It's A Bad Idea To Use Uncle Stu To Do Your Settlement Unless He's A Real Title Attorney!

I think it is just as important that the paralegal staff at Uncle Stu's has good grounding in real estate.  Absolutely, or the road to closing can be a little too exciting.

Yeah boy, Uncle Stu sucks at real estate closings. Been there, done that. Then they get their little fingers in the "lets write a deed" pie, and I have seen problems arise from that.

Uncle Stu should stick to divorces, he will make more money, he won't change the face of the neighborhood with a poorly written deed, and he won't mess up my closing!!!

Great post Pat.

So true Pat.  You gotta have someone who knows what the heck they are doing!  I have a bunch of friends who are lawyers - but I am not trusting just ANYONE doing a settlement for MY house!

Or maybe like a proctologist doing a face lift?  There are reasons people specialize!

Michael

We close with closing agents here.  Attorneys do the deeds.  Title insurance is done by abstracters who've been in the business forever.  I think they do a great job. 

Patricia - So true !  The analogy is the same for all parts of the services industry, from Realtor, Mortgage Pro to Title Company (Abstract, Attorney...etc) !  In PA, title insurance is regulated by zip code and sales price so we typically do not get much objection to going somewhere else.  We love the service we get from the title companies we have a professional relationship with !

Hi Pat ~ The cautionary tale I use to drive home this point is about the transaction where the selller used an old highschool classmate she had just run into at her reunion and my buyer used her brother - from seven states away.  I was faxing him addendums (-a?) from old P & Ss to give him an idea of how to craft one to protect his sister. It was nuts.

Liz

Hi Pat... I always ask those clients, if Uncle Stu was a Podiatrist and you needed open heart surgery would you ask him for that?

Pat,

I have seen Uncle Stew do many home inspections too.

Great advice . Use someone that knows whats going on in the industry don't pay and then have him learn on the job.

Patricia,

My second cousin on my father's side might be what I need./....

Ann

Patricia - Really only in north jersey - far less of a role in south jersey - it is almost night and day.

Pat... I have a problem with this, those that are called a lawyer, but practice something else... yet they would represent a friend and or family member..  And I kind of just wrote about this not to long ago.  Not specifically about lawyers, but sticking to your profession or expertise...  this is a good reminder.

It is always sad (and makes the settlement so much longer) when a client insists on bringing the family attorney to a closing. In order to justify their fee, they nit pick stuff that is often irrelevant. Sigh!

Whatcha sayin' about my Uncle Stu? (or My Cousin Vinny).

This is my take: the buyer has absolute right (in MD) to choose whoever they want to perform title services.  I advise my buyer client that buying a house is not like going through the check-out counter at Wal-Mart. You don't get a refund if you don't like it or it doesn't fit.  of course, title insurance will cover a multitude of sins but, hey, it's important to get it right.

I have also dealt with title companies (from the listing side) that I would love to burn to the ground. Incompetent would be a nice word.  So, as long as the buyer has their eyes open....it's up to them.

(Now, why do all these short sale and REO agents insist on shoving their title company down my buyer's throat???)

Patricia--Excellent point! I have sold homes to attorneys and in most cases they still use real estate closers rather than doing it themselves. It is worth the few hundred dollars to have it done by a professional that does it everyday not once every 10 years.

Here mostly title companies do the closings. Sometimes attorneys who own their own title companies will do the closing but normally it is the title company. Katerina

Those are good questions, particularly in legal matters. There are so many different specialties that no one can be an expert in all of them. In real estate their are very few agents who do both commercial and residential real estate. Although both involve the sale of real estate, what's involved in completing the sales are very different.

I think that uncle Stu has high visibility and ends up getting us and our clients under pressure.