Why You Should Use a Local Hoboken Attorney for Your Hoboken Real Estate Transaction
Categories: Hoboken Condos
Both buyers and sellers often ask for a recommendation of real estate attorneys to handle their home purchase or sales contract and closing. There are some important differences among real estate lawyers that buyers and sellers should be aware of when choosing an attorney to represent them in a Hoboken real estate transaction? Here are some of the first questions that you as a buyer or seller should ask:
Communication – Is the lawyer is easily to reach by phone and email?
Availability – Is he or she available during the time frame of the transaction to properly handle the matter and not too busy with other work or going on vacation?
Cost – What does the attorney charge to handle a real estate closing? It’s your money, you have the right to know.
Chemistry – Does the personality of the potential lawyer “click” with yours? You’re going to be dealing with each other for the next few months so you should feel comfortable with him or her.
Hoboken experience – What portion of this attorney’s business is made up of Hoboken real estate closings? Hopefully, a majority.
Using a Hoboken lawyer is extremely important because of several factors. They are likely to know and have worked with the other attorney in the transaction. They have seen their riders before and the other attorney knows what to expect from them. They are used to how things are done in Hoboken and they tend to move the process along quickly. Saving a few bucks by using your neighbors uncle is just plain foolish.
I’m an attorney and spent a number of years practicing law on Wall Street and in corporate America. As such, I’m pretty familiar with the usual criteria by which attorneys are often judged – good credentials (top law school, editor of the law review, clerkship, prestigious firm), lots of relevant transactional experience, adequate support staff, fees charged for services, and general customer/client service. While those things may be important, there is another critical component to the success of your real estate transaction that is often overlooked.
Your attorney should keep your realtor in the loop. In my experience, many lawyers don’t seem to want to deal with their client’s real estate agent. Everyone should be working towards a common goal – to get the deal closed. Common sense would suggest that the attorney copy the agent on communications that relate to the deal. Unfortunately, that is often not the case. When that happens, the agents don’t know if problems are developing. Often it comes to the attention of the agent when it’s too late to fix. Remember, the attorney gets paid no matter what. Only the agents don’t make a penny unless the deal closes. So when you are interviewing lawyers ask them more than where they went to law school and if they are familiar with Hoboken real estate deals. Find out if they make it a practice to personally take calls from your real estate agent and generally keep them up to date on the status of your deal.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about which comes from an actual experience. The buyers do a home inspection and give the report to their lawyer. They ask that the central air that’s not working properly to be repaired. The seller doesn’t want to do it and wants to give the buyers a credit for the cost of the repair instead. Through the lawyers, both buyer and seller are stubborn and won’t compromise. It escalates to the point where the buyers are ready to walk away. The lawyers never bother to let the realtors know that there is a problem and the buyer and seller tell their respective agents that the lawyers are handling the inspection issues. More often than you would imagine, had the agents known of the problem they would spend the time it takes discussing with each other possible compromise solutions to proprose to the parties. Then the agent would each get their side to give in a little and they work it out and buyer and seller come to an agreement. Of course, this takes a little of back and forth and a lot of time. The realtors, however, are the ones with the monetary motivation to take the time and make the effort to resolve the problem before it kills the deal.
When you are looking for a lawyer to represent you, you might be wise to ask them about their willingness to include your realtor in the correspondence and to take his or her calls and not pass them off to the paralegal or secretary. Believe me, if it wasn’t important the realtor wouldn’t be calling. Remember, you are the client and if you request that your attorney keep your agent in the loop as the deal progresses, there is little reason for them not to do so. It is in your best interest to keep things on track.
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The Hoboken & Downtown JC Open House Google Map for Saturday, July 23rd & Sunday, July 24th, 2016
Categories: For Buyers, Hoboken Brownstones, Hoboken Condos, Hoboken New Construction, Jersey City Condos, Neighborhoods, Open House
The Original and Best Open House Google Map!
Courtesy of the Turoff Realty Team
No need to register! No form to fill out!
Just click on the map below to see every Open House in Hoboken this weekend:
Click HERE to see the Downtown Jersey City Open House Map
When you look at the maps, place markers are color coded:
- Studios & 1BRs are red
- 2BRs are green
- 3BRs & Bigger are yellow
- New listings are marked with a Push Pin icon (in the same color scheme.)
Click the “Address”, “Price” “Bed” or “Details” columns to sort the list of open houses in ascending or descending order.
Click on the location marker for:
- open house date
- time
- unit size
- asking price
- link to all the info found on the MLS and more (from ourHobokensBestHomes.com IDX feed.)
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Taking the Long View in Hoboken Real Estate Sales
Categories: Hoboken Condos
Here’s an interesting chart based on the quarterly sales results for Hoboken condo sales as reported on the MLS. It’s nice to see that the market is did better the first quarter of this year compared to the same period a year ago. What is much more enlightening is to compare this year’s results to those of 10 years ago. When you buy real estate, it might be best to take along view of your investment. Gains of over 35% are a very solid return and, often tax free if one lives in ones property.
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