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If you have ever thought about NOT hiring an attorney for closing on a real estate purchase, unless you are paying cash, you are setting yourself up for a headache. Mortgages require more than a little bit of paperwork, enough so that you will be signing papers for at least an hour – with an attorney’s help. Without one? It’s a risk, and it may not be worth it, especially if you are buying a home. Having that massive amount of paperwork organized and ready for your signature is a great benefit, but it is hardly the only good thing about having an attorney who has your back during closing. Here’s why:

If you’re thinking about buying, selling, or refinancing your home in order to take advantage of a better interest rate, the appraised value of your property is an important number. An appraisal will help determine how much you will likely be able to get for your home if you sell, or in the case of an refi, which usually only allows a portion of the property’s value to be included in a new loan, will determine how much a lender will be willing to loan you, since the loan received from a refi usually only includes a percentage of the home’s value. Appraisers are working on behalf of the lender and will assess the value of your property based on the value of similar properties in your neighborhood. Comparable properties usually must be located within a few miles of the property being assessed, must be of similar square footage, and should be built within 10 years or so of the property in question.

Buying a home or property is a major investment, often the biggest one of your life, and taking the right steps to ensure that the home is free from any encumbrances before you make the purchase will protect you and allow you to enjoy your new asset for years to come. Some of the most important things to think about include hiring an inspector to check for safety issues, making sure the property is priced fairly compared to other homes in the neighborhood, and doing a title search to determine that there are no limits on how you might use your land or if someone else’s name is attached to the home or property. A title search – which involves retrieving the court documents associated with the home or land, such as liens or easements – can prevent you from buying your dream home, only to find out that you have suddenly become the owner of someone else’s debt along with the home. While it is possible to determine whether or not your home is free from liens or other constraints on your own by going over courthouse files or visiting the assessor’s office in the county where the property is located to view records, title issues can be complicated, and hiring an experienced real estate attorney will not only save you a lot of legwork, but will also make sure that you don’t miss something on your own by ensuring that your home is free from legal issues. Title searches essentially determine whether or not the home you are buying is free from liens or can be legally sold by the person selling the home, in case ownership is disputed. Here are eight important things that a title search might uncover:

Millions of people fall behind on their mortgage payments each year – a sudden layoff, medical bills, or a hot water heater that dies mid-January, can all be financially catastrophic – leaving them afraid to check the mail for fear that a foreclosure notice might be waiting for them. If you’ve missed a few house payments and worry that you might soon be the recipient of an unwelcome foreclosure notice, there are some steps you can take now that might help you save your home and get your finances back on track.

Being in a car accident can be frightening and disorienting, but in order to protect yourself legally, it’s important to follow certain steps if you are physically able to do so in order to ensure that your damages are covered, not only those that your vehicle sustained in the crash, but also any injuries that you and any passengers who may have been with you in the accident might have suffered. Even if a car accident seems minor, it’s important to follow certain steps, because a wrong move during the initial phases of an accident may result in bills you yourself cannot cover – and the other driver’s insurance company may refuse to take on. Here’s what to do:

Let’s say you fall in love with a house at first sight. You’ve gone past crush, and this is love, which can come with all the potential pain of a human love story. Because just like in love, a background check of sorts – at least asking someone who knows – is an important way to get to know if the date, or the house, is worth pursuing, or if you will find out something you really didn’t want to know. That background check in home buying is due diligence, and it is the period of time immediately after the purchase offer is accepted and a sale contract to buy the house goes into play.

When the housing market crashed in 2008, real estate fraud became a hot button issue with many assigning blame for the economic crash on fragile mortgage deals that forced the housing bubble to burst. For real estate agents or brokers, today’s real estate outlook is improving, but there is still the opportunity to unintentionally commit fraud while closing a real estate deal due to complicated laws that often side with buyers. Some potential real estate or broker fraud cases that could result in charges include:

A short sale is the process of selling a house for less than the value of the remaining mortgage balance on it. To illustrate how it works, let’s look at a hypothetical situation. You borrowed $350,000 to buy your home five years ago after it was appraised at that amount. You lost your job a few months ago and fell behind on your mortgage payments, making you wonder if you’re better off selling to eliminate the financial burden. However, a comparative market analysis shows that your home is now worth $290,000, and you still have $320,000 left on the original loan. If you’re still intent on selling, you can ask the lender for permission to put the property on the market for $290,000. If they agree, they will receive less than what you originally borrowed, but still consider the debt repaid in most cases. This is because the short sale allowed them to avoid the time-consuming and stressful process of foreclosure.