Real estate laws vary from state to state and can be quite complex. Especially, when you are a SaaS company that wants to open or close offices. Whether you are dealing with a seemingly simple task of buying or selling a building, or if you are navigating the complex field of real estate commercial foreclosures, a real estate lawyer can help you. A real estate attorney knows the laws of the state in which he or she is licensed to practice.

How Real Estate Attorneys Can Help Your Company

Every state is different in the laws they have on the books that govern real estate transactions. Most do not require an attorney to be involved. However, in New York, you do need to find a property lawyer. While a real estate agent can facilitate the sale of a property, they cannot dispense legal advice on such transactions. An attorney must oversee the property contract, conduct due diligence, and be present to close the real estate deal. In a nutshell, due diligence is the research an attorney needs to do to make sure everything is in order to close a real estate transaction. This is the step between accepting an offer and closing a deal.

Some of the services a real estate lawyer in NYC include:

• Gathering, reviewing, and filing legal documents
• Providing legal guidance in real estate transactions (i.e. buying a home, handling a foreclosure, etc.)
• Doing the research for a property purchase or other transaction
• Provide legal advice before, during, and after real estate transactions
• Come up with alternate game plans in the event of unforeseen circumstances (i.e. a home sale falls through for a given reason)
• Investigate any claims or liens against a property (title search)
• Draw up all necessary documents to conclude the close of a sale

There are many areas an attorney can help in, including but not limited to: foreclosures, home/property warranties, homeowners associations, property titles and boundaries, home buying, and foreclosures and evictions.

How to Find a Good Real Estate Lawyer?

Now you have decided to hire an attorney to assist you with your offices. The next problem you meet is that you should hire a really great lawyer. Working with lawyers that have no experience with commercial real estate will cost your time and money.

Assembly line law firms may have attorneys who “specialize” in one or two particular areas. Or they may hand you off to be taken care of by less experienced personnel. You would benefit more from an attorney who can oversee and guide you through the real estate process from start to finish. And give you the one on one attention your case deserves. So what are some of the things to look for in how to find a real estate attorney? These are some of the things you need when trying to find a property lawyer:

1. An attorney who graduated from an accredited law school.
2. An attorney who has a wide range of knowledge and experience in real estate.
3. An attorney who specializes in the law area of real estate you are looking to buy into (i.e. attorneys who specialize in home buying if you are buying your first home; attorneys who specialize in commercial properties if you are looking for a rental property, etc.)
4. An attorney who knows what they are looking at when it comes to things like home warranties and dealing with homes with preexisting conditions.
5. An attorney who consistently gets high ratings and charges reasonable fees.

You may want to ask your assistant to create the checklist on how to find a good lawyer. It will help you in the future, as there are a lot of ways an attorney can help a SaaS company. You can find the attorney right for you through a number of resources: referrals from real estate agents, viewing listings with the New York State Bar, searching reputable websites like Avvo, etc.

Practice Experience And Reviews

The most important thing is to check what is the experience of your attorney with similar cases. The best way to do it is to check Google or Yelp reviews. When an attorney is highly experienced, you will see a lot of text reviews, not only 4 or 5 star ratings.

Ask Them Questions

To see if an attorney is responsive and has experience in the same cases as yours, do not be afraid to ask tough and probing questions:

• What services do you offer?
• Is your fee flat or hourly? What is included with the cost of your fee?
• What experience do you bring to the table?
• How many real estate cases have you handled? What has been the average outcome? Are there any past experiences similar to mine?
• What do your clients say about you?

When to Hire A Real Estate Law Attorney?

It’s better to hire an attorney in the early stages of the process. Real estate agents can’t provide you legal advice or help with legal issues about your contract. They can show you what to expect, and what mistakes to avoid, based on their past experience with other clients.