LS Properties

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What is the alternative to a traditional estate agency sale, and the FSBO concept? (FSBO For Sale By Owner, selling your property yourself, preferably under the guidance of your property lawyer). The Alternative is selling through your attorney as your realtor (Concept of Attorneys Selling Properties).

Attorneys can market and sell properties for their clients. Attorneys is exempt from the Property Practitioners Act (previously the Estate Agency Act) as the Legal Practice Council is the watchdog of attorneys and protector of the public in all matters dealt with by attorneys.

The real estate attorney-client relationship provides for a high degree of privacy and confidentiality, which does not exist in a real estate agent-client relationship.

A real estate attorney will be representing you and only you in the buying or selling of a house, and an attorney is not incentivised by increasing or decreasing the purchase price.

Furthermore, while it is typically advisable to hire an agent for the marketing and advertising portion of the sale of your property, it is the real estate attorney who will typically get involved during the transactional phase.

So if your real estate attorney can attend to the marketing and advertising of your property as well, is there really any need for a separate estate agent?

Thus a real estate attorney will give you the best and most unbiased representation possible.

Compensation

Real estate agents are usually paid by commission, which they will only receive if the transaction closes. If the transaction doesn’t close, they aren’t paid. This means agents are motivated to “seal the deal,” which on the surface may sound like a good thing. But that motivation may cause an agent to push for a closing that might not be in your best interest.

An attorney (specifically a real estate attorney), on the other hand, will be paid directly by you, and his or her fees will be made clear to you from the start. An attorney will be motivated by the fact that he or she is your representative, not because of commission.

If a closing falls through or you decide you don’t want to go through with a deal, it won’t affect your representation by an attorney.

Legal Counsel

You can probably infer that a real estate attorney is better equipped to provide you with legal guidance. But did you know that only attorneys can give legal advice! So by using a real estate attorney to sell your property, not only do you benefit from our marketing expertise, but we are able to give legal advice from the get-go.

We will draw up a client specific contract, explain its terms to you in detail, and give you all the legal counsel you might — and will — need as you go through the process of selling your home, before you transact.

As property lawyers, we have always attended to property transactions that do not require a real estate agent to sell or help buy a home, for example, private and family sales, private mortgage transactions, subdivisions, consolidations, sectional title registration, township development, servitude registrations, limited real right transactions such as usufructs and deceased estate transactions.

As our client, you will benefit from our skill and knowledge and there is no extra charge for our legal advice.

Marketing Strategy

Attorneys have come a long way since the stoic Victorian era, but you will be surprised to hear that they have been involved in selling real estate from the very beginning.

Old laws and practice rules unfortunately hindered lawyers from marketing property, but this has all changed and the legal profession has been liberated to some extent to allow attorneys to serve their clients with regard to marketing of their properties not as estate agents but as attorneys.

We use our existing database of past buyers and sellers, internet property portals, effective advertising, sale boards, show houses and sometimes even auctions, as part of our marketing strategy to ensure the quickest sale at the best price.

The real estate attorneys at Louw Strydom Incorporated will also work with real estate agents hand-in-hand to transact a client’s purchase or sale, if needs require. But we control the interaction so that you are not inundated by all and sundry. We are not aligned with any estate agency and thus we have no vested interest in satisfying the wants of any estate agency.

We are fiercely independent and answerable only to you.

So, if you’re thinking of buying or selling a home, turn to attorneys selling property at LS Properties, a division of Louw Strydom Incorporated. A niche property attorney involved with your property sale from start to finish, for a fee agreed upon upfront.

Contact our office for a legal consultation regarding your real estate needs and our services.

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