel Real, is a broker of her own real estate company in the Chicago area.
- Being in an attorney state, Rachel is not allowed to make addendums to the contract after it has been signed.
- Outside of Chicago, there are many areas in Illinois where they don’t use attorneys.
- Only a handful of states have statewide attorney mandates.
- Rachel does not feel that it is necessary to have an attorney involved because the extra time gives clients the chance to shut it down.
- Cities that are in an attorney state mandate a grace period to cancel for any reason after the contract is signed.
- Attorneys don’t know what agents have gone through to get the contract signed, so they should not interfere.
- Many inspectors allow the agent to create an addendum from the information on their report.
3 Key Points:
- Agents need to make sure when clients are seeking legal advice, in which case they need to be referred to an attorney.
- In non-attorney states, agents still have attorney connections that they can contact in case of any legal situation.
- There are pros and cons to having an attorney. A pro being an extra set of qualified eyes never hurts. A con being the time and possibly money wasted when including an extra step.
Resources Mentioned:
- Jenn Murtland (website, LinkedIn, Facebook)
- Call Jenn at (513) 400-1691 to discuss transitioning to eXp Realty
- Monica Weakley (website, LinkedIn, Facebook)
- Rachel Real (Facebook)