If you are a homeowner, may I ask you a question?

[Stinky The Clown]

When you settled on your house, did you read every word on every page of every document you signed?

And did you fully understand what all those words actually meant?

And if you didn't understand what all those words meant, did you ask and ask again until you did?

And were you represented by a lawyer that you paid for so you were confident she was your advocate and yours alone?

[Poiuyt]

1. I had a lawyer looking out for me when I've bought and sold my houses

[1]

2. yes, every word. and no, no laywer...

[Kittycat]

3. Yes to all... and yes to a lawyer.

But I thought I would add, we aren't first time home buyers. I think knowing what to expect at closing, and in selecting a bank/broker is a big part of the transaction process, and could be very confusing for a first time home buyer.

[Ms. Toad]

4. Yes to all but the last.

I don't sign anything without reading and understanding it - including all those annoying click to agree software licenses.

[Stellabella]

5. Of course not.

No lawyer, didn't read every word.

Read Dave Barry for an excellent example of the kind of conversation common in mortgage closings.

"And this is the digestive tract of a badger."

"Oh, okay, where do I sign?"

[SidDithers]

6. No, I didn't read every word of the contract...

I paid a lawyer to do that. And yes, I was confident that the lawyer was representing my wife and I, and nobody else.


Sid

[WeDidIt]

7. Yes to all, family member is a lawyer who covered it for me.

[Orrex]

8. Short answer: Of course not

When we contracted with our realtor, she spoke as if she would represent us in all matters related to the search for, bid for, and purchase of the new home. We were given to believe that she would advocate for our interests from start to finish.

However, once Closing Day arrived, she sat at the far end of the table with her mouth shut, studying her gaudy turquoise jewelry. All the while, a very stern lawyer representing my realtor's company (more specifically, the mortgage arm of her company) sat beside me and handed me document after document, each thick with legalese and provisos unintelligible to the average human being in real time.

At this point it's clear that we made a mistake in believing that our realtor represented anything but her company's (and her own) interests, but during our dealings with her she made no effort to make this apparent.


Why do you ask?

[ret5hd]

9. because...

it was their own damned fault! can't you see that?

(not my opinion at all)

[Orrex]

30. LOL! I see what you mean!

Yeah, I love that meme: everyone who isn't a lawyer, or can't afford one, deserves whatever they get.


:rofl:

[SharonAnn]

13. Unless you had a signed "Buyer's Agent" agreement, she/he was representing the seller.

That's been one of the best kept secrets. Both the realtors involved (buyer and seller) are actually the seller's representative and are paid by the seller.

To have the real estate agent actually represent you, not the seller, you must have a Buyer's Agent agreement in writing with him/her.

[Orrex]

15. We did sign that, in fact. The seller had their own agent.

I could probably dig up that actual document, but I specifically recall signing it. The first day that we met with her, we signed a one-day agreement so we could sort of try her out. The next day we signed the longer term buyer's agent agreement.


And I lied about her sitting there with her mouth shut: she also blabbed on and on about the Caribbean cruise she was taking in two weeks.

[susanna]

21. A note of interest...

During the height of the real estate boom, most real estate "seller's agents" would not be all that helpful if you actually had a "buyer's agent." We found that out the hard way. We were looking to purchase a new home and did have a buyer's agent. Most selling agents were very unexcited about that. Why? Because, in Michigan at least, the commission is then split between the two agents.

Buyer's agents are a good thing in markets that respect them, but where we are, and at the time we were looking? They were a death knell. No one wanted to deal with the extra person. Really frustrating.

[DeepBlueC]

22. doesn't your realtor benefit if the seller gets a higher price from you?

I think that says enough about a realtor's interest.

[Orrex]

31. Funny how that works, isn't it?

When we started house-shopping, we gave a specific and unbreachable price range, based on our income and expenses. The first four houses our realtor showed us exceeded our maximum price by about 15%.

[unapatriciated]

70. The same for us...

I actually went on line and found home's in our price range that we wanted to look at, but they won't show them to you without your Realtor if you have a signed buyers agreement.
She was more interested in getting us in what she called the maximum for what we qualified for, not with what meet our needs or what we were comfortable with in regards to a mortgage.

