Find An Attorney To Help With Home Purchase
REM #A744
By Ilyce R. Glink
Summary: A ThinkGlink reader is buying property from his landlord. Ilyce encourages this reader to hire an attorney to help him through the process.
Q: I'm currently renting and my landlord wants to sell me the property. My
landlord is a real estate agent himself. He owns a real estate firm and loan
company or something like that.
I am interested in purchasing the property, but was wondering if I should use a real estate agent or try it on my own. I've already been preapproved for a loan. Thanks for your feedback.
A: Having a real estate agent who is also a mortgage lender as your landlord sounds like the prefect scenario – or the perfect storm.
To make sure you’re not being railroaded or led astray, I think you should
find an attorney to help you out. The attorney should be able to walk you through
the transfer and will make sure the documents you sign protect you.
You also need to know how much the property is worth (it may be more or less
than what your landlord is asking). You could hire an appraiser to appraise
the property (that will cost $300-500) or you can try to figure it out based
on what other properties are selling for in the area (your local recorders office
will have the sales figures for properties and these are public records).
Another idea is to pay a local agent on an hourly basis to help you comb through
sales prices of comparable properties that have recently sold in the neighborhood
and figure out what this property is worth.
NOTE: This column is distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate, PO Box 366, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022. This column may not be resold, reprinted, resyndicated or redistributed without written permission from the publisher.
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