Residential Home Purchase & Sale
Experienced real estate legal services that thoroughly explains the process and values your time.
The purchase or selling of a home can be stressful. We provide legal services that value your time, and work with your schedule.
Here at MTERRA, we specialize in residential home sale or purchase legal services. Instead of requiring multiple meetings, we leverage secure software that allows the sharing of documents to and from the comfort of your home or office.
We understand that most of our clients work, and so after-hour and weekend appointments are available when you need to see Maureen. The MTERRA office is conveniently NOT located downtown, so parking and traffic jams shouldn’t be an issue!
Below, you can read more about the purchasing, and selling process. Any questions? You can contact me here.
JUMP TO SECTION
Residential Home Purchase
- If you decide to use our services, your realtor will send a copy of the offer to me, and we will open your file and reach out to you.
- You will receive an email with a link to our Client portal, where there will be a document for you to complete that will allow us to get going on your file. This same secure portal will then be used for all future communication and exchange of documents with you.
- We will then do all the necessary searches and prepare the documents before calling you in to sign and bring in a certified cheque. We try to schedule these for one week before closing.
- We will either get the key from the seller’s lawyer for your to pick up on your possession date and time, or it may be arranged through your realtor.
- Once the documents are through land titles we will send you an interim reporting letter with a copy of the title, but there may still be some steps such as waiting for the seller’s financial institution to discharge the mortgage off the title. If that is the case, you will get a final reporting letter from us with a new copy of the title showing that has been done. This may take some time, but we will do everything we can to move as quickly as possible.
Residential Home Sale
- If you decide to use our services, your realtor will send a copy of the offer to me, and we will open your file and reach out to you.
- You will receive an email with a link to our Client portal, where there will be a document for you to complete that will allow us to get going on your file. This same secure portal will then be used for all future communication and exchange of documents with you.
- We will then do all the necessary searches and prepare the documents before calling you in to sign and bring in a copy of the key. We try to schedule these for one week before closing.
- We will send the Transfer of Land and the key to the purchaser’s lawyer in trust that they don’t register it or give their client the key until they have signed all their documents and provided us with the purchase monies. If part of the purchase prices is coming from a mortgage being arranged by the purchaser, then I will try to work with the other lawyer to use Protocol closing or title insurance to be able to release the money to you on the date of possession. If they are unable, we will ask for the down payment on possession and the balance plus interest once they obtain the mortgage monies.
- Once we have the full purchase monies, we will pay out any amounts necessary to discharge mortgages, loans, etc. associated with the property, the real estate commission, and our fees and disbursements.
- You will receive a report and statement of account for all fees and disbursements, along with your net sale proceeds.
Fees
Legal fees start at $625 for a standard purchase and $525 for a mortgage, but additional fees may apply depending on the value of the property and additional complexity such as interim financing, condominium documents, new construction. In some situations a discount may be applied, such as when we are acting for both the Purchaser and Seller, government employees with relocation services, or charitable funding.
Here is our General Residential Fee Schedule:
| Residential Purchase | Fee |
|---|---|
| Basic purchase | $625 |
| – Mortgage financing | +$525 |
| – Price over $300,000 | +$100 / $100,000 |
| – New home/condo from a builder | +$195 |
| – Payment in stages | +$195/stage |
| – Condominium | +$195 |
| – Private/non-realtor purchase | +$295 |
| – Lenders that require banking documents to be signed | +$295 |
| – Also acting on behalf of Seller | (-$120) |
| Residential Sale | Fee |
|---|---|
| Basic sale | $625 |
| – Mortgage/Lien/Loan to be paid out | +$425 each |
| – Price over $500,000 | +$100 / $100,000 |
| – Private/non-realtor sale | +$325 |
| – Interim Financing / Bridge Loan | +$325 |
| – Also acting on behalf of Purchaser | (-$120) |
| Miscellaneous | Fee |
|---|---|
| – Video Witnessing appointment | +$100 |
| – House/Office call (subject to availability) | +$425/hour |
| – Separate appointments | +$100 each |
| – Rush file (closing within 7 days of receipt of Offer to Purchase or mortgage instructions received within 7 days of closing) | +$325 |
| – Revenue Property (2 suites or less) | $395 |
| – Revenue Property (3 suites or more) | Commercial rates apply |
Disbursements & Other Costs
Disbursements vary, and will include ordering of tax certificates, title searches, and land titles registration fees and taxes. I believe in doing full due diligence to ensure you know what you are Disbursements vary, but include ordering of tax certificates, title searches, and land titles registration fees and taxes. I believe in doing full due diligence to ensure you know what you are buying and there are no surprises.
- One decision for the purchaser to make is whether to order Title Insurance, or obtain a Building Location Certificate from a Manitoba Land Surveyor and then confirm it complies with Zoning laws by obtaining a Zoning Memorandum from the municipality. Costs can vary based on the property, so consulting a surveyor is your best option. Title Insurance premiums range from $150-$950 on average, but exact pricing depends on a number of factors regarding the specific property and mortgage. As a general rule, Title Insurance is less expensive than a survey, and may provide greater protections in some areas and less in others. Title Insurance may also be required by some lenders.
- Land titles search and registration fees and land transfer tax are the largest disbursement for the purchaser, and can be easily calculated by going to the Teranet Manitoba website (https://teranetmanitoba.ca/land-titles/land-titles-fees/) but an average home purchase of $500,000 with a mortgage will incur the following land titles expenses:
- Title Search $31 each x 2 = $62
- Copies of Documents $22 each x 2 =$44
- Transfer of Land $128
- Mortgage $128
- Land Transfer Tax $7,650