[Orrex]

73. Let me tell you about another surprise

After my wife found the house and our realtor deigned to show it to us, we prepared to put in our bid.

The realtor called the mortgage department of her company and put me on the line. I'm going to use artificial numbers here so as not to disclose actual values:

US: We're bidding $100,000 and we'd like to put down 10%.

MORTGAGE: 10% on $100,000? Okay, that'll be $26,000.


WTF? Okay, granted there are closing costs and all of that, but when dealing with first-time homebuyers, as my wife and I clearly were, you'd think that the company would want to be a little clearer about the numbers before they even start pushing you for a bid price. If our realtor had said outright "Figure out the percentage of your bid, then double it, and then add another 60%," we'd have had a much better idea of what our eligible price range really was.


The whole thing is an exercise in intimidating the inexperienced. We wound up getting very lucky overall, but this all sounds like a perfect example of a market "policing" itself. :puke:

[ellenfl]

37. the realtor who represents the seller tries to get the

highest sale price he/she can for the seller which of course, gives him/her the highest commission. the realtor for the buyer will share the commission with the seller's realtor. many realtors take good care of their clients but their responsibilities do not include reviewing your documents and giving you legal advice. realtors bring sellers and buyers together. that's all. realtors are sales people. some actually know what documents are involved in a closing. others haven't a clue.

before i became a real estate paralegal, i worked in lending. the average person trusts their lender not to screw them. there is no time at the closing to read the documents they are expected to sign, and they could be, but are not, given any of the documents beforehand so they can review them before closing. as the closing agent, we often get the loan documents the day of closing so there is little time us to review them, let alone for the borrower to review. that said, there are few things you need to look out for (prepayment penalty, rate structure, etc.) and the rest of the documents are really boilerplate. ask your lender for a copy of the documents beforehand and let the closer know that you have asked. don't wait until the closing table to ask to read every document. alternatively, let a real estate lawyer do it for you.

having been in the business, i can tell you it is not hard for the ordinary, less loan-sophisticated person to be taken by a lender . . . or, more often, by a mortgage broker. if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

caveat emptor.

ellen fl

[Orrex]

42. Good advice from start to finish

As it turns out, we did pretty well with our mortgage.

I wouldn't even be so bitter about our disinterested realtor if she'd ever made us feel like valuable clients, rather than a charity case. She never missed a chance to tell use that she usually worked in much more expensive markets than we were shopping, but she wanted "to help out a young couple."

In the end, my wife found the house we wound up buying--within a stone's through of several the realtor had shown us, but somehow the realtor had missed it.

[Mind_your_head]

10. Do you read every word of the agreement you are asked to 'agree to'

everytime you sign on to some website?

NO????

That's the NEW Frontier. People sign their rights away on the internet even faster than in the 'real world' without even a second (or first) thought!

And what's with you and copper, anyway? ;-)

[Stinky The Clown]

19. I like to cook

It makes good pots

;)

[susanna]

23. Even heat conduction, correct? n/t

[Mind_your_head]

26. Fair enough

as long as "it's all good with Sparkly"....but that's none of my business.

Peace,
M_Y_H :-)

[Stinky The Clown]

29. Heh ... if it wasn't all good .....

.... she'd never post about it here! :)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x58438

[Mind_your_head]

33. Yeah, I read that.....great post!

I think that Sparkly must luv U or somethin' to put up with that addiction of yours!

:toast: to the "botha ya" :-)

[Warpy]

11. No, but I did scan every page looking for key things

like penalties for early repayment, something that would have had me walking to the door tout de suite, and provisions for doing anything at all to the interest rate over the life of the loan, same thing.

I didn't have enough money to pay a lawyer for anything but the title search. I did know some of the pitfalls to check out for and had they been there, I'd have closed my checkbook and walked. Lucky for me, the whole thing was routine. I expected the loan to be sold and was just surprised it was sold to a local S&L. I paid it early with no problems.

