Would you ask your auto insurance company how to repair your brakes? Asking your Realtor to draft your lease or to build a custom purchase and sale agreement(P&S) is the same thing. We see countless versions of these documents all the time. We familiarize ourselves with each one for our clients best interest, but crafting one without an attorney is doing a dis-service to our clients. In Massachusetts, Realtors are prohibited from writing up custom documents for our clients….because… we aren’t attorneys. That’s why Realtors can be legally liable for practicing unauthorized law in MA. Also, we would be violating the Realtor’s Code of Ethics(It’s a real thing. The public document is here: https://www.nar.realtor/about-nar/governing-documents/the-code-of-ethics ), both can carry serious consequences for Realtors in violation. There’s a reason the rules punish non-attorneys for acting as attorneys. Ummm, Again…we’re not attorneys, with years of law school, practice and legal wordplay. In the legal world, anyone who says something with 3 words when they could have used 23, just isn’t trying hard enough.
One word can change the responsibilities our clients are tasked with in Real Estate documents. An attorney has YEARS of schooling and practice with wordplay just like this. Most buyers use their loan provider’s attorney to save them a few bucks. The loan provider’s attorney is required to treat the buyer fairly, but still represents the loan provider’s best interests, not the buyer’s interests.
Many sellers try to skip getting their own attorney and that can be dangerous. Home inspection negotiations need to be documented in the P&S. That’s a custom creation. Realtors are only allowed to fill in the blanks of boilerplate documents provided to us by our governing bodies, but not to create custom protections for our clients. Brokers have a bit more leeway. An attorney representing the specific client is always going to provide better protection for our client, buyer, seller or landlord, and that assurance is worth every penny.
In past posts, I suggested interviewing a number of Realtors to see who you’d like to work with the best. The same thing applies for mortgage brokers. It’s no different with Real Estate attorneys. Ask your favorite Realtor who they like for attorneys. We all have our favorites, people who are tried and tested in actual transactions. These are people we’ve seen in action in a variety of situations and we know how they operate. Make them part of your stable of interviewees.
With Realtors, mortgage providers and attorneys, we all strive to be the one our clients want in the foxhole with them when things get real. We also want to surround ourselves with the team we want in the foxhole with us. Ask us, we’d all love to tell you all about it. Every one of us will have entertaining stories (Names have been changed to protect the innocent. 
) about the process.
Take a deep breath, prepare yourself and have fun with the process. Sure there are always rough spots, but your team, the one you select, will help you navigate those with an expert’s touch.
Have Fun!!!
Lew McConkey,
Brook Realty, Serving Whitman Hanson & Surrounding Towns
(781)252-9789
If you have questions about your place in the current Real Estate market, as a buyer, seller or Landlord, Please feel free to call text or email for your free, no obligation consultation.