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RETAIN A REAL ESTATE LAWYER RIGHT AWAY: DON’T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE!
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Jonathan A. Hacohen
October 9, 2015
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What an exciting time in your life! You just signed on the dotted line to purchase your 1st home. Or your 10th. A new house. Or resale. Detached house. Condominium unit. No matter the situation- you have a million things going through your mind. Hire movers. Change the property insurance. Forward your mail. Wait. STOP! Before getting too far ahead….have you retained a real estate lawyer yet?
When you enter an Agreement of Purchase and Sale to purchase a new house or condominium unit, the agreement will usually contain a condition for review by a lawyer. But it may not! The new condominium purchase by law has a 10-day rescission (cooling-off) period, where you can get out of the deal during those 10 days if you change your mind. But if you don’t go right away to a real estate lawyer to find out your rights, you may lose out! Once your conditional or cooling-off period has expired, you would ordinarily be deemed under most agreements to be proceeding with the purchase unless you have opted out! In a purchase of a resale house or condominium unit, many Agreements of Purchase and Sale do not have a review by lawyer condition unless one has been inserted.
The bottom line: before signing your name on the dotted line, come speak to one of our real estate lawyers. We will walk you through the Agreement of Purchase and Sale and explain to you your rights and obligations under the agreement. We can recommend potential amendments that could impact your closing, including saving you money, time and stress! If you wait until the last minute to retain your real estate lawyer, you could be out of time. Even if your real estate lawyer recommends changes to your Agreement of Purchase and Sale and they are not accepted, at least you can decide whether to proceed with the transaction with eyes wide-open and having a clear understanding of your transaction.
Information is knowledge. Knowledge is power. When you are ready to purchase real estate: call the Real Estate lawyer right away!
Please feel free to fill out an information form and one of our lawyers will get back to you shortly. We also encourage you to sign up for our newsletter- and receive an update as soon as the latest blog entry is posted.
Thank you for visiting Kormans.ca and be sure to check back often. Please bookmark our site. Tell your friends and family. We look forward to working with you and having you join our legal family!
 
Jonathan
Jonathan (aka “The Chosen Lawyer”) was called to the Ontario Bar in 2002, graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2001 and completed his Bachelor of Business Administration at The Schulich School of Business (York University) in 1998. In addition to being a Partner at Kormans LLP, Jonathan’s journey in law started as an Associate with a large Bay Street law firm, as well as enjoying a secondment working in-house at Tim Hortons (TDL Group) for almost a year!
Jonathan was an Instructor with OREA, teaching the Real Property Law course to future realtors in Ontario. The Chosen Lawyer is a sought-after lecturer at seminars, team meetings and conferences—often speaking to groups including realtors and mortgage brokers on a variety of legal topics including real estate, corporate/commercial and wills/estates law. He also speaks on non-legal topics including Organization, Productivity, Motivation, Work/Life Balance and Mindfulness. Jonathan adopts a zen-like approach to the practice of law and shares his real-life experience with others in order to help them achieve success and happiness! In order to book The Chosen Lawyer for your next session, please email Jonathan at info@kormans.ca
Before entering the legal field, Jonathan chose to study business as he envisioned having a background in all aspects of business (including accounting, economics, finance, marketing and HR) would prove to be very useful as a lawyer—in understanding and communicating with business clients on their respective businesses and industries. Jonathan has a diverse client base, including many first-time home purchasers, residential clients (purchases, sales, refinances, assignment transactions), corporate/commercial clients (real estate transactions, leases, incorporations, shareholder agreements), as well as assisting clients with preparing wills and powers of attorney.
When he is not in the office or in front of a computer, Jonathan can either be found in the gym, boxing ring, learning a new recipe in the kitchen or on a yoga mat. Jonathan has competed with UFE (Ultimate Fitness Events) and is a double medal winner in the physique category! Jonathan is also an avid animal lover and can usually be found with his trusted pal Ollie (Shih-tzu dog) by his side.
Don’t forget to watch episodes of Podcasts/Docuseries hosted by Jonathan “The Chosen Lawyer”TM on the Kormans LLP YouTube channel or listen to it across all podcast players, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify!
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