I was just lucky that I'd already scared the hell out of the mortgage company when they'd tried to sell me on an ARM, hard sell. It's always really nice to make people think you know more than you actually do. Had I bought my house later than 1996, I might have reconsidered the big down payment and paid for a lawyer. Things were starting to get pretty crooked by the time Stupid got into office.

[PSPS]

12. Yes, I did read the papers I signed.

Also, I bought within my means, provided tax returns to prove my income, and made a 20% down payment in non-borrowed cash that I spent years saving. Up until that time, I rented.

And, if I couldn't have afforded to buy a house, I would have continued to rent. I wouldn't have ever considered taking out a NINJA option-ARM loan with "payment options" that included a negative-amortization payment, thinking that I could either refinance with another NINJA before recast or "flip" the house. Furthermore, if I were in such a situation, I wouldn't be screaming "the bank tricked me" and expect the taxpayers or anyone else to buy my house for me.

[emilyg]

14. I waited years and years to be able to afford a house.

Yes I read every page and had a lawyer.
I like the way you think.

[Venceremos]

16. We had a lawyer read it

We paid him $175 an hour to read the contract and make sure everything was okay. He had an excellent reputation and we asked him repeatedly if there was anything wrong with the contract. He said no. Then two weeks after we closed we found out that our neighbor had an easement on our property.

The neighbor owned several acres of land behind the house. He sold the house (but not the acreage) to the guy we bought the house from, and the easement was a stipulation of that sale that also appeared in confusing language in the fine print of our contract. The neighbor had the easement so he could build an access road to the acreage, and it would've allowed him to build the road 10 feet from our house.

Our lawyer didn't say one word about it before we closed on the house. Then after we found out about it he refused to return our phone calls.

The neighbor refused to abandon the easement unless we bought the acreage. So I borrowed the money from my mom and bought the acreage - it was the only way out of the easement.

After that I became a paralegal and now I read every word of every document that I sign. But I still have a great deal of sympathy and understanding for anybody who gets screwed over by a real estate lawyer or mortgage company.

[ellenfl]

35. reading and advising you on the contract has nothing

to do with the title search for liens, easements and other encumbrances on the property. did he review the rest of the transaction or just the contract? not knowing where you live, i am assuming you were issued title insurance on the transaction. you definitely should have had an attorney review that, if you were unfamiliar with it.

in florida (and most likely most other states, as well), an attorney is an agent for the title insurer and, as such, is paid from the title insurance premium. my attorneys charge a minimum amount to conduct a closing for seller or review docs for the buyer, whichever hires them. our fees are usually less than a title company or other local attorneys charge. it pays to get a real estate attorney to represent you on a big purchase like a house.

ellen fl

[Lost in CT]

41. Man that sucks... I posted below that of course you have a Lawyer

but as I have found in life nothing is fullproof.

[susanna]

17. I read everything.

I suppose I could have missed something. We did have our lawyer with us, paid for by us. I will say that he read really quickly and offered no objections. The few things I questioned he explained and I remember being comfortable with his guidance. I have to assume (after all these years) it was boilerplate. It was not an ARM, it was a standard mortgage back in...oh...1994 maybe? Before the sub-prime loans really heated up.

We paid the home off early and received title almost a year ago. I guess we did okay. Was I crazy frantic thinking I missed something in the fine print? Oh, yeah. Oh yeah I was. Big time. I really don't like closings. They scare me.

Funny part about our experience: we had no trouble with the original mortgage, but when we refinanced (without a lawyer), the bank missed a tax payment. We refinanced right as taxes were due, I guess...bad timing. We figured it out within a few months (there was way too much money in escrow) and fixed it, but that could have really bit us on the butt. The bank was like, "Whoops. Sorry!" They didn't offer to pay the fines, though. Of course I could not have foreseen that from the paperwork we read; the bank was the responsible party for the taxes and that was detailed in the documents. So we had nothing to do with it, but everything to lose! We trusted that the bank would do what was necessary. After that terrible experience, we pulled the tax payments from the bank and did them ourselves, in person. Really scary stuff.

