What the Attorney Does:

• Reviews all the papers your broker wants you to sign.
• Collects all documents required for closing in a safe place where they won’t be placed or thrown out with the trash, in which case the closing will have to be postponed while you run around collecting duplicates and the lawyer charges more.
• Leaves a paper trail showing that you knew what you thought you were doing was what you intended to do, and that you think you intended to have all the right documentation to prove it.  Probably.
• Takes care of obtaining title insurance, which you should be grateful for because who knows what it is or where you go to get it.
 
• Prepares a closing statement, the record of who paid what to whom in exchange for what.   Don’t pay your attorney until you receive your closing statement.

This Homebuyers Tip was excerpted from:

The House Trap, by Alfred Gingold, Workman Publishing, 1988.

ISBN# 0894806157