Insight

The Importance of Skilled Counsel for High Value Property Transactions

"Market nuances can be hazardous to navigate, and so considerable time, effort and pain savings can be benefitted from through engaging with an experienced local representative."

When it comes to High Value Property Transactions, especially those that involve assets that carry emotional value, such as ‘home’, absolute trust and confidence in a skilled and knowledgeable lawyer is essential.

For such a significant personal transaction, not only might a bulk transaction style approach lack sufficient perspective to ensure thorough enough evaluation of all formal considerations, but such a professional will most likely also lack a proper understanding of what it is that is personally important to you.

‘Piling them high and selling them cheap’ has never been a model that fits particularly well with our approach. It certainly has a place in the market and may prove sufficient for certain transaction types, however in order to make such a model work, something has to give. What we have found to be better fitting, especially for High Value or High-Emotive Property Transactions, and certainly for more involved transactions in general, is a deeper relationship approach delivered through a highly personalised service. This permits for the advice provided to go beyond just ticking boxes; when you have an open and trusting relationship with your lawyer, a direct relationship with the senior individual that is managing your affairs, so much more can be achieved.

Knowledge and experience of the domestic environment should also be ‘a given’, but is so often overlooked when selecting the right lawyer. Market nuances can be hazardous to navigate, and so considerable time, effort and pain savings can be benefitted from through engaging with an experienced local representative. Further to domestic market appreciation, a legal professional with a tried and tested local market network (lenders, other lawyers, surveyors, architects, builders etc), can also prove to be invaluable, particularly when it comes to more complicated transactions or personal relocation issues. The same goes for having someone you can trust to explain, negotiate and resolve issues on your behalf on the occasions when transactions don’t run as smoothly as had been hoped.

Everything should be built up from a solid foundation of understanding; it is prudent to develop a relationship with a representative who has taken the time to properly get to know what you hope to achieve, what your individual needs are, and the pressures that may be unique to your circumstances. Moving forward following a High-Value Property Transaction, this relationship investment will show continued dividends when it comes to further needs such as wills and estate planning, or even through advice and execution on the establishment of a Trust structure for wealth and succession planning.