Buying a home? Get a lawyer!

Honestly, I didn't really understand why Amanda K. at work was so adamant about getting your own lawyer for real estate transactions. The bank brings a lawyer at closing, so why get your own? 

Now we know. 

We hired Philip Eliopoulos at my stepmom's encouraging. If you ask Chris, we hired him because he's Greek. However, he's a real estate lawyer who does a lot of work with foreclosures and bank-owned properties. His expertise has been so important in this process! For example, here's what happened today...

So yes, we have no occupancy permit - aka we can't occupy the premises until XYZ work is done if we buy it. We offered to pay to get the necessary inspections from the city in order t

o get the permit, and then have the ability to back out of the deal if we didn't like the results. What our AWESOME LAWYER was able to do was to get the BANK to pay for and schedule the inspections for the permit to occupy. So, if the bank doesn't get the permit by July 3rd, we get our money back and the deal is off. BUT, if the city is happy enough with the state of the property to let us live there while we rehab it, and gives the bank the certificate to occupy, we are good to go! And if the city is not happy with it, and refuses the permit, we ge

t our money back and start from square one. Best case scenario so far today after a long day of stress!

Moral of the story is: Planning to sign the P&S tonight. Stay tuned for whether or not we're allowed to occupy it...

This is a great resolution to a whole day of horribleness! Hopefully we can fit in some REAL vacation this week.