Getting Legal advice

If you are working with a Realtor to buy or sell a home you can also get legal advice from an attorney.  If your Realtor discourages you from doing this . . find another Realtor.  It is best to engage an attorney who has some kind of experience or expertise with Minnesota real estate. 

Here is an extra little tip that most buyers and sellers don't know.  Let your Realtor know right away that you have an attorney who will be giving you advice.  What tends to happen is buyers or sellers will show the purchase agreement contract to their attorney after everything is signed.  At that point it is very difficult to change it.  Have your Realtor draw up the agreement, send it to your attorney before it has been signed by another party.  Let the attorney review it and give advice before you sign anything.

Not all attorneys are equal.  I have had attorneys who want to change Minnesota boiler plate on contracts.  In that case it is best if they do the paperwork on my clients behalf and represent them in the purchase or sale. I have also worked with attorneys who have no awareness of standard business practices or experience with real estate transactions and don't seem to be familiar with real estate law.  They make my job much harder but my job is to honor my clients wishes and work with the attorney and I am not qualified to judge how good and attorney is. 

Do you need an attorney to buy or sell a house?  I can't advise you on that one, it is your call. Most buyers and sellers use Realtors but we can not by law give any kind of legal or tax advice. Amazingly I have had clients over the years who are attorneys and in general I found them to be easier to work with than most other clients. They have a better understanding of contract law and of what they are signing. 

As a Realtor I have taken the time to attend the Minnesota real estate contracts class every year.  It is taught by a lawyer who works for the Minnesota Association of Realtors.  The class is not required but I find it invaluable.  The contracts change every year and the attorney goes through them line by line and talks about how they work and outlines the best practices for filling them out.  He goes over the pitfalls and legal implications, and sites court cases concerning real estate contracts. 

I am not an attorney and some people just feel better about the whole process if they hire one.  I say go for it. If you buy a home in New York you can work with a Realtor but it is a real estate attorney who actually writes the contract and follows the process to closing.  Not a bad system.

On the opposite end of the spectrum there are buyers and sellers who don't want legal advice or to work with a Realtor.  They are confident that they can navigate the contracts and the legal issues. They know all of the nuances and pitfalls and confidently forge ahead.