TLDR: A real estate lawyer handles the legal side of property: reviewing and negotiating purchase agreements, fixing title problems, preparing deeds and land contracts, guiding for-sale-by-owner deals, and litigating disputes over boundaries, easements, and seller nondisclosure. Michigan does not require an attorney at closing; title companies run most residential closings, and a clean agent-listed sale often needs no lawyer at all. The attorney earns their place when something is nonstandard: an FSBO deal, a land contract, an inherited property, a title surprise, or a commercial purchase. The title company protects the transaction; a real estate lawyer is the only one at the table working just for you.
Most Michigan homebuyers go their whole transaction without meeting a real estate lawyer, because Michigan does not require one. The title company runs the closing, the agents run the deal, and everything works until the deal is not standard. Then people find out what the job actually covers, usually a little later than they should have.
Here is what a real estate lawyer does, what the title company does instead, and the short list of situations where hiring one early is obviously right.
The Short Version
A real estate lawyer handles the legal side of property: reviewing and negotiating purchase agreements before they are signed, resolving title problems, preparing deeds and land contracts, guiding transactions that have no agent in them, reviewing commercial purchases and leases, and litigating property disputes. The work splits the same way all law does: transactional (documents and deals) and litigation (what happens when a deal or a boundary goes wrong). Some attorneys do only one side. The drafting is better when the same firm has litigated the failures.
What a Real Estate Lawyer Handles Day to Day
- Purchase agreement review. Reading the contract before you sign it, tightening inspection and financing contingencies, and catching the addendum that quietly shifted a risk onto you. The most useful hour in the whole engagement, because it happens while the deal can still change.
- Title problems. Old liens that were paid but never released, breaks in the chain of title, surprise co-owners, easements nobody mentioned. The title company will flag these; fixing them is attorney work.
- Deeds. Warranty, quitclaim, and lady bird deeds, each with different consequences for what the buyer receives and what the seller promises. The wrong deed is a common and avoidable source of later litigation.
- Land contracts. Seller financing is common in Wayne County, and a land contract drafted from an internet template produces more litigation per page than any other residential document. Drafting it properly, or reviewing one before you sign, is core work.
- For-sale-by-owner deals. With no agent, nobody is producing the paperwork. The attorney drafts the purchase agreement, coordinates the title company, prepares seller documents, and reviews the closing statement, covering the paperwork half of what an agent does.
- Leases and landlord-tenant matters. Drafting and reviewing residential and commercial leases, and handling evictions and deposit disputes in the district courts.
- Commercial transactions. Purchases, sales, and leases of business property, with the due diligence, zoning, and environmental questions residential deals never see. Our commercial real estate practice covers this side in depth.
- Disputes. Quiet title actions, boundary and easement fights, land contract defaults, and seller nondisclosure claims, in the district courts and the Wayne County Circuit Court.
Agent vs. Title Company vs. Attorney: Who Does What
The three roles get blurred constantly, and the confusion is where buyers get hurt:
| Role | Works for | What they do | What they don’t do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real estate agent | The sale (paid on commission) | Pricing, marketing, showings, negotiating the deal terms | Legal advice, title problems, drafting beyond standard forms |
| Title company | The transaction | Title search and insurance, closing package, running the closing | Represent you, negotiate, flag risk in the contract |
| Real estate attorney | You | Contract review and negotiation, title fixes, deeds, disputes | Pricing and marketing the property |
The sentence worth remembering: in a Michigan closing, the attorney is the only person at the table whose job is you.
Do You Actually Need One in Michigan?
An honest list, because plenty of deals do not need us. Michigan is a title-company state, and a clean agent-listed sale of a subdivision house usually closes without a lawyer and without incident.
Hire one when the deal is nonstandard, and nonstandard is usually visible before you sign: a for-sale-by-owner transaction, a land contract on either side, property coming out of an estate or trust, anything the title work turns up, a divorce or co-ownership complication, or any commercial purchase. Our walkthrough of what happens at a Dearborn closing shows where each of these tends to surface in the timeline.
Do Real Estate Lawyers Go to Court?
Some never do; they draft and refer disputes out. Others only litigate. We do both, and in real estate the combination pays twice: the litigator already understands your deal when a dispute starts, and the contracts get drafted by people who have watched contract language fail in front of a judge. A seller disclosure form, an easement description, or a land contract forfeiture clause reads differently once you have litigated one.
What a Real Estate Lawyer Does Not Do
- Price or market the property. That is the agent’s job, and a good local agent is worth having. The attorney covers the paperwork side, not the salesmanship.
- Inspect the house or survey the land. Inspectors and surveyors are separate professionals; the attorney tells you what to do about what they find.
- Tax planning. Property transactions have tax consequences (transfer taxes, uncapping of taxable value, capital gains), and the attorney will flag them, but the modeling belongs with your CPA, ideally before signing rather than after.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a real estate attorney do at closing?
Before closing, they review the purchase agreement, the title commitment, and the closing statement, and clear anything that should not survive the closing: open liens, unreleased mortgages, errors in the legal description. At the table, they confirm the documents match the deal you negotiated. In Michigan the title company runs the closing itself, so the attorney’s real work happens in the weeks before, when problems are still fixable and the contract can still be changed.
Do I need a real estate lawyer to buy a house in Michigan?
No. Michigan is a title-company state; no law requires attorney involvement in a standard residential purchase, unlike states such as New York or Georgia where attorneys conduct closings. A clean, agent-listed subdivision sale usually closes fine without one. The deals where a lawyer earns their place are visible in advance: for-sale-by-owner transactions, land contracts, estate or inherited property, anything the title search flags, and commercial purchases.
What is the difference between a title company and a real estate attorney?
The title company works for the transaction; the attorney works for you. A title company searches the title, issues insurance, prepares the closing package, and gets the deal closed, but it does not represent either party, negotiate terms, or advise you that an addendum shifted risk your way. A real estate attorney reads the deal from your side of the table and can push back on it. In a smooth deal the difference is invisible; in a rough one it is the whole point.
When should a seller hire a real estate attorney?
Selling without an agent, selling on a land contract, selling out of an estate or trust, or selling a property with known title wrinkles: an old lien, a co-owner who died, an easement dispute with a neighbor. Sellers also carry the seller disclosure form, which generates a steady stream of Michigan lawsuits when filled out casually. An attorney’s review of that one document is some of the cheapest risk reduction in the deal.
Do real estate lawyers handle landlord-tenant and eviction cases?
Many do, and we do: lease drafting and review on both residential and commercial sides, nonpayment and holdover evictions, and security deposit disputes. In Wayne County, eviction cases are heard in the district court for the city where the property sits. Commercial leases deserve special mention, because they carry none of the protections residential tenants get and are drafted in the landlord’s favor.
Do real estate lawyers go to court?
Some only do transactions and refer disputes out; others litigate. We do both, which matters in real estate more than most fields: quiet title actions, boundary and easement fights, land contract forfeitures, and seller nondisclosure claims all start as documents somebody signed. Attorneys who litigate those cases draft differently, because they have watched specific clauses hold or collapse in front of a judge.
Conclusion
LegalSolv is a Dearborn, Michigan law firm. Our real estate attorneys handle purchases, sales, FSBO deals, land contracts, deeds, leases, and title disputes for buyers, sellers, landlords, and investors across Metro Detroit, in English and Arabic, on both the transactional and litigation sides of the real estate practice. If your deal is the clean kind that does not need a lawyer, we will tell you that on the first call.
Ready to put this into practice? LegalSolv, PLLC was built for exactly this.
