Don’t take a huge financial risk when buying and selling real estate. Avoiding the most common mistakes made with deeds and contracts will help you protect one of the largest purchases you will make in life. Working with an experienced real estate attorney can help you navigate the process.
1. Public Record Filing Errors
Real estate documents like deeds and surveys get filed as public records. This requires a human to do the work to file these documents. Unfortunately, people make errors, which can lead to mistakes and issues with filing real estate transactional documents. There is no way to avoid or prevent human errors completely. However, you can be vigilant for them. Do a follow-up search to ensure your documents are filed and recorded correctly. Submit a request for correction if you find any issues.
2. Using Templates Without Customization
With templates readily available on the internet, it can be tempting to simply download one and use it. However, attempting to save money in the short term can result in significant costs later on. Templates can be useful to give you an idea of what to expect or to serve as a starting point. However, you should never blindly depend on them. A template needs to be customized for your specific situation. An experienced attorney can review your contracts for relevancy and accuracy. Without this review, you could unknowingly agree to terms that you don’t want. There could be irrelevant terms that aren’t applicable to your situation that will only serve to muddle the contract. There may be terms that you want included that aren’t.
3. Incomplete or Incorrect Information
One of the most common mistakes is having incomplete or incorrect information in legal documents. While this may seem like a minor mistake, it can lead to expensive legal disputes later. These mistakes can happen when people attempt to prepare their documents without legal help. It can also occur when a lawyer does poor-quality work. To avoid these kinds of mistakes, look for a high-quality law firm with a reputation for keen attention to detail.
4. Title Issues
A title is a legal document that records the rightful owner of a piece of real estate. Incorrect title records can directly impact the transfer of ownership from one person to another. Before buying real estate, you will want a thorough title search to identify potential issues. Then, request that these mistakes be corrected before closing. That way, you protect your purchase from potential ownership claims from third parties.
Some companies perform these searches for you. They will follow the chain of ownership backward and forward while looking for potential issues. Title insurance can also help protect buyers from title issues post purchase.
5. Unclear Language
There is a common misconception that more complicated and drawn out contract language is better. Many attorneys will use this tactic when writing contracts in an attempt to make the contract harder to decipher for the other party. However, this strategy can backfire. When the contract is unclear and the terms ambiguous, it opens the door for legal disputes. Both parties will have their own interpretation of the contract terms. It will then take going to mediation or court to determine the official language meaning.
Protect Your Contracts From Mistakes
Several points in the buying and selling process are vulnerable to mistakes. Working with an experienced real estate attorney can help you avoid many of them that happen with deeds and contracts. Your attorney will review contract documents, prepare your documents, perform research on real estate records, and file for any necessary corrections.
Schedule a consultation with our experienced real estate attorneys to review your legal documents.
