Why use an attorney?

Perhaps the real question you should be asking yourself is: “Why not?”

As an attorney practicing in the field of real estate for nearly 20 years, I have heard this question seemingly countless times. As professionals, it is hard to argue the point that it is in our best interest to refer our customers and clients who seek sound advice and guidance in matters extremely important to them to professionals who have the skills to successfully handle the matters at issue for them in a fashion that is in their best interest. To be sure, when dealing with the sale and purchase of real estate, particularly when the sale is a distress sale that may involve a foreclosure action, short sale, loan modification, deed in lieu, deficiency judgment, cancellation of income, bankruptcy, and/or other serious matters, wouldn’t it make sense to have a professional who has a duty of loyalty, a fiduciary duty and a duty of confidentiality TO YOU on your side? It is very important to understand that under Florida law, by default, realtors have no fiduciary duty or duty of loyalty to their customers. This is not at all to say that realtors do not perform a very important role in the sale and purchase process. Lawyers do not usually act as realtors. Realtors and lawyers each perform different but very important roles in the process. It should be known, however, that lawyers do have a fiduciary duty, a duty of loyalty and a duty of confidentiality to EVERY one of their clients.

When we are dealing with what may very well be our client’s largest asset and their financial future is hanging in the balance, I can’t think of any area more important to them that is not health related (and by the way, I have counseled many clients that have visibly been affected by the stress of their financial distress). Thus, when people are facing a challenging decision regarding a short sale, foreclosure, bankruptcy, loan modification, or other option having a far reaching and potentially financially and mentally devastating nature that is critically importanct to  their lives both now and in the future, they should seriously consider hiring a lawyer.

Furthermore, it is very important to make sure the attorney-client relationship is established. There are many lawyers who in my opinion perform a disservice to the community by handling matters such as short sales where they attempt to avoid the attorney-client relationship with the seller who is exposed to the most risk in such a transaction. I will refer to these types of relationships discussed in this paragraph as “pseudo attorney-client relationships.” They offer to handle short sales without charging a fee. They do so to get realtors, who remember have no duty of loyalty or fiduciary duty to their customers, to refer the business to them. The lawyers’ who handle these matters duty of loyalty not only does not flow to the seller, but rather as a practical result, it flows to the realtor to maintaining the referral relationship.  The unfortunate result is that the seller thinks they have representation and a lawyer who has a fiduciary duty, a duty of loyalty, and a duty of confidentiality to them when, in fact, they do not.

P.S.  I am reaching out on this website because I have seen far too many people that have been either solicited by or steered to non-attorneys or the pseudo attorney-client relationship referred to above to handle their matter of the utmost importance and have been severely harmed as a result. I can honestly say that none of my clients have ever been harmed by my representation – in fact, quite the opposite. The value of good representation is obvious. Unfortunately, many prospective clients come to me after it is far too late for me to be effective. For example, their progress has been held up by an opportunistic investor so long that they are now facing imminent foreclosure. It is a personal goal of mine to personaly counsel and advice as many clients facing difficult challenges as possible. For those of you who do not realize the value of attorneys, so be it. For those of you who do, let’s help those that will benefit from our combined advice.