RE attorney fees

manhattan is generally 2200 each contract/closing.

There is a nice long thread in the "Daniel series" about this. You can get anywhere from a range of $750 for a basic no frills to $3000. If you are buying a house it is a simple transaction so I think you'd be fine in lower end.

How much is the house?

How are you taking title?

How does title look?

Standard purchase (i.e. no escrow)?

2k-2500 or so in manhattan is standard these days..

Consigliere- its a $700k house. I think the title should be fine and its a standard purchase.

Nassau or Suffolk? If it's Nassau I'd recommend Greg Lisi; he never did a closing for me but he did some other work, and I like him.

I haven't done a transaction out there in a few years, but $2500 sounds about right to me.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Ottawanyc: "in the Daniel series..."
lol.

@5thGenNYer

Any survey issues? Anything needs to be escrowed (open permits etc.)?

Is there a bank/loan?

The cost of the house should have nothing to do with the attorney fee - its the actual work and time spent that matters - there can be an expensive transaction with minimal work, and vice versa - a lawyer shouldn't charge more simply because its a high end deal. If its a straight-up transaction with no issues, then the numbers above are most definitely in the ballpark, give or take. Always be leary of a flat rate though because there are times when the lawyer does less work than the actual falt rate, so then he/she gets a windfall, and then there are times where there are problems/issues/etc. and the lawyer has to spend much more time than the flat rate he/she promised, then the lawyer may not be as attentive because its dimishing returns for him/her.

jnnj, I know the cost has nothing to do with it but that is how a lot of attorney's beef up charges.

That is some truth, I don't agree with it or condone it. $2,000,000 purchase, oh shit $3,000.00 in legal. They can get away with it because the fee seems insignificant in the transaction. Also remember piece of mind

I asked a ton of questions in this thread to give the guy a clue.

Contract + Read Title (Clean) + Read Survey + Bank Attorney (if applicable) + No C of O/Permit Issues + No Escrow + Closing + Closing Statement = $2,000.00 - $ 2,500.00

My bad

Attorneys*

Peace of Mind*

Brokers make a lot more money if the price is higher and they aren't doing anything different? Why shouldn't an attorney charge a little more for a 3 million dollar apartment versus a 300K apartment?

Well lawyers can charge whatever they want, it's buyer who decides whether to pay. But lawyers usually charge hourly. One of the reasons I think they go flat for RE is that they never work anywhere near the hours that would justify the total. Total scam in my view. Most of these lawyers are not billing out at $500 an hour. How long does it take to do all of that, and how much of it would be assigned to a paralegal or secretary?

Not a total scam by any means - there are a lot of factors involved which influence billing/costs - like any profession, there are a few bad apples, but for the most part, lawyers are not charging a flat fee to scam clients. It just doesn't work that way.

To the OP,

$1,000.00 - $1,500.00 is extremely low for a residential purchase in Long Island.

Even if there is no contract problems (negotiations), no bank, no title issues, no survey problems, no escrow and a smooth closing. It's hard to do everything properly in less than 10 hours of work on a transaction from contract to closing.

Just cause selling a home is a routine transaction, doesn't mean it doesn't require proper due diligence and work.

It is very difficult to guess attorney fees without the facts (the work).

Also, just because an attorney charges $250.00/hour versus one that charges $475.00/hour doesn't mean much. It could take the 250.00 guy 25 hours to do all the work, it could take the 475.00 guy 8 hours. Neither guarantees anything, including a good job.

I don't know much about attorney fees, etc. but I paid $2,200 for my RE attorney and he was worth every penny. I want to say the deal was 'simple', but we did have a lot of back and forth negotiating about water damage to the unit and how it would be addressed in the sale.

who did u use nycmodern?