My Cousin Vinnie, the suburban real estate attorney, got vaccinated and felt it was now safe enough for him to visit me in Falmouth and watch me replace some of the electronic equipment on my daughter-in-law’s boat. “Why don’t you pay somebody to do this? It can’t be comfortable scrunched down there inside the little center console messing around with all those wires.” I tried to explain to Vinnie that marine electronics is one of my hobbies, and I enjoy being scrunched up inside the center console, and its very expensive to engage a real boat electronics installer.
“How much could they charge?” Vinnie asked. I told him: “They start at $120.00 per hour, per person, and they usually use two people. They also charge for every rubber glove, rag, wire tie and connector.”
Vinnie couldn’t believe it. “$240.00 an hour!? I was charging $240.00 an hour in 2008! But I know I don’t charge enough. I had to retain counsel to help me with my mother’s estate, and it was not inexpensive. Then there was the time I had to retain a litigator for that frivolous little problem a few years back; and that cost me as much as a car! Why don’t real estate attorneys charge like other attorneys?”
At first, I thought he was asking a rhetorical question. After a few moments of silence, I realized he was looking for an answer. I gave him my opinion:
“It’s a tradition. Prior to one of the financial crisis of the 1990’s our good lender clients allowed us to charge $1,000 or more to be lender’s counsel. Then one day, the market died and the fees were cut to a flat fee of around $350 per closing. The fees have not risen considerably since then. We are afraid to raise our fees, because we think people will just take their business elsewhere. The general public is oblivious to the fact that title examinations have become very complicated. Most homes have been sold or refinanced numerous times in the past 20 years, resulting in piles of mortgage paperwork fraught with potential errors. Lenders have come and gone, leaving a trail of mis-prepared or mis-indexed mortgages, assignments and discharges. These days we expect that every title will have a problem, and when we identify the problem, everyone expects us to solve the problem. For gratis.”
“Not to mention that in 1980 a subdivision approval consisted of a two-page decision. Today the decisions are 20 pages long and the records includes a few seven-page declaration documents, a homeowner’s trust and a bunch of easement agreements. Somebody has to read and understand all that stuff.”
Vinnie responded: “And there are still plenty of lawyers out there who prepare documents for less than the registry charges to record them.”
“Everyone wants to save money. I have no sympathy for the guy who bought the lot of land here in Falmouth through an online auction. He admitted that he had not used an attorney, even though, according to the case[i] the buyer owns 13 properties in 5 states. He bought the lot so that he could park some of his 7 vehicles on the lot so he could walk to the free bus that goes to the ferry terminal, and then take the ferry to his summer home on the Vineyard. After a two-year battle with the neighbors, the court determined that the lot was good for planting tomatoes, and not much else.”
“Awesome” said Vinnie. “I wouldn’t be surprised if his litigation expenses cost him more than he paid for the lot.”
[1] [Halewijn v. Hurrie, No. 18 MISC 000697 (RBF), 2020 WL 5094679, (Mass. Land Ct. Aug. 27, 2020), judgment entered,]
“Contemplations, Ruminations and Musings of a Country Lawyer” is Paul Alphen’s regular column in REBA News.
A former REBA president, Paul Alphen currently serves on the association’s executive committee and co-chairs the long-range planning committee. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Abstract Club. He is a partner in the Westford firm of Alphen & Santos, P.C. and concentrates in residential and commercial real estate development, land use regulation, administrative law, real estate transactional practice and title examination. As entertaining as he finds the practice of law, Paul enjoys numerous hobbies, including messing around with his power boats and fulfilling his bucket list of visiting every Major League ballpark. Paul can be contacted at palphen@alphensantos.com.