House buying

[HenryDorsetCase]

She has been helpful sometimes, but to be completely honest, I don't see any benefit of having a lawyer at all. Get a good mortgage broker and just use a generic purchase agreement. Lawyers just copy and paste a generic one anyway and delete the clauses you don't have off it. A lot of money for no work.

Yup. totally.

I decided to expand on this a bit.

What you are paying your lawyer for (in a residential conveyance) are two things:

1. Look at shit you don't understand and provide a professional accountable opinion as to those things.: Titles, LIM reports (and now, earthquake bullshit).

2. Work for your bank to ensure that they get the security you've pitched them. Also to do the actual transfer of the property: we have write access to the land titles database and do the actual transfers and registrations.

Those are the core things as well as ensuring that time limits are adhered to and all that as well as fucking handholding and dealing with your bullshit. Also Kiwsaver and homestart.

There's a reason I dont do this day to day anymore.

[neels]

The lawyer told me I had to notify the bank that the house showed a positive reading for meth (below the guidelines). Then get the bank to send a letter confirming they will still lend us the money with the reading.

Called the bank, the bank revoked our preapproval the day before unconditional day. The bank said even if we decontaminated the house and got a reading of zero they wouldn't take the risk. They also said we weren't obliged to tell them about the meth result.

We then went to a mortgage broker and within the day he had sorted a new bank and got us the same deal.

The lawyer then wanted a letter from our insurance that said they will cover the house with the meth. Told her we wouldn't do it.

Our lawyer also frequently ignored emails and phone calls regarding settlement dates and extensions etc. Because she didn't contact the vendor to get a date for our house to settle on (title still hasn't been issued for the subdivision of land). So our new bank ended our preapproval, until we could get a settlement date. This was after 2 extensions to the preapproval already.

After a day, our mortgage broker had contacted the vendor and the council, found out an approximate date and extended the preapproval 2 more month even though the low equity funding had since dried up.

On average when we contact the lawyers it takes 2 to 3 days to get a reply, if we get any reply at all.

Our purchase agreement had a clause, if title wasn't issued before 31 November we can opt out of the agreement and move out. The vendors lawyer contacted us directly because they had no response from our lawyer as to whether we wanted to stay or move.

She has been helpful sometimes, but to be completely honest, I don't see any benefit of having a lawyer at all. Get a good mortgage broker and just use a generic purchase agreement. Lawyers just copy and paste a generic one anyway and delete the clauses you don't have off it. A lot of money for no work.

Someone needs to get a better lawyer.

The one we used has always been awesome, most times gave us a price up front for his work and unless something really unusual happened that's all he charged us, sadly he has retired now so will have to start again finding another good one.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Someone needs to get a better lawyer.

The one we used has always been awesome, most times gave us a price up front for his work and unless something really unusual happened that's all he charged us, sadly he has retired now so will have to start again finding another good one.

I think that's a fair call.

Having said that, a lawyer is required under the ROPC to provide an up front fee estimate and such. Effectively residential conveyancing is done on a fixed fee basis and the prices are "competitive". Usually the actual work is done by legal executives - OP's "lawyer" may not have been a lawyer at all. I only ever see a residential conveyance file if it is for a friend, and/or there is a problem which is when I dispense my god-like powers (sometimes for good, often for evil). Our lawyers can earn a better return on their time doing other stuff. Having said that, a competent legal executive is absolutely worth their weight in gold to a firm... and are paid and treated accordingly.

[Big Dog]

Our lawyer was worth his weight in gold. His daughter (a recent graduate) did the leg work, getting us to sign stuff etc but when the bank tried to change terms on us post negotiation he put them straight pretty quick. That saved us his fee with one email.
Then when the vendors exited with unpaid rates and water rates one phone call and the vendors who weren't answering our calls suddenly coughed up the $1600, council confirmed receipt within 2 hours. Pretty good return on 5 mins of his time and $75.

Total cost including conveyancing, contract validation, mortgage validation, 2 renegotiations of terms when the vendors couldn't meet their side of conditional etc approx $2600.

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[BMWST?]

Our lawyer was worth his weight in gold. His daughter (a recent graduate) did the leg work, getting us to sign stuff etc but when the bank tried to change terms on us post negotiation he put them straight pretty quick. That saved us his fee with one email.
Then when the vendors exited with unpaid rates and water rates one phone call and the vendors who weren't answering our calls suddenly coughed up the $1600, council confirmed receipt within 2 hours. Pretty good return on 5 mins of his time and $75.

Total cost including conveyancing, contract validation, mortgage validation, 2 renegotiations of terms when the vendors couldn't meet their side of conditional etc approx $2600.

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ditto unpaid rates and body corp fees.Removed light fittings also remedied with $$$$.No messing aroundwith the vendor or agent lawyer to lawyer stuff=instant result

[Swoop]

How did your mate get 'stung' when it was his job to set the reserve?

