Buyer Cash Engagement Letter

The Schweppe Law Firm, P. A.
Attorneys at Law
Post Office Box 1269
211 East Warren Street
Shelby, North Carolina 28150-1269

Thank you for selecting The Schweppe Law Firm, P.A. to represent you in closing the purchase of your property. Upon receipt of the necessary information from you, your Agent, and other third-parties to the transaction, we will assign your file to a Paralegal in our Office, perform a title examination of the property, and prepare all necessary documents for closing. In preparation for your closing please give the following matters your prompt and careful attention.

Closing

Your Agent may have scheduled your closing for you. If a time and date for your closing has not already been set, please contact our Real Estate Closing Team to schedule your closing by phone at 704-482-7204 or by email at [email protected]. Your closing will take place at our office located at: 211 E. Warren Street, Shelby NC 28150.

If you or any required signer is unable to attend closing, please let us know as soon as possible so that a Special Power of Attorney can be prepared. If you already have a recorded Power of Attorney prepared, we will need a copy to be delivered to our office. Please Note: Our firm does charge a fee of $250.00 to prepare a Special Power of Attorney in addition to a $33.00 recording fee; the charges will be added to the settlement statement and collected at closing.

Please bring to closing a valid Driver’s License or other picture identification so that we may properly identify you as the Buyer and Borrower. We will request your ID upon arrival in order to make a copy for our records. Many documents being signed during the closing are required to be notarized and our Policy is to have a picture ID of any person whose signature will be notarized.

Funds at Closing

Our office will provide you with a Settlement Statement (HUD-1) prior to closing, provided all necessary information has been given to us by Buyers, Sellers, and Agents to prepare the Settlement Statement.

Once you receive your Settlement Statement you will be provided with the dollar amount of funds needed to close. Please note that you will need to bring those funds with you to closing. Pursuant to State Bar regulations, all amounts due from you at closing must be in the form of certified funds.Please obtain a certified/cashier’s check made payable to “The Schweppe Law Firm, P.A.”. If you wish to wire funds to us, please contact our office for wiring instructions, there is a $50.00 wire service fee that will be added to your total due at closing. BEFORE SENDING ANY WIRE, call our office to verify the instructions. If you receive wiring instructions for a different bank, branch location, account name or account number, they should be presumed to be fraudulent. Do not send any funds and contact our office immediately. Failure to follow this procedure endangers your funds. We highly encourage wiresfor closing funds that exceed $10,000.00. This will expedite the closing by providing guaranteed and immediate funds.

North Carolina law requires that good funds be received from the Buyer and that the Deed and any applicable Recordable Documents be recorded at the Register of Deeds Office before any funds can be disbursed. After your documents have been fully executed they are electronically filed by our firm through a secure portal and then processed by the Register of Deeds in the county where the property is located.

Our Representation

We represent you in this transactional matter of ensuring that you acquire good and marketable title to the property. We can also advise you on legal questions concerning title to your property, title insurance, and the requirements, and restrictive covenants. Our representation ends upon recording and disbursement of funds.

Preparing Seller Documents

We may be asked by the Seller or their Agent to prepare a Deed and Lien Waiver for the Seller. It is assumed that the basic terms of the sale transaction have been agreed upon between the Buyer and the Seller and that we have no obligation to bargain for either party. The North Carolina State Bar provides that an attorney “may prepare the deed as an accommodation to the needs of their client, the Buyer, without becoming the lawyer for Seller,” provided certain disclosures are made to the Seller and the Buyer does not object.

Please notify our office immediately if you object to us performing this work for the Seller so that we may ask the Seller to obtain separate counsel for the preparation of their documents. Please Note: If a dispute later arises between you and the Sellers, we will not undertake to represent either side.

Services We Perform

We are responsible for conducting the title examination of the property, ensuring that the deed of conveyance has been properly prepared and executed, that the closing funds are properly received and disbursed pursuant to the Settlement Statement prepared by our office and reviewed by you at closing, and that the Owner’s policy of title insurance is issued and delivered in proper form. We will obtain payoffs of the outstanding liens, along with cancellation of lien instructions to the proper creditors; however, in the event the creditor does not comply with our cancellation instructions we will not pursue the creditor without being further retained by the Buyer or Seller to do so.

Title Examination

Our normal protocol is to conduct a full title examination of the property in compliance with the North Carolina Marketable Title Act. This means that we will search the title for a period of no less than thirty years prior to closing. However, if we find an existing policy of title insurance on the property, we will, unless you object, “tack” to that policy. This means that our title examination would begin with the date and time of issuance of that policy and that we will not certify the status of the title to the property prior to that date. While defects in the title occurring prior to the search period would not be reported by us if we “tack,” they would be covered by the existing title policy; you will therefore receive the same title insurance coverage as if we had conducted a full title examination. “Tacking” enables us to conduct the title examination more expeditiously for you, and it will not expose you to any increased liability. Additionally, you are normally entitled to a reduced premium if we are able to “tack” on to an existing title insurance policy. Unless you immediately instruct us otherwise, we will either “tack” or conduct a full title examination at our discretion. Please Note: A request for title examination will be conducted simultaneous to the receipt of the purchase contract. If your closing failsto close, you may be billed for the title search.

