It is common to find people who are selling or buying their homes refusing to acquire lawyers to help with the proceedings. Possible because they consider this sales transaction to be fairly simple, however when this involves the sale of development properties it can be very complex.

This will normally includes a multitude of issues and laws that you would not find with the sale of a house. Additionally, a Jamaica property development transaction from the beginning to the end can stretch out for months or even years, because the developer is securing approvals from government as well as fulfilling further conditions for the sale.

So, if you are currently doing a development, obtain an attorney before you even attempt to put the property on the market. What you need here is a conveyance attorney who will specialize in real estate, try not to use your family, friend or divorce lawyer. Loyalty is a good thing, but even this has its limit and certainly for this process you will need somebody who is representing real estate consumers every day of week and not once a month. This is one of the biggest mistakes people make in real estate business only to get screwed because they used someone who simple could not manage.

You should not have an excuse for not getting a good attorney as they are all over the island and you can find them easily through colleagues, titles office, real estate agents, appraisers, surveyors and from the information online. When you are narrowing down the long list, which I am sure you will have after your research, look at type of clients that they work with before.

You are doing this to ensure that they have experience with not just the regular residential land and house sales, commercial properties, but most importantly development property. At the time of your interview with lawyers, ask all the questions you need answers to and don’t allow them to intimidate you. Most importantly, remember to talk about the legal fees and find out when and how they expect to get paid for their services.

More than likely, you will be billed at the end of a sale, but at least you will have the information to do a proper estimate of your total expenses. The attorney will perform a number of duties in a transaction and in the initial stages you will be provided with an overview of what happens with a Jamaica property development sale process. At the end of your meeting, you should be clear on everyone’s role, given an estimate for closing costs, a general proposal of the time that the property would take from going under contract and you also get explanations of any risks involved.

When you are satisfied and feel comfortable with one, you should engage this attorney before the marketing starts, this way if a written offer is presented they can deal with it right away. They could now review the document, discuss with you and make modifications and recommendations accordingly. This means that you don’t have to be in further contact with the buyers as the attorneys will communicate with each other. In the end, you will have shorter sales, safer transactions and don’t waste time going back and forth with a lot of negotiations.

However, the pricing and marketing of the property is not the work for your attorney as your real estate broker can handle this aspect. If you are not using a broker for this Jamaica property development venture, this would be your job, but whatever you do try to get good advice of what is going on the market. As long as you don’t try to do everything on your own to save some cash, this investment should not turn into one of your most horrible nightmares.

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