I’m buying a condo. The current owner is my business manager.
We’ve verbally agreed on a selling price. He had his lawyer draw up a purchase contract. I haven’t signed anything yet. I have a copy of the proposed purchase contract.
I don’t have any reason not to trust my boss. He’s a decent guy. I spoke for about 30 minutes with his lawyer today, just going over what needed to happen for the sale to proceed. Nothing sounded troublesome. He just sort of shrugged when I asked about having my own lawyer, said - “sure, no problem. If you have a lawyer, just give me the contact info and I’ll work with her or him.”
We have:
[ul]
[li]Agreed on a selling price (verbally, reflected in proposed purchase contract)[/li][li]Agreed that the condo will be sold “as-is” (I’ve had an inspection done through my own inspector, there are no major issues. The minor issues could be fixed with maybe $1500; We agreed (verbally) that I would fix those after buying since I’m buying it at a steal)[/li][li]A proposed purchase contract (I’ve skimmed it, I don’t see any problems. But I’m not a lawyer)[/li][/ul]
Should I hire a lawyer of my own? I’m not sure exactly what they would do besides review the purchase contract - which to me, looks pretty standard.
I guess what it boils down to: would it be worth spending a few hundred dollars on a lawyer in my situation? Or just go through with the sale, saving the few hundred and putting them towards the few minor repairs?
Put it this way: I bought a house from my parents, who pretty much would give up their lives for me (they’re good parents :D), and I still got a lawyer. It only costs a couple hundred bucks to have a real estate lawyer look over the papers. Money well spent IMO.
A lawyer to look over papers someone else drew up only costs a couple hundred bucks. (We should know; we bought a condo in the States back in 2007.) Money well-spent. If anything goes south b/c nobody on your end gave the contract a once-over, you’ll be very sorry you didn’t spend a little to head off the trouble.
I bought my condo w/o my own realtor but I did get a lawyer. There’s a lot of paperwork that goes back and forth at the closing, it was worth just to have the guy there to tell me what the hell was going on.
Adding to the chorus of “get a lawyer” or a real estate agent. I am not very experienced with these matters and I spotted at least one thing you should have, but did not list in what you have done.
There are a lot of petty details that are important to a real estate closing that most people don’t think about – that a lawyer is being paid to think about. Examples:
What are your rights and responsibilities with regard to the condo. building’s common areas and legalities with the city/town/county?
Is there a condo, association? Can it charge mandatory assessments? For what?
Can your business manager vend clear title? Are there any issues that might crop up?
Are your orally-established terms ones that can be legally included in a contract? If so, what’s the proper language to show the meeting of minds that will stand up in court if some nosy third party has an issue with the sale?
There are no doubt dozens more. (I’m not a real estate lawyer, who would know them all.) Details like this can in fact be significant down the road.
The red flag to me is that you’re buying it at a steal. I wouldn’t buy property without a lawyer, ever–if it goes smoothly, great. If not, you’ll regret not spending a few hundred bucks on a lawyer.
Get a lawyer. It’s possible some mistakes were made that would adversely affect you. I’m not saying your boss would screw you over, but it doesn’t hurt to have another set of eyes who’s getting money from you to take a look at the contract.
You haven’t said anything about a title search, or the documents package from the condo association. A lawyer might be worthwhile to help you with those items (and all the others that people have mentioned here).
Note: I am not your lawyer, and you should not rely on my comment. No attorney-client relationship is intended or should be inferred. This is not legal advice; this is just anonymous chat.
I have always used a lawyer in my house purchases (all two of them!), and for one thing, they do all the fiddly paperwork that I don’t know anything about, and for another thing, it’s their asses on the line if things are missed, not mine. My first lawyer actually did miss something, and he corrected it on his own dime later on.
Get a lawyer. For something as expensive as a house purchase, you want your ass as fully covered as possible.
Most buyers feel the couple of hundred $ spent on a lawyer is well worth the peace of mind.
But as a lawyer myself, I’ll offer that a reasonably intelligent person shouldn’t need one for the purchase of unencumbered real estate, so long as he/she is prepared to spend the time and effort carefully reading a lot of documents with which you are unfamiliar. Remember, your bank is forking out the lion’s share of the cash here, and they are going to be covering their ass - which provides you considerable protection.
It kinda bugs me that the current mindset is that something as straightforward as a real estate purchase is presumed to require a lawyer.
I’m throwing my vote in with get a lawyer or real estate agent, too, *especially *because the deal is with your co-worker and boss. I’m sure your boss is trustworthy, but having professionals at least help close the deal and review the paperwork is always a good idea. You don’t necessarily need them to hold your hand the whole way through, but if it’s something you don’t necessarily feel competent at, it could help. And, since what you’re doing is a business transaction, keep it businesslike. It’ll help protect your professional and/or personal relationship by compartmentalizing the deal and can help you protect yourself financially in the event of default or undisclosed property issues.
For the folks who recommended that the buyer consider getting a realtor instead of a lawyer, what function would you expect a realtor to provide him at this point, and at what cost?
Think of it this way: you’re spending tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars on this condo. Why wouldn’t you get a lawyer/realtor to make sure everything is right in the contract?
As said above, a lawyer is probably worth it in this situation. Examples of things you might want to talk about with him or her:
Is he providing title insurance? I understand that you’re buying it “as is,” but I assume you mean physically. You want to be sure there are no liens on the property (unpaid mortgage, unpaid taxes, unpaid condo assessments, whatever) and that he has authority to convey the property to you (e.g., it’s not co-owned with someone else).
There are different interpretations of “as is.” At the most extreme, the seller makes no promises whatsoever and undertakes no obligation to tell you anything about the property; you’re completely on your own to evaluate it. In a less extreme form, he might make no promises, but would agree to disclose any material information he has about problems with the property (e.g., if he is aware there was a plumbing leak at some point and there might be water damage in the wall, he has to tell you that). What obligations will your boss have in this transaction? Bear in mind that a typical home-buyer inspection is limited in scope and there are lots of things that might not be found.
Is this sale in accordance with the condo association rules? (i.e., if the condo board has to approve a sale, has that been done?) Also, if I were you, I’d get a copy of the condo association rules before making the purchase, to make sure they’re something you can live with (is your pet allowed to live there? Will your planned remodeling project have to get approved by someone?)
Finally, a general comment: No matter how nice your boss is, don’t treat this transaction as a handshake deal with a buddy. When there’s this much money at stake, you need to protect yourself and do it right.
I would do a real estate deal without a realtor (sorry, REALTOR!!!1!!!) before I would do one without a lawyer. I can get all the papers to sign for the deal online or wherever, but I still want someone who knows about real estate law to make sure I’m not opening myself to any unexpected litigation.