Legal Fees for Real Estate

You have a choice in how you pay for legal services:
traditional hourly fee with retainer or flat fee.
 

Traditional Hourly Fee with Retainer: For all work performed on an hourly basis, the rate is $225 per hour, billed in 6 minute increments. Transaction work requires a retainer of $750, Litigation work requires a retainer of $2,500. Retainers are deposited in the attorney trust account from which the hourly fee is withdrawn. Legal Services Contracts are signed with every hourly fee client.

Flat Fees are available for residential real estate transaction clients only.

Contract Review: $275. Included in the fee is a comprehensive review of a purchase contract for existing residential property and a consultation with the client reviewing all aspects of the contract. Consultations will either be in office or via telephone. New build contracts, condominium documents review, and letter writing are billed on an hourly basis as described above.

Closing Representation: $350. Included in the fee is a review of the title commitment and settlement statement when available prior to closing. At closing, every document you sign will be reviewed with you so that you will have a familiarization with the documents. The goal is not to make you an expert, but rather to make sure you understand what you are signing, answering any questions you may have about the documents, and to give you an idea of where to find answers in the documents in the future. Of course, if issues arise at the closing table, every effort will be made to resolve the issues at that time. (Issues resolved at closing will not incur any additional charge.) This is an out of office service available for closings in the Columbus and Delaware, Ohio metro areas. Please call for verification of closing location inclusion.

Complete Contract to Closing Representation: $750. Designed to be there when you need an attorney, this flat fee service includes in office, email, and telephone consultation as needed; reviews of common documents involved in the transaction (excluding reviewing Condominium Documents which will be billed separately at $225 per hour); preparation of contracts, counter offers, addendums; assistance with requests for remedies; and closing representation as described above. Available for buyers and sellers, with or without a real estate agent.

Contract Drafting: $275. Includes working with either the buyer or seller in the creation of a residential real estate purchase contract, includes an in office or telephone consultation. Email may be used for the delivery of the final contract in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format.

Important terms and conditions regarding flat fee services:

1. The above described services are for one property, one seller, and one buyer. For example, if the seller of 1234 Main St. contracts for Contract Review, it is for a contract involving one buyer, such as Buyer A. If Buyer A does not complete the transaction and seller contracts with Buyer B, reviewing the contract from Buyer B would not be covered under the Contract Review from Buyer A's contract.

2. The flat fee will be due on or before the commencement of the service.

3. Any services provided outside of the explicit descriptions above will be billed at the hourly rate of $225 per hour.

4. The flat fees quoted above are subject to change without notice, however, if this page is printed directly from this site, and has the corresponding site information on the bottom, the flat fees will be honored for 30 days after printing.