Conveyancer / Lawyer?

Hi guys,

We are in the final stages of quotes for a house and land package in Melbourne's north.

My sister in law is a legal secretary and has been providing great advice around contract terms etc. I also work with a lawyer who is happy to witness and sign documents.

My question is - do we still need a conveyancer? Or can we get away with not having one and just use our sister In law and lawyer to sign and witness documents? What do they actually do? Can we get away with not having one for a pretty standard new home build with a reputable company?

Any advice is appreciated!!!

I went for a conveyancer.

The advantage is they specialise in property transactions. They are doing it all the time and hence have good relationships with banks, real estate agents, etc. Whilst friends can help out, they may not be that practiced with specific details of property transactions.

Recommend you source one based on word of mouth. A great broker will be a real asset. Mine battled with my bank's silly requests ( they wanted copies of all 700 pages of my ridiculous land contract ). I also witnessed her verbally chastising another client's incompetent broker on the phone - hilarious!

There are bad conveyancers / solicitors too - hence the importance of word of mouth.

I have worked as a Legal Secretary for a number of years and in my experience a lawyer can do the job just as well if they have experience in property settlements. I assume since your sister and the lawyer you work for have some idea of what needs to be done and contract terms etc that they have both done conveyancing work before? They will not only advise you on the terms of the contracts your entering but will also produce documents such as a Memorandum of Transfer for settlement of the land, organising cheques from the bank etc so that land settlement can occur.

I went with a conveyancer for both selling my home, building a new one and also purchasing a investment property. Had a lawyer deal with my first home purchase and they where no where near as good as a conveyancer was. Also all a convenyancer does is deal with properties and they don't charge as much.

There's more than witnessing docs involved - there's title searches, calculating rates and liasing with the other settlement agent and banks. I'd go with a pro conveyancer and know nothing was going to slip through the loops.

I went with a solicitor thinking they'd be top notch - it was a joke. I will delay paying their fee for as long as legally possible!
I seriously thought I could have done a better job. I ended up following up every single detail, even personally dropping off signed documents to the vendor's agent, and also hand-delivering the bank cheque to the settlement agent.
I would suggest going via the conveyancer your broker recommends, but there's no guarantee things would go smoothly either (the solicitor I went with was actually referred to me!). As you can tell I had a horrid experience, and never again with that mob.

As for the next time, I'd probably settle with a conveyancer vs solicitor, for a basic transaction like mine was (land settlement within 75 days etc).

I used a Conveyancer with both my building experiences. On both occassions not one issue. Both settlements made by Brad Davies in Essendon. I would deffinately recommend his services.