The Real Estate Lawyer – Lawyer Estate Agent

The Real Estate Lawyer is the most highly qualified and experienced estate agent of all.

This is because the Real Estate Lawyer is a fully qualified lawyer, with the responsibility of actually representing his or her client in an agent capacity.

	Highest Duty To The Client
	Highest Qualifications
	Most Experienced
	Most Capable

Highest Duty To The Client

When any lawyer represents a client there is a duty to act in the best interests of the client. This is the highest duty known to the law, called a fiduciary duty.

The law will not allow a person in a fiduciary position to put himself in a situation of conflicting interests. At all times, a fiduciary must act in the utmost of good faith. For example, while a commission estate agent who has been engaged by the vendor is quite prepared to complete a contract on behalf of a purchaser, a Real Estate Lawyer will not. (Many purchasers later claim that the commission estate agent has misled them in order to win a sale and a commission. This then has serious implications for the commission estate agent‘s true client – the vendor.)

Highest Qualifications

There is absolutely no doubt that the sale of real estate is a legal process. It involves two parties entering into one of the most important and certainly the most expensive transactions of their lives. When a sale contract is signed, a range of legal rights and responsibilities are opened up. It is most important that each party know exactly what is happening and why.

Every lawyer is trained to find the law relating to a particular issue, to properly interpret the law, and to correctly apply it in a particular case. Drafting skills are also very important, as terms and conditions of contracts must be added, removed or amended as required to suit a particular client in a given situation.

A law degree is a broad legal education. To become qualified a lawyer must study not only Property Law, but also Contract Law, Torts Law (the law of negligence and duty of care is part of the law of Torts) Criminal Law (fraud such as dummy bidding is dealt with in criminal law), Administrative Law, and various other distinct areas of law relevant to the real estate industry.

Most Experienced

Seniority is not the same as genuine experience. There are plenty of people in the real estate industry who can state that they have “30 years’ experience in selling real estate” or “I’ve been in this game for yonks, and I’ve seen it all”, but who have never really experienced the true complexities and difficulties of real estate.

Ask any commission estate agent what he or she would do if the purchaser refuses to pay the deposit, or the vendor refuses to vacate at settlement, and they will all say the same thing – “Call in the lawyers!”

Whenever the going gets tough, those with limited experience call in those who have the expertise to sort the matter out. Lawyers must always be available, because every little issue in a real estate transaction will involve a point of law that must be correctly interpreted and properly applied. Even the simple
Contract Note produced by the commission estate agents themselves must be interpreted by lawyers.

Every commission estate agent needs a lawyer’s hand to hold when moving through the forest of legal issues involved in a real estate transaction. Even though the path may be well-worn over a 30 year real estate career, even the most senior of commission estate agents will be taken by surprise now and then, and will have to shout, “Call in the lawyers!”

Every lawyer involved in real estate and property law learns very quickly. The nature of the industry is such that the lawyer must constantly check for new and amended laws, recent cases and different procedures. Being the one called upon to get others out of trouble means that the lawyer gains a lot of quality experience in a very short time.

The Real Estate Lawyer is the most experienced estate agent of all.

Most Capable

The Real Estate Lawyer is the most capable real estate professional, because the Real Estate Lawyer is the only person who is able to represent the client at all stages of the transaction, and to take responsibility for the completion of the sale and eventual transfer of the property to or from the client.

While commission estate agents and conveyancers are able to perform small parts of the processes involved in the sale and transfer of real estate, only the Real Estate Lawyer can take responsibility for the whole of transaction, and take it from the very start to the very end. The Real Estate Lawyer can also provide legal advice in relation to mortgage documents and loan contracts.

It is this capacity that gives the Real Estate Lawyer the ability to provide the “One-Stop-Shop” for everything relating to the sale or purchase of real estate.