It is our responsibility to ensure that you receive clear title to the property, free of liens and encumbrances. Please be aware that matters of zoning, building code compliance, and environmental hazards are not title matters and are not included in a standard title examination. Zoning laws affect permitted uses of property and the location of improvements thereon, among other things. Building codes specify certain standards for which buildings and other structures on the property must be constructed. Environmental hazards include but are not limited to the existence of radon gas, lead-based paint, underground storage tanks, asbestos and whether your property is located within a flood plain.

Surveys

We strongly advise all purchasers to obtain surveys prior to closing. A survey is the only means of determining precisely where your property boundaries and the improvements on your property are located. Your Owner’s title insurance policy will not offer coverage from loss or damage resulting from a condition which a new survey would have shown. This means that any problem which would have been revealed on a survey, such as your fence, driveway or well encroaching onto a neighbor’s property, will become your responsibility and liability. Only a new survey can reveal these problems. Please note that once the survey is ordered, you will be responsible for the cost of the survey, even if the closing never takes place.

Homeowners Insurance

You should ensure that the improvements on the property will be insured against fire and other casualties with a reputable company and that the insurance will be in place as of the date and time of closing. You must order the policy.

Other Matters

During the course of our representation, other matters may present themselves. These matters include determining whether a home or termite inspection is needed, how keys will be distributed, whether or not there or HOA fees and covenants or restrictions associated with the property, any last-minute home repairs or other resolution of matters needed immediately prior to closing, and how your documents are cared for.

Home and Termite Inspections – You should consider having the structure(s) you are purchasing inspected for termites and inspected by a professional inspector. You should take care to make sure that these inspections are performed prior to any deadline and immediately communicate any desired repairs to your Agent or to the Seller or Seller’s Agent. Thereafter, you should verify that the Seller is making the repairs to which you have agreed. You should begin this repair review process as soon as possible to ensure that closing is not delayed by issues related to incomplete or improper repairs.

HOA’s – Homeowners Associations are not a matter of public record. We attempt to determine if one exists and, if so, obtain necessary information to prorate the dues. Presumably your Agent has provided you with copies of restrictive covenants applicable to the property. If you have not been provided with a copy you should request and obtain a copy from your Agent or the Homeowner’s Association to be certain that your proposed use of the property is consistent with those restrictions.

Keys – Please discuss the delivery of keys with your and the Seller’s Agent. Keys, and other entry devices such as garage remotes or security codes, are not always delivered or provided to the Buyer at the closing table. Sometimes the Seller or their Agent holds the keys until the Deed has been recorded with the Register of Deeds Office, which may take several hours after closing. Holding the keys until that time is the Seller’s option since, under North Carolina law, title is not actually conveyed until the moment the Deed is recorded. We do our best to record as quickly as possible, but occasionally there are delays beyond our control, which can delay delivery of keys.

Last Minute Repairs – Occasionally property issues are discovered immediately prior to closing. While a home inspection will often discover these issues, there are times when an inspection is not conducted, and issues are discovered during a walk-thru of the property. Our office will not hold in escrow any monies for these repairs, nor will we record the Deed and “withhold” Seller’s proceeds until the matter is resolved. All repairs or other issues should be completed prior to closing.

Document Retention – You will receive copies of your closing documents at closing. If there are additional documents, you would like copies of we are happy to provide them to you at or immediately after closing. Per North Carolina Bar rules, we are required to store your file for a period of six years after the closing date. After this time, our firm will destroy your file. A copy of all file documents are stored electronically in our database.

Our Fees

Our attorney fee quote for your real estate transaction is determined based on multiple variables. Our firm’s base fee is $1,150.00, which may change based on those variables. Buyer expenses such as the survey fee, termite report fee, title insurance premium, homeowner’s insurance premium, and recording fees, are not included in our legal fee. Please Note: If the transaction failsto close through no fault of our own after the closing documents have been prepared, Buyer will be invoiced based on the amount of work already performed for the transaction.

In limited circumstances there are “leftover” funds after closing that may result from, among other things, document recording expense overages. You are entitled to a refund of such an amount. Due to the administration costs and the complexity of the N.C. Escheat process, by acknowledging below you agree to waive our obligation to return nominal amounts in the aggregate of $10.00 or less. Our obligation to return amounts in the aggregate of more than $10.00 will continue.

Lastly, we understand that this letter contains a lot of information, but we believe that your understanding of the information provided in this letter will lead to a smooth, low stress closing. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns regarding your upcoming closing or questions regarding the
information in this letter.

Sincerely,

The Schweppe Law Firm, P.a.