Questions on practices/protocol for closing in North Carolina

[Alan Taylor]

I'm closing on a property in North Carolina - and the attorney office that is conducting the closing has had some significant communication issues, and has done some odd things (sending wiring instructions to my lender, expecting them to pass it on to me -- then sending it to me in a PDF, via unsecured email).  It's got me wondering whether I have the option of vetting my own closing attorney for future purchases within North Carolina. 

These are some questions I have:

- Can any closing attorney in North Carolina conduct a closing on any property in North Carolina?
- Are both the seller and buyer required to use the same attorney for closing on a property?   In Virginia, each party has the option of choosing their own closing service (either an attorney, or title company) -- what differences should a buyer be aware of  when purchasing properties in North Carolina? 
- As a buyer, are you able to stipulate that you will use a closing attorney of your choice?  Is there a 'generally understood' practice in this regard?  If you have separate representation, who typically covers any additional closing costs?

The place where I'm purchasing is a small(er) town, not as many law offices that offer closing services -- and I don't want to make myself unwelcome or 'blackballed' by any local attorneys, if I can avoid it -- ... I'm just not sure I'd feel comfortable using this particular law office again -- wanting to figure out what my options are in the future.

[Ricky A.]

Not an attorney, but my experience (including both a sale and purchase in the past couple of months) is:

- NC is an attorney close state

- Buyer chooses closing attorney.  Who chose the attorney for you closing?  Were you using an agent?  In almost all my purchases, my agent has asked me if I already had a closing attorney or if I wanted a recommendation.  On my purchase last month, however, I unexpectedly received an engagement letter from a closing attorney.  Turns out my buyers agent had just assumed I would use the one that most of their clients do, so he never asked me who I wanted to use.

- Seller usually uses same closing attorney but can use different attorney (for seller-side  doc prep).  Settlement statement separates out legal costs for each side, so you simply pay actual for whichever side of the deal you're sitting on.  I did this on a sale back in Sept because I didn't want to travel one or two county over to sign docs.  In my case, the two attorneys were charging similar amounts for the seller docs, but I ended up saving a few dollars because the closing attorney wanted to charge an extra fee for me to sign docs before closing!

- Technically, any NC-licensed attorney could probably close, but for practical purposes, it probably only makes sense to use one in the same or a nearby county.  I think some of the less populated counties may not have electronic submission, so only the nearby attorneys will close there.  Even for counties with electronic submission, attorneys who aren't closing there regularly likely aren't willing to close one-offs there.  Even if you're buying in a small town, there's probably a larger city in the same county that has attorneys you could definitely use.  If there's not a big city in the same county, there's almost certainly one in an adjacent county, and they probably do closing in the smaller county.

- As for wiring instruction, yes it's scary that they expected another party to forward instructions to you...that's asking for fraud. However, I've definitely received wiring instructions in PDF via unsecured email.  I always confirm phone number separately (i.e., definitely not via the same email) and then call to confirm the wiring instructions.

You tagged Western NC.  Northwest or southwest?  If you need someone in northwest (e.g., Watauga County, Avery County), I can connect you with the one I used.  I ended up not having any issues with them.