I guess the upshot is live and learn, but I still remember hearing about people buying with those ARMs and believing what the banks told them. Scared me silly. I realize now I saw something on the horizon that has, in fact, come to pass. :-(

[1]

18. can i ask the reason for this question? do you have anything specific in mind?

[1]

40. oh, ok... i get it. stinky is just doing a "drive by" in his effort to get to 30,000 posts....

i have seen enough if these.

i get it...

[cliffordu]

20. Not when we bought. My mistake.... When we got to closing the fucking realtor

added a quarter of a point to the interest rate - which, over 30 years added the value of the house to the transaction, if I figured it correctly.

When I sold, I did it myself, had an attorney complete all the paperwork, there were no surprises and I didn't have to pay a scumbag 6 percent to screw me.

[Tennessee Gal]

64. The realtor cannot add anything to the interest rate because they are not lenders..

The mortgage company or the bank can. Realtors are not responsible for what your lender does.

[cliffordu]

72. The realtor's BROTHER was the lender....

He was there, too.

[primavera]

24. No, but you probably should

I've gone through two closings and, on both occasions, the closing attorney didn't receive the documents from the mortgage company until the morning of the closing, so there was no opportunity to review the documents with an attorney prior to the actual closing. Once you're in the closing, there's a great deal to sign and very little time in which to read it and, even if you do manage to read it, will you know what all of the legalistic terms mean when you see them? A perfect example is the term "marketable title," which many mortgage companies and closing attorneys have adopted into their standard forms. The problem is that "marketable title" doesn't mean anything. If you look in the fine print for a definition, it will tell you that marketable title is a title which a reasonable person would consider to have value. What value? The value of the property or the value of a six pack of Coors Lite? It doesn't say. By this nonexistent definition, "marketable title" could include a life estate, a future interest, a partial interest, a deed with encumbrances, restrictive covenants, or equitable servitudes attached, or it could be the perfect title that you as the buyer want. "Marketable title" is therefore a bogus term that means precisely squat, yet you're signing off on these forms agreeing to pay X hundreds of thousands of dollars for it. Does it happen often that you get shafted in this way? No, litigation is a rarity in these transactions, but it's always a remote possibility that you'll be the unlucky sap who gets hosed.

An important thing to bear in mind is that the closing attorney whom you're paying does not represent you. Closing attorneys collect a couple of hundred bucks from the buyer to cover administrative costs like photocopying and express mail and filing fees and such, but they are paid a very great deal more in commissions from the mortgage and insurance companies. The corporate entities at the closing will have in-house counsel who draft the standardized forms you will be signing, so you know their interests are being thoroughly protected. The closing attorney's duty to his real clients is therefore to push the deal through, not to protect your interests. It is therefore in the best interests of the closing attorney and his corporate clients if you just blithely go along and sign everything quickly without bothering to read any of it. That is why the system is set up so that you will not receive the documents to review in advance with an attorney of your own. And, if you decline to sign at the closing on the grounds that you want your attorney to review them before you sign, you can be sued for breaching the sales contact by failing to close on the date stipulated.

For all of these reasons, if you want to be extra cautious about watching your ass - which, again, you probably should be because you can be quite certain that no one else is - then you should take pains to obtain copies of as much as is humanly possibly prior to the closing, and make sure you understand what it all says before you go into your closing. And, yeah, you'll probably need an attorney to help you understand what it all means, because property law is incredibly cryptic and arcane and totally filled with anachronistic terms and legalistic mumbo jumbo which even attorneys have an extremely hard time following. Or, you can trust to luck, sign where you're told and, odds are, it'll probably be just fine... unless it isn't.

[AlCzervik]

25. no and yes and you should always have a home inspection even on a brand new

place, i don't give a shit what the builder says. Same thing on the real estate attorney, in Mass that's how you closed, when i lived in Texas that wasn't how they did it but that's we did, same thing in California.

[flvegan]

27. Answers:

When you settled on your house, did you read every word on every page of every document you signed?

