Fliperati

Not a lot of activity on the real estate front today.  I didn’t have an attorney so I just had my agent forward the documents to a guy he recommended.  I trust my agent a great deal so I’m not at all concerned about the quality of his referral, but I felt a need to do some due diligence before diving right in and hiring the guy.  Fighting back the urge to be lazy, I took a few minutes to call him up this morning and get some info on his experience and his billing structure.  He sounded very much like a dry, lawyerly sort of guy based in Piscataway, NJ.  That was fine with me, though, because I suppose it’s good to have a lawyerly-sounding lawyer.  When asked about his experience he told me that he had been working on residential real estate transactions since 1975, joking that I was probably in diapers at that time.  He also quoted me a flat fee of $850 – assuming no issues arise that will force him to spend an inordinate amount of time on my purchase (such as a title dispute).  I don’t have much to compare this to, but it was less than the estimates I got from Manhattan lawyers that were referrals from friends.  It was also in-line with what my agent estimated for the average fee on a residential purchase like mine, so I went ahead and hired the guy.  Hopefully he will make a solid addition to my growing real estate investment team.