WHY DO I NEED A LAWYER AS I ALREADY HAVE A REALTOR?

While realtors are critical to ensuring that your interests are represented prior to the time that your home is sold, once a transaction is subject free, the lawyer helps with the closing principally by ensuring that the property is transferred mortgage free or on agreed upon undertakings that funds will be directed first to their full payment before the seller gets his or her proceeds.

WHEN DO I engage a lawyer for my sale?

The best time to engage legal counsel is at the beginning of the process of selling your home so that the lawyer can review your contract of purchase and sale and ensure that your realtor has carefully and thoughtfully protected your interests as the contract forms the basis of all obligations going forward in the transaction. In most cases however, we are typically notified of a transaction once it is firm and binding (after removal of all subject clauses) as the realtor who represented you will typically ask for the name of your lawyer.

WHAT HAPPENS ONCE MY SUBJECTS ARE REMOVED?


Once your transaction is firm and binding and we receive notification of your upcoming transaction, we ask that you complete an online property sale intake form if you have not already done so as this document sets out the main information that we require to get started. From that point, the burden of work is shifted from you and your Realtor and rests with us and we guide you on what, if anything we require and we also set your signing appointment to review the closing docuemtns and figures you are to receive once the sale completes. We liaise with the purchaser’s representative and other parties involved with the file. You will have an appointment with us usually within a few days prior to completion to sign documents and review closing financial statements. The exchange of title for funds takes place on the completion date and you provide keys through your Realtor by noon of the possession date unless the contract says otherwise. Full reporting follows by mail or email, whichever is preferred by you. We are at all times throughout the process and thereafter available to field your questions or confirm the status of your file.

AS VENDOR, WHAT ARE THE TYPICAL COSTS TO ANTICIPATE FROM THE CONVEYANCING PROCESS?

In a sale closing, the client pays both transaction costs and “adjustments”. “Adjustments” are debits and credits between the parties for costs of ownership such as property tax, condo fees, etc. and are accounted for in closing statements. Transaction costs, however, are the out-of-pocket costs incurred in the sale itself such as legal fees, taxes and disbursements.

If i sell before my mortgage is up, iS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO TO REDUCE MY PENALTY?


For closed mortgages, lenders are often entitled to charge a penalty for early repayment. Such a penalty is usually the GREATER of either three months’ interest or the interest rate differential to end of term (“IRD”). When rates are low, IRD penalties can be quite onerous and their calculation not entirely transparent to the borrower.


Aside from negotiating your own terms with your banker, the most significant thing you can do to mitigate such a penalty is to exercise any prepayment privileges available to you under your mortgage. By reducing the outstanding principal, you reduce the penalty by approximately the same percentage. In the event you do not have sufficient funds available to you to make the prepayment, be sure to ask us how we can help.

WHEN CAN I EXPECT TO RECEIVE MY SALE PROCEEDS?

It is on the completion date that the purchaser, through their legal representative, is obligated to “make available” to the vendor the sale proceeds. As your representative, we then send for the funds, usually by courier, and deposit same to our trust account before paying out as previously authorized by you. Whether we can provide you with funds on the same day or early the next business day is dependent upon the time of day we were able to send for the funds and the lender we may be paying out.

Since the purchaser is not contractually obligated to a particular time of day and is often relying upon the funding of a mortgage, it is best to gear for a next day payout. As part of our service to you, however, we will upon request deposit your proceeds to your account at a local branch of your bank.