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- Buyer's Guide intro
- before you view any properties
- what & where to buy
- a good agent
- your viewing tour
- agreeing the purchase
- choosing your lawyer
- confirming your offer
- exchanging contracts
- preliminary searches
- completion
- taxes and fees
- bank accounts
- mortgages
- currency exchange
- summary
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Buyer's Guide
Choosing Your Lawyer
Although you might think about using the lawyer you normally use for everyday legal matters, this is almost always far from ideal.
It's vital that your lawyer understands property law and ideally some taxation law in the relevant location so that they can guide you through the whole buying process with complete confidence.
For this reason we recommend you use a local law practice with lawyers qualified to operate in their market and we can put you in touch with appropriate law firms in each of the markets in which we operate.
Please note: Any lawyer or overseas lawyer to whom we may refer you is an independent professional from whom you will receive impartial and confidential advice. You are free to choose another lawyer or overseas lawyer. We do not receive payment for these recommendations.
A good lawyer will have the legal expertise to ensure that your property purchase meets all local legal requirements. They will also be able to ensure that the property is bought free of encumbrances, charges or debt.
Your lawyer will also check that where applicable, the property is up to date with all its payments of local contributions, community charges, etc.
Your lawyer should tell you in advance what their fee will be. This varies from country to country.
Do bear in mind though, that if you use a lawyer from home, who is not familiar with the local law this not only significantly increases your risk but will also increase your legal costs.
They won't be able to move around the local legal system with the ease (and precision) of a local lawyer - and this extra time will undoubtedly end up on your bill!
Next - Confirming Your Offer And Paying The Deposit
Life under the sun
doesn’t get much tougher…