Didn't have to. I'm a title professional and I'm well aware of the boilerplate. I did pay attention to certain areas to be sure nothing was "under the radar".

And did you fully understand what all those words actually meant?

Every single one.

And if you didn't understand what all those words meant, did you ask and ask again until you did?

Nope. But, anyone that didn't understand what they were doing should have legal representation.

And were you represented by a lawyer that you paid for so you were confident she was your advocate and yours alone?

No. But again, see the last response. There is no substitute for proper advisement when making a substantial investment.

[RB TexLa]

28. yes to all except having to pay my attorney

[NoSheep]

32. No. I screamed at my mortgage brokers to try to get clarity. They were elusive.

Now I understand why.

[Digit]

34. Yes, until the loan docs....

I as a Realtor, buying my own home, I knew the sales contract inside and out, but the loan docs even threw my settlement attorney.

She said at the settlement table she had never seen so many junk fees levied by a lender in her experience.
The offending lender was Greenpoint. Since I was self employed and doing a low doc loan, they nailed me to the wall.

I refinanced years ago and managed to get out from under their thumb.

[SheilaT]

36. The last time I bought a home was nearly nineteen years

ago. My now ex husband went to the closing -- I stayed behind in a different city -- and I doubt if he read every word. We paid off the house early, and so it's something of a non-issue at this point.

However, I am hoping to buy a home of my own sometime soon, and I fully intend to read every document I have to sign. I don't care if it holds up everything. Last year I was working for an attorney who was doing some foreclosures, and I wound up reading some of the loan documents the clients had signed, and it absolutely convinced me all over again that you NEVER sign anything without reading it through.

I taught my sons that, and I've been with my older son when he was buying a car, paying cash, and he read everything he was signing. He's not the world's fastest reader, and so it took some time, but I was proud of him.

Some years back I needed to have some serious trust work drawn up, and I not only read everything carefully, but anything I did not understand I asked the attorney about, and in some cases the language was changed.

Unfortunately, the standard operating procedure is just to sign, being reassured by those who do not have our best interests at heart, that everything is okay. Hah! NEVER EVER sign anything without reading it through and making sure you understand. Don't feel bad if you need something explained. Make them reword it in simpler language. You are not stupid, but you are not a lawyer.

[Mind_your_head]

38. They're gonna tell you what you want to hear and you're under pressure

to 'seem smart' and you're gonna go, "okay".

No offense meant, that's just how it is.

[SheilaT]

51. On one hand you are absolutely right.

On the other, if you don't yourself read every single word and make sure you understand it all, then you might well be screwed. Alas, too many of us succumb to the pressure of appearing okay and normal, and sometimes it can be a big mistake.

In less important areas, all of my life I've been amazed at people who honestly did not understand what they'd signed for or contracted to do, and suddenly were in deep doo-doo.

Read everything. For those of you reading this now, who didn't read everything in the past, that's the past. From now on, READ EVERYTHING. Do not sign anything you do not understand completely.

Call up the picture of me and my 21 year old son, sitting patiently in the car dealer's office, while said son reads through everything, taking at least forty-five minutes to do so. It's okay if you have to go to another room to finish reading while they work with a customer who signs without reading.

Similarly, I've been going to college on and off my entire adult life. All too often I hear students complain about not knowing about some requirement for graduation that to them, came up unexpectedly. Had they only read the catalog, this could have been avoided. I'm trying to get the same son mentioned above to file to graduate, even though he has at least two semesters to go, because that way the school will let him know exactly what he needs to do to graduate. Just in case he's overlooked some silly little requirement, like P.E. maybe, or some social sciences or art class he still needs to take.

We are all trained to be nice, not to make waves. That's why we'll sign things without reading, assume we've met the graduation requirements, and so on.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO MAKE WAVES.

