Sottile & Hopkins has 1,200 sq. feet of fully furnished and equiped office space available for purchase or lease at our Mount Pleasant office. Please contact Nick Sottile if you are interested.
If you do not have a will when you die, the laws of the State of South Carolina write your will for you. The ramifications can be disastrous. If you are married and have children, your spouse inherits one-half of your estate and your children share equally in the other one-half. This result can leave your spouse owning the marital residence (along with all other assets) with your children-probably not what you or your spouse wanted to occur. If you have minor children, a probate court order will be required to sell the home and ½ of the proceeds from the sale will belong to your children! If you are single then your parents or all of your siblings or even your cousins might inherit your estate, depending on who is living at the time of your death. In almost all cases, our clients prefer to select their heirs rather than have the law do it for them. Wills are relatively inexpensive but many clients procrastinate about tending to this important legal matter. Please call Sottile & Hopkins right away to discuss writing your will or to see if your old will needs updating.
In South Carolina, the law requires that a licensed attorney conduct the closing of the purchase or refinance of real estate and the law also provides that the buyer or the borrower has the right to select the closing attorney. Do not let a lender tell you that you have to use an attorney from their "list." Do not let a seller or lender tell you that the closing can take place in their office without an attorney. They are either ignoring the law or selecting their attorney for you and you will probably pay for it at the closing. Make your own decision to hire a real estate attorney whom you trust to protect your interest and handle the closing in a skilled and competent manner. If you are purchasing or refinancing real estate in the greater Charleston, South Carolina area, one of our experienced attorneys would be happy to handle the closing for you.
This week's topic deals with signing a real estate contract. Generally, real estate agents do a respectable job of filling out pre-printed MLS forms but whether you are buying or selling real estate, we recommend that you have us review the contract before it is signed. Don't rush into signing a contract when you do not fully understand its contents or aren't sure you have all of the legal protections you need. The contract of sale is a legally binding agreement that sets the rules for your closing. The better-drafted the contract is, the smoother the closing should be.
Do you want a "time is of the essence" clause in your contract?
Do you want an inspection contingency?
Should you obtain a current survey of the property? Are you or the other party effecting a I.R.S. Section 1031 exchange? What if the lender can't be ready by the scheduled closing date? If you default, do you just lose your earnest money deposit or can you be sued for damages? Does non-resident withholding apply to the seller? Do you have to close on the sale of your current property in order to buy the new property? Are you buying from an estate, or from a seller who must obtain lender approval for a short sale? We are happy to review the contract with you to address all of the issues as part of our closing fee. As Ben Franklin put it, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Nick Sottile served as the Buyer's attorney in Monday's closing of the purchase of Carolina's Southern Bistro, one of Charleston's oldest fine-dining restaurants. The Restaurant is located at 10 Exchange Street in the heart of Charleston's historic district. Sottile said, "business transactions are my first love in the practice of law. They can be very challenging and complex but I find them very satisfying and I get to meet a lot of interesting and successful people."
We are a general practice law firm serving the greater Charleston, SC area. Our attorneys handle business transactions, real estate, criminal defense, family law, wills and probate, and municipal law
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