Doing real estate sales or purchase requires the assistance of a licensed attorney and you want to choose carefully who is going to represent you in your purchase.
Attorneys can be focused on a number of areas in law like, litigation where they represent clients in court related matters, corporate law is when attorneys focus on representing companies in their legal matters, maritime law involves nautical matters and the legal operations therein, but you’re looking for someone whose focus or attention is on real estate this attorney helps people buy and sell property. And while many attorneys may do a little of all of those mentioned above, a word of caution is; to avoid those focused primarily on litigation, which from my layman understanding, suggests that they spend a considerable amount of time handling court related matters. Let me disclaim this statement by saying that, this suggestion should be taken on a "case by case" basis and is not a blanket statement for the entire industry, but generally speaking, attorneys that place their focus in this niche are often busy and unavailable.
Your process here is similar to what you would have done in an earlier article about choosing an agent. A simple google search of "Bahamas Lawyer" is going to bring up a number of results for local firms take some time to review three to four websites and five to ten professionals on those sites. Read the bios determine who seems like a good fit for you and then send a similar email to them like this one below;
Sample Email to Attorney
Hi there I am looking to purchase property within the next ______ days/months and wanted to find out if you can represent me. I am comparison shopping and courting a few attorneys that predominantly work in real estate and whose firm may be able to offer competitive rates for mortgages and conveyancing services. I am currently looking to spend about ___________ on a property that I will be financing.
In this light I wanted to have you prepare a quote for us to determine which firm we will have represent us. We are looking for a long term relationship and so we’re hopeful we can find good representation. In addition can you let me know the following information;
Which area of law do you focus?
What makes your firm different?
Are you the best option at your firm for real estate law, if so why?
Send this email to all of the attorneys that you have selected in your search and again just like your real estate search, consider who responds first with the most compelling answers. After you have done this you are ready to make a deposit, let’s get some tips on doing this in the next article.