Attorney fees

anywhere b/w 1800 - 2500 is fine. think i paid 2200 on my last one.

I elected to hire an attorney from a major large firm specializing in real estate to represent me in a coop purchase. He is a life-long friend, but charged me his usual fee (at my insistence). It was $2500 which I consider to be at the upper most end of acceptable unless the purchase involves unusual circumstances that demand more attorney time than usual.

For such a major purchase, I'd avoid someone who only dabbles in the area of NYC coops. You want someone who has done so many coop deals/closings that the slightest out-of -the-ordinary thing will stand out to him/her. Lawyers are not used for when all goes right. They are like insurance policies to protect you from all that can go wrong. Don't hire your friend's cousin Dan who graduated from law school last yearand is doing "a little of this and a little of that" until a law firm job comes through.

Based on my experience, the lawyers don't actually do the work. The assistance/paralegal do most of the work.

kylewest, I completely agree. An attorney who knows co-ops is key if that's what you are buying/selling. And I think the range of $1800 to $2500 is fine...I paid $2500 as a seller and we went to contract (or at least tried to) 3 times!

Hofo: I strongly disagree with the point of view you seem to take. It is like saying the front office receptionist seems to do most of the work on your insurance policies.

When it comes to the most important part of the purchase of a coop, the lawyer is doing the work unless you've hired some hack. Stapling, running various searches...I couldn't care less who does that. It is interpreting the results that matters. Only a lawyer can read a contract of sale and tell you if anything is unusual. Only the attorney can tell you what is common, what you can likely negotiate, what is never negotiated, where the risks lie in your particular deal. Reading the board minutes is not always straight forward. They are written tersely and reading between the lines and knowing what questions to follow up with is key.

All you need do to see the value of a skilled attorney well-worth the $2500 s/he may cost is to search the threads on here. I have little pity for the buyers who post asking whom they can sue to undo deals, get out of contracts, recover for various things that a decent attorney well-versed in NYC coops sales could have easily uncovered and addressed.

You want to hire the guy who handled your neighbors DWI and whose last RE deal was a condo on Long Island 3 years ago--good luck.

kylewest, amen.

does the 1500-2500 include all charges? e.g. accountant/engineer etc

I find that unless the buyer reads all the details, attorneys are relatively useless. I have closed more than 6 deals and every time I used a different law firm priced from $1500 to $2500. All were guys specialized exclusively with RE transactions. In all of the closing and contract negotiations I had to intervene and dictate specific due diligence issues. If it is not your first transaction compare cost and or negotiate an all exclusive flat fee. Attorneys like everyone else are extremely hungry at present time.

kylewest...completely agree

I've used a small handful of lawyers for hundreds of my own closings over the years. My first one is always my go to gal, but if for some reason she isn't into it (too busy, conflict, whatever), I have a first back-up who i like, after that it's been few and far between. i would say number one has gotten 90 to 95% of my business over the past 20 years. But she doesn't litigate, so I have separate litigation counsel, L&T counsel (almost a new one every time - they all suck), etc. But I'm used to spending 6 figures annually on legal bills.

Do what you want, but a good lawyer should be doing his/her job thoroughly, and that job is enhanced by an active, engaged client who participates. Client suggestions for due diligence beyond standard stuff are fine. Lawyers aren't magic. Some collaboration with a person you hire to serve you is wise. Throwing a deal at a lawyer and saying "just make it happen" is pretty naive.

And no: attorney fees do not include accountants and engineers any more than your plumber's bill pays for your cable TV.

My lawyer is trying to charge me over 10K for a transation that did not close yet. It has been a complicated deal with negociation of the contract and trying to get info that the sponsor did not disclose but i think this amount of money is just ridiculous. Anyone payed that much? He told me he charged by the hour but agree to come close to customary cost so i was very surprise when he comes up with this amount of money.

All i can add is that i agree with the others that $2500 is about the upper end of the range. The lawyer i am using is $2500 but he had wanted $3000 at first. The few others i had inquired also wanted $2500.

The only time he told me i would switch to hourly was if the deal fell through.

i would never have agreed to hire someone who wanted to charge me by the hour for these deals. assuming you went to someone who specializes in real estate law, they pretty much know what to look for, etc, and do not normally spend a great deal of time on this.

My deal got a bit backwards because of what i had negotiated for. my lawyer was a bit upset also because the sponsor was keeping their attorney time down and we were dealing with the sales office on some of the contract items.

But $10k, sounds like your lawyer is saying he spent 30 hours or more on it, assuming $300 an hour which i am not sure what the hourly rate would be.

last question though is did you actually use a real estate lawyer or some guy who really specializes in something else?