Real Estate Attorney & Home Inspector Recommendations

[natickdan]

As I previously posted, my wife and I will be spending 5 nights in TV next month. In my previous post, however, I neglected to ask for:


Recommendations for a real estate attorney

Recommendations for a home inspector


Are there other professional services we should engage as a condition of making an offer (ie.termite inspection)?

Not having purchased property in Florida, this is a true case of "I don't know - what I don't know", so I just want to make certain I'm covering all the bases.

On average, what should we expect to pay for these services?

Thanks for helping out this "almost" new kid on the TV block.

[lightworker888]

We purchased a preowned in October '09 and closed in April '10 and we used A1 Home inspection. We found Pat to be excellent and thorough and would recommend him. He reinspected in the spring even though the initial inspection had been in the fall. We used a paralegal, Missy, at Advantage Trust on 466 and she was very thorough and efficient. We were pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the whole process ran, especially since we were from Canada. The transfer of funds and the dealings with Citizen's First were exceptionally pleasant. An altogether great experience that we feel so blessed to have had.

[redwitch]

Don't know of many who have bothered to use an attorney here. You really don't need them unless you're doing a FSBO. I'm sure someone will come along with the name of an attorney (or send BillnBrillo a pm -- I know he's using an attorney for his FSBO purchase).

For home inspections, I highly recommend J.R. Raspel (888-730-2272). He's reputable, licensed, certified and registered. He also has the name of a couple of good termite/pest inspectors.

Good luck!

[njbchbum]

we did not use a lawyer for our purchase but we did have a top notch inspector; his website can be reached from this site:
http://www.ashi.org/homeinspectors/Florida/Fruitland%20Park/17086HA.aspx

[natickdan]

A big Thank You to all those who responded.

[784caroline]

what are they checking with an infra-red camera......price by the sq ft, if you can give an example of what we are talking about ...ie the roof??

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Don't know of many who have bothered to use an attorney here. You really don't need them unless you're doing a FSBO. I'm sure someone will come along with the name of an attorney (or send BillnBrillo a pm -- I know he's using an attorney for his FSBO purchase).

For home inspections, I highly recommend J.R. Raspel (888-730-2272). He's reputable, licensed, certified and registered. He also has the name of a couple of good termite/pest inspectors.

Good luck!

Re: law firm/attorney
We're using McLin Burnsed's office at LSL to handle everything for the closing on the FSBO house we're purchasing. See www.mclinburnsed.com With a FSBO closing, they don't "represent" either party per se. They are simply acting as an unbiased agent for handling the process. The sellers in our case wanted to use them as they apparently handle a number of closings for TV properties. Given the firm's background in handling real estate transactions, we felt comfortable enough in going with them as well. If it's a FSBO transaction, they have a set of documents for both the buyer and seller to fill out that will give them all the info necessary to draw up an appropriate contract. Make sure they have the seller complete a Seller's Disclosure document - this seemed to have slipped through the cracks in their process until I brought it up.

Re: home inspector
We followed redwitch's recommendation and used J.R. Raspel a few weeks back to handle our inspection. We're out of state but the seller was present during J.R.'s inspection. The seller's well informed regarding home construction, etc., etc. and was duly impressed with the thorough inspection J.R. did.

Re: other things
- I would definitely get a termite inspection as well. We used Integral Pest Management based on a couple of referrals. 352-344-3368
- We're getting our homeowner's insurance underwritten by Security First Insurance via Brightway Insurance in Jacksonville. They represent nearly all the companies that currently write homeowner's policies in FL so they're able to get you probably the best policy and quote possible. Contact Rita Canty 904-646-1850. She and her husband own the agency. As a follow-on to this, Security First requires an independent company to do a property inspection of sorts (specific to the lot and the surrounding areas) as a prerequisite to writing a policy addendum for sinkhole coverage. Many companies don't require this. We want the sinkhole coverage so we've got to 'go with the flow'. But I figured that inspection report would be a good document/piece of info to have. Plus it's something else we can provide to a future buyer if/when the time comes when we would sell the house. Something to think about.....

Hope all that helps!

Bill