He was advised by the real estate agents and the auctioneer what the reserve should be and he took that advice. It was rather low and the advice was along the lines of "once others know that it's selling they'll jump into the bidding war" approach.
They didn't. Hammer fell.

[Maha]

He was advised by the real estate agents and the auctioneer what the reserve should be and he took that advice. It was rather low and the advice was along the lines of "once others know that it's selling they'll jump into the bidding war" approach.
They didn't. Hammer fell.

What our agent said to us when listing was...''there could be 6 in the figure'' (estimating 600,000 +) day of the Auction that figure fell below 600 because ''That's what market is telling us''. We realistically thought it was worth mid to high 5's... so that's where we set our reserve on the morning and got what we wanted.

Seems like the Auctioneer/Agent you speak did not have the vendors best interest in mind.

[neels]

Seems like the Auctioneer/Agent you speak did not have the vendors best interest in mind.

They never have the vendors best interest in mind, they have their best interest in mind, their main priority is getting the deposit in the bank so their commission is safe.

[HenryDorsetCase]

They never have the vendors best interest in mind, they have their best interest in mind, their main priority is getting the deposit in the bank so their commission is safe.

absolutely true. I have had some hysterical calls today about that very thing.

Its on a list of things which are not my problem.

[mossy1200]

My lawyer is only $680 including gst fixed price. If you need one in Welly PM me and ill give you his details.

[R650R]

What you are paying your lawyer for (in a residential conveyance) are two things:

1. Look at shit you don't understand and provide a professional accountable opinion as to those things.: Titles, LIM reports (and now, earthquake bullshit).

2. Work for your bank to ensure that they get the security you've pitched them. Also to do the actual transfer of the property: we have write access to the land titles database and do the actual transfers and registrations.

Can the average joe do any of this themselves, surely a lot of it is just generic forms, with dates times and names filled in and filed at the council office or whatever.
Had to deal with lawyers ahile ago with death in the family, seemed to be a lot of expensive generic bullshit forms to be signed and filed at court or wherever. Even though the olds had paid off their mortgage in full they had kept some option open incase they wanted to borrow again easily. Lots of seemingly bullshit forms to sign while a piece of skirt nodded sympathetically and ruffled papers.... the funeral itself was easier to deal with than the vulture fest of forms....

[HenryDorsetCase]

Can the average joe do any of this themselves, surely a lot of it is just generic forms, with dates times and names filled in and filed at the council office or whatever.
Had to deal with lawyers ahile ago with death in the family, seemed to be a lot of expensive generic bullshit forms to be signed and filed at court or wherever. Even though the olds had paid off their mortgage in full they had kept some option open incase they wanted to borrow again easily. Lots of seemingly bullshit forms to sign while a piece of skirt nodded sympathetically and ruffled papers.... the funeral itself was easier to deal with than the vulture fest of forms....

Short answer: sure. I think if you go and ask the Registrar they will give you the forms, or whatever (we're talking Probate still right?). As long as you have the Will and the filing fee (and are the executor....) then go for it. In fact for the court document the form and a lot of the content is mandated in the rules.

Knock yourself out.... after all, numpties do it all day every day, how difficult can it be really?

[Autech]

Can the average joe do any of this themselves, surely a lot of it is just generic forms, with dates times and names filled in and filed at the council office or whatever.
Had to deal with lawyers ahile ago with death in the family, seemed to be a lot of expensive generic bullshit forms to be signed and filed at court or wherever. Even though the olds had paid off their mortgage in full they had kept some option open incase they wanted to borrow again easily. Lots of seemingly bullshit forms to sign while a piece of skirt nodded sympathetically and ruffled papers.... the funeral itself was easier to deal with than the vulture fest of forms....

Our Lawyer saved us from buying a leaky home, went to bat for us after the real estate agents had lied about the EQC money paid n work completed n cost less than buying a leaky house would have cost or the money we got out of them for EQC. So sure, go do it yourself but getting it wrong is more costly.

Consider what you do for a living and whether someone else could do it as well, sure they could give it a crack (they got the same 2 legs, 2 arms n brain as you) but most likely not as well.


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[R650R]

Going to bank soon to apply, trying to nail them down on interest rate (on pre approval) and they saying they cant give a rate till you show them property you want. Is this normal?
Googling and found out about rate locking and associated fees....

[neels]

Going to bank soon to apply, trying to nail them down on interest rate (on pre approval) and they saying they cant give a rate till you show them property you want. Is this normal?
Googling and found out about rate locking and associated fees....

From memory they can't lock in an interest rate on a pre approval, but can once there is a S&P agreement with a possession date, if you want to change the rate after that it costs you money.

All the current talk is that rates are going to go up, as the current exorbitant profits aren't enough for the banks, so probably a good time to get on with it.