November 08, 2018
“Who is This Guy?”: The Role of the Closing Attorney
While we would like to believe that the attorney’s role in the home-buying process is common knowledge, it’s clear that for many buyers this is a function clouded in mystery. Naturally this is particularly true for first-time home buyers.
The fact is, most of the home-seeking and purchasing experience takes place without an attorney. This is true whether it’s taking place in Pawtucket, Rhode Island; Cambridge, Massachusetts; or West Palm Beach, Florida.
Attorneys are not there for the home-search, not there for the initial stages of the relationship between home-buyer and home-seller: the offer, the acceptance, the inspection, the haggling for repairs.
But the attorney is there when it counts.
We’re the professionals who, mostly behind the scenes, do the research to make sure the piece of property being purchased is being passed on with the full benefits of ownership. We make sure the person selling it has the rights to everything they claim to be selling. We ensure there are no encumbrances to the property, no outstanding liens on the property, no defects of any kind in the title. Should any defects in title become manifest, we do what we can to resolve them. We assure the mortgage lender that it is safe to take ownership of the property. We outfit the property with Title Insurance Policies.
And the attorney is the person who shows up at the closing to make sure the deal gets done properly.
The End of the Process
Most realtors know that the home-buyer will often judge the entire process, in the end, by the experience they have at the closing. So our closing attorneys here at Topouzis & Associates, P.C. consider it one of our “soft duties” to make this stage in the process as smooth, as painless, and, frankly, as positive as possible. We want the people signing papers at the closing table to feel well-informed and secure in the knowledge that they are making a wise decision in taking on this transaction. We want them to feel like family.
That’s why realtors in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Florida often contact us at Topouzis & Associates, P.C. They recognize that our team’s expertise, and particularly that of our attorneys, is high quality—both run by the book and thinking outside of the box. And they know that property-buyers who meet us at the closing almost always leave feeling like we are family.