[ellenfl]

47. you really only need to read the note, which is the actual contract.

plus any riders to the note. the note usually does not have riders but if it does, they are important and should be read thoroughly. promissory notes and riders are fairly short documents. none of the other documents are the contract to repay the loan. i would also read the truth-in-lending disclosure and i would skim the mortgage and riders, looking for anything that jumps out. often the prepayment penalty is spelled out in the rider. none of the other documents bind you to repay the debt.

most reputable lenders will not get creative with their loan documents. one thing you can look for is the creator of the document. most residential mortgage forms are fnma (aka fannie mae) forms. this mortgage has no surprises and is probably the most widely used form. any creativity with a fnma mortgage will probably be in the rider and easy to spot.

one more time . . . get an attorney. if you are not paying for representation, you are probably not getting it. also, title companies are not attorneys although some title companies are owned by attorneys. make sure you know if an attorney is involved and who he/she represents.

ellen fl

[Lost in CT]

39. No,No.no and of course I had a lawyer.

The lawyers job was the first three...

Honestly I am always surprised people would sign mortgage docs without a real estate laywer...

Oh and BTW if you can afford the $500 a lawyer costs you have no business buying a house.

[Mind_your_head]

43. You trust your real estate lawyer because????

I'm serious, why do you feel you can trust your real estate lawyer? Because you are paying them $250-$500 or so to "do" your transaction?

[Lost in CT]

44. Well you get a referral from your other laywer and hope for the best.

Lawyers are like condoms... If your going to get fucked your better off having one around.

[U4ikLefty]

45. n/t

[Mind_your_head]

46. n/t

two can play at that, eh?

[U4ikLefty]

48. sorry posted in the wrong thread...duh

[Mind_your_head]

49. Yeah, me too!

:eyes:

[barb162]

50. Yes, a real estate lawyer was used, not a generalist

so I had really high confidence in him.

It's been over ten years, but I seem to remember reading everything, at least quickly. I had no problem with words, etc., as I had a copy of the contract and read it a few times. Also I did a lot of deals with real estate before that, so nothing was new to me.

[Liberal_in_LA]

52. Tried to read every word. Concentrated making sure the financial terms were correct

[Lorien]

53. No, I had a buyer's agent with me who I trusted

she read every word and explained all the documents to me before I signed. I only read a few of them fully myself.

[Maru Kitteh]

54. Yes. No. Yes. No.

I did make notes on the document (in standard English instead of legal English) and had the bank agent initial all of them.

[MadHound]

55. Well d'uh, of course I did

Took the paperwork home with me, read through it, actually understood it, but had lawyer check it out just to make sure.

I wish more people had done this same thing, just to know what they were getting into.

[SmileyRose]

56. Yes to all.

Spending 30 years under that contract scared the crap out of me. I took it very very slow. I took my own hired lawyer to closing. The closing attorney about had a meltdown. Too bad, so sad, wanna close this deal or not?

And don't even get me started on what I did with home inspections (yes plural)

[distantearlywarning]

57. Yes, yes, yes, and no.

We specifically asked for our documents ahead of time so we could read them in detail before we got to closing. From the way the mortgage people acted about that request, you'd think we had asked for the moon! :shrug: Apparently we were basically the first people *ever* who insisted on reading the documents in detail that way. Which I totally don't get - how could one not read the paperwork for the biggest loan of one's life????

We also had a very slow closing because we made sure that every page that we were signing looked exactly like the ones they had given us prior to the closing date. It annoyed everyone at the table, but that was a small price to pay to make sure we weren't being scammed, that there were no mistakes, etc. I had heard too many horror stories on the web about people signing papers detailing terms that were not discussed verbally and so forth.

The language was a little difficult, but I'm accustomed to reading very dry scientific academic papers, so it wasn't too bad. Hubby had a little more difficulty, but he's a smart cookie and got through it. And that's why we took the documents a few days in advance anyway, so we would have time to figure out the parts we didn't understand.

We didn't have a lawyer, but we had a buyer's agent whose sole interest was our interest (i.e., not working for or affiliated with the seller in any way). We were very happy with her representation, felt that she treated us fairly and worked in our interest, and will hire her again when it comes time to "upgrade" after I get out of school.

