Speaker 1: If you're a first-time homebuyer, or maybe you're moving to North Carolina from a state that doesn't require closing attorneys, you're wondering, what does a closing attorney do? I'm Tiffany Weber. I'm a real estate attorney at Thomas & Weber, and I'm going to explain that to you today. In North Carolina, closing attorneys represent buyers. The exception to that is for commercial closings, where each party has their own attorney, but we're going to focus today on residential closings. Say you're buying that home, or you're moving here for your job, and you want to know what we do for you. First things first, once both parties have signed the contract to buy and sell the home, it's sent to the closing attorney. We take a look at it, and then we get to work. The first thing we do is we conduct something called a title search. The most important thing we can do for a buyer is make sure there is nothing standing in the buyer's way of owning that property free and clear from interference of all other parties. It's a really important thing. We call that clear title. Clear title is the holy grail. It's required for every closing for a buyer to be able to move forward comfortably. Some of the things that could impede clear title are perhaps the seller does not fully own the property. Maybe they didn't get it conveyed properly to them. We research way back to make sure that everyone who's owned the property before you're going to owns the property fully and can convey their whole interest to you. Other things that could stand in the way are if the seller has liens, judgments, or bankruptcies affecting them. If those things aren't resolved, they could follow the property. You might hear your attorney, even me or Ben, say that it's attached to the real property. Just meaning that it could affect your title to the property. Perhaps it could be foreclosed on to satisfy that seller's debts. We do not want that, so we'll do whatever it takes to make sure that gets resolved including maybe having the seller pay off those liens or judgments or any issues out of their sale proceeds or coming up with other funds to get that resolved. Also during the title search, we're looking at who actually owns the property. There's a lot of times where a seller could be in a state, so the heirs own the property and there are a lot of people that need to really sign to make sure the whole interest is conveyed. Think about it this way. Say someone passes and they've got four children. You might think that just those four children need to sign, but that's not always the case. If those people have spouses and their spouses have to sign or if one of the four children has passed and maybe their children need to sign, it's different every single time. We're doing a lot of research to make sure we know every person that needs to sign the deed to make sure that the buyer gets the total interest conveyed to them. Once we're satisfied with the title search, we're satisfied that the buyer can get clear title to the property. There's a lot of other work that goes into the closing. We're chasing down all sorts of numbers and figures. We're working with lenders. We're working with title insurers. We're working with both realtors and the seller, the seller's previous lender to make sure the payoff is sent to the right place and in the right amount. There's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes to get to that point of closing day where you've got the big stack of papers to sign. Our office can spend weeks preparing for this closing, tracking down all the parties that need to be there and getting all the information needed. Once we're actually at closing day, the closing attorney is going to sit with the buyer, sit with the seller. We're not going to disclose any private information to either party, but we're going to explain all of the documents to you. For buyers especially, this is important because you need to know what you're signing and why it matters. We go through every scrap of paper, tell you what it means, make sure all of your questions are answered. Once all of the documents have been signed by everyone that needs to sign, the closing attorney makes sure that the deed and deed of trust or any other documents that need to be recorded, like easements or boat slips or powers of attorney, get recorded with the Register of Deeds. Once that's done, then funds are dispersed, so commissions, sale proceeds, whatever needs to be paid out to any party. After that, the closing is done. The most important thing that a closing attorney does is act as a shield for the buyer to make sure that they get everything that they deserve to get out of the contract and make sure that the transaction is done right. If you need a closing attorney, I'm Tiffany Weber with Thomas & Weber in Marshall, North Carolina. We would love to help you.