Buying property in Indianana

[Alfonso Castillo]

I was just told that I do not need to hire a lawyer when buying property in Indiana. I’ve bought multiple prop in Chicago IL but have always used a lawyer to close.

Has anyone ever purchased and closed on a property without a lawyer? If so what documents and forms am I responsible to get? And what is the seller responsible for? Thanks in advance.

[John Warren]

@Alfonso Castillo this is always confusing for those of us who are used to the way Chicago transacts. I purchased a 20 unit building that I subsequently sold in Indiana, and both times we ended up not using an attorney. Here in Chicago the attorneys are flat fee and are typically very reasonable (maybe $500-700). In Indiana when I tried to engage an attorney they wanted to charge me $300 per hour, etc. 

All you really need is a great title representative. The title rep ends up doing the same work the attorney does in Chicago. As an aside, make sure your title company is great since you have one less layer of oversight at the closing in Indiana versus Illinois. There was a mistake on title made for my first closing that was not caught until we switched to a larger title company/better title company when we sold. I am fairly certain that the attorney would have caught that mistake in Illinois, but in Indiana there isn't a 3rd party checking things over.