We ended up with exactly the mortgage we thought we were getting (no ARMs, a decent interest rate), and we are not overmortgaged in terms of our income. But we also did research about that last part ourselves before we even talked to a realtor - that's something a potential home owner should be responsible for themselves. You should know how much you can afford and fuck what the mortgage company says. If you can't put together a budget and figure that out, you shouldn't be buying a home. Just my opinion.

But even with all of that, both hubby and I *still* feel like we were taken advantage of by the mortgage company a bit in terms of all the fees we had to pay during the process. We didn't understand some of them, and were never able to get all our questions answered about them to our satisfaction - to this day! There was a lot of pressure at the time, and we had the distinct sense that making one misstep would result in us not getting the house. These people are certainly tricky and I can definitely see how less experienced/more naive/less educated people could get taken advantage of somewhere during the process. We were first-time buyers and scared and inexperienced and doing the best we could with the resources we had available to us...next time we'll even be more aggressive with the mortgage people and not be so nervous about fucking up the process. :-)

[TheCentepedeShoes]

58. Mr 'pede handled it

He was a RE broker in FL, although he did commercial only.
For the sale of the Tampa condo I gave him limited POA to handle the closing as I had a walk-through at the new place in Tally and had to be on the road. He knows what to look for.

[Vinca]

59. I have to admit that I, personally, never read every bit of the forms.

Mainly because we've dealt with the same small bank for decades and know they wouldn't screw us over and because we hired a trustworthy and intelligent attorney. That said, I have to flog myself because I should read every word.

[eridani]

60. We bought our house from hubby's mom

No real estate people or lawyers were involved. She got a steady income for 15 years, and we eventually got the house.

[ellie]

61. Yes, yes, yes, and yes

I also shopped around for a fixed rate mortgage. I don't consider myself particularly financially savvy, but I was concerned about interest rates rising after I was offered an ARM and I really took a minute to think about it. I resisted a high-pressure sale on that ARM too and went elsewhere. In fact, I was insulted that the mortgage broker thought I was stupid enough to fall for it, especially after I asked him about it.

[donco6]

62. Nope. Just the main ideas. n/t

[Tesha]

63. Yes.

Considering our current home (bought ten years ago), yes, we read
essentially all of the relevant documents. So did our lawyer. And for
years, we have had high confidence in this attorney to both be highly
competent and fair and honest to *ALL* parties.

Tesha

[Maine-ah]

My lawyer was a next door neighbor

to my Mom for over 20 years. I've known him a very long time. Very trusted with me, and also with in our community. He explained everything to us, and we had no problems. First time home buyer. This was back in 2001.

[ejpoeta]

65. even if you read every word on every page, legal documents can be

drafted as such that you can't really understand them. did we read the documents... i don't know. my husband and his brother bought this house. and i don't think bob understood the fact that we were paying almost nothing on the principal. we found that out when after the fire we tried to pay it off and they told us we still owed 41,000 on the property.... after how many years. we were dumb. oh well. they didn't end up getting that much. they got the 25k structure money plus 9k.... and they had to pay their lawyer.

if you do sign the contract, you are saying that you understand the terms of the contract, though. so you are beholden to the terms of the contract even if they are stupid. you signed it.

[littlebit]

66. Yes we read every word.

And yes we had a lawyer with us to explain everything. I'm cheap so I wasn't about to spend that much money without knowing what I was getting into.

[tangent90]

67. Yes to all 4.

I suppose I thought everyone did.

[livetohike]

68. Yes to all the questions and in PA the lawyers do the closing

We didn't have a lawyer here in PA when we bought in 2007, but used one our realtor suggested.

[JerseygirlCT]

69. No, but we had a RE lawyer to do that. nt

[Hangingon]

71. Yes to all except lawyer.

[acmavm]

74. Yep, had a lawyer. He turned out to be a crook and tried to take us for

thousands and when he was murdered we had to go in for questioning. But since he'd ripped off a shitload of people before us and was in the process of some shady deals, they could never figure out who really shot him in the parking lot of his office. But they figured out that he was up to something rotten at the time.

Luckily I was taking a final for my paralegal degree.