What a real estate attorney does: the short answer

What does a real estate attorney do in an Illinois home sale? The attorney reviews and modifies the contract during the attorney review period, tracks the inspection and mortgage deadlines, examines the title commitment and survey, prepares or checks the deed and the transfer declarations, reconciles the closing figures, and sits at the closing table. The seller's attorney also orders the payoff letter, obtains the municipal transfer stamps and certificates, and assembles the closing package; the buyer's attorney reads the lender's Closing Disclosure against the contract and clears title problems before the money moves. No Illinois statute requires either side to hire a lawyer, but in Cook County the standard contract is written on the assumption that both sides have one, and real estate agents are not permitted to do the legal parts.

This article describes the job in the order it happens, as of October 2026, using the Multi-Board Residential Real Estate Contract 8.0 that most Chicago-area brokers use. It is written for the person who has just signed a contract and wants to know what the real estate lawyer they were told to hire will actually do.

Do you need a real estate attorney in Illinois?

Illinois law does not require one. Custom does, and so does the division of labor the Illinois Supreme Court drew in Chicago Bar Association v. Quinlan & Tyson, Inc., 34 Ill. 2d 116 (1966). The court held that a broker may fill in the blanks of a form contract, because that is part of the brokerage the broker was licensed to perform, but that drawing or completing deeds, mortgages and the other instruments that clear or transfer title requires the skill of an attorney and is the practice of law. Sixty years later, the result is the Illinois system: the agent negotiates the price and writes up the offer on the Multi-Board form; everything after that, from contract modifications to the deed, is attorney work. A seller without a lawyer has nobody who can lawfully prepare the deed; a buyer without one has nobody on their side who can read a title commitment.

What does a real estate attorney do for a buyer?

  1. Attorney review. Paragraph 13 of the Multi-Board 8.0 contract gives each party's attorney five business days after the Date of Acceptance to approve the contract, disapprove it, or propose modifications. Disapproval "shall not be based solely upon the Purchase Price," and if no notice is served in time the right is waived and the contract stands as written. The buyer's attorney uses the window to fix what the form does not cover: the closing date and possession, what stays with the house, seller credits, the condition of the survey, and the terms of any post-closing possession. Our contract review page covers what a modification letter typically asks for.
  2. Inspection. Paragraph 15 runs on the same five-business-day clock, and only if one of its inspection subparagraphs was initialed; if none was, the form defaults to a waiver of professional inspections. The buyer's attorney serves the inspection notice listing defects, negotiates repairs or a credit, and watches the ten-business-day period after the Date of Acceptance, after which either side may terminate if no written agreement on the inspection issues has been reached. Asking for cosmetic items the contract excludes can hand the seller a right to walk away, which is why the notice is drafted by the lawyer, not pasted from the inspection report; the form in fact forbids sending any part of the report with the notice unless the seller's side asks for it in writing.
  3. Mortgage contingency. Under the financing paragraph (paragraph 8), if the buyer has not applied for the loan within ten business days after the Date of Acceptance the seller may declare the contract terminated, and the financing contingency expires on the earlier of 45 days after acceptance or five business days before closing. The attorney tracks the commitment, requests an extension before the date passes, and makes sure the appraisal and underwriting conditions are not quietly running past the contingency.
  4. Title and survey. The seller delivers an ALTA title commitment with extended coverage and a survey. The buyer's attorney reads both: the legal description against the contract, the exceptions on Schedule B, unreleased mortgages, judgments, unpaid assessments, easements and encroachments, and anything the survey shows crossing a lot line. Problems are raised in writing before closing, when the seller still has a reason to fix them.
  5. Condominium documents. For a condominium, the seller must produce the documents listed in section 22.1 of the Condominium Property Act (765 ILCS 605/22.1) on demand: declaration and bylaws, the unit's assessment account, anticipated capital expenditures, reserves, the association's financial statement, pending suits and insurance. The attorney reads the budget and the special-assessment history, which the listing sheet never mentions.
  6. The Closing Disclosure. Federal rules require the lender to deliver the Closing Disclosure at least three business days before consummation (12 CFR 1026.19(f)). The attorney compares it line by line with the contract: the price, the credits, the prorations, the title charges, and who pays which transfer tax.
  7. Closing. The attorney attends the closing at the title company, explains the loan documents, confirms the deed and the title policy, and does not let the buyer sign until the figures match.

The buyer-side work in more detail is on the real estate attorney for buyers page.

What does a real estate attorney do for a seller?

  • Disclosures before signing. The Residential Real Property Disclosure Act requires the seller to deliver the completed disclosure report "before the signing of a contract" (765 ILCS 77/20). The Illinois Radon Awareness Act requires the radon pamphlet and disclosure before the buyer is obligated under the contract (420 ILCS 46/10). For housing built before 1978, federal law requires the lead-paint pamphlet, disclosure of known hazards and a ten-day opportunity to test (42 U.S.C. §4852d). The seller's attorney confirms all three went out, because a missing disclosure is the buyer's cleanest exit.
  • Attorney review from the seller's side, responding to the buyer's modifications and the inspection notice, and keeping the deal on its deadlines.
  • Title commitment and survey. The seller pays for both under the Multi-Board contract. The attorney orders them, clears the exceptions that are the seller's to clear, and orders the payoff letter from the lender and the paid-assessment letter from any association.
  • The deed and the declarations. The seller's attorney prepares the warranty deed in the form of 765 ILCS 5/9, the bill of sale, the affidavit of title, the ALTA statement, and the state, county and any municipal transfer declaration through the Department of Revenue's MyDec system, which Cook County requires for every conveyance.
  • Transfer taxes and municipal stamps. Illinois transfer tax is $0.50 per $500 of consideration (35 ILCS 200/31-10), Cook County's is $0.25 per $500, and the City of Chicago's is $5.25 per $500, of which $3.75 is paid by the buyer and $1.50 by the seller. Chicago issues no stamp without a water Full Payment Certificate, and several suburbs have their own stamp or inspection requirement. The attorney obtains each one before closing day.
  • The closing package and the proceeds. The seller's attorney delivers the signed documents to the title company, reviews the settlement statement, confirms the payoff and the prorations, and arranges the wire. The seller usually does not need to attend; the attorney does.

What are the prorations the attorney calculates?

Cook County property taxes are billed a year behind, so the seller owes the buyer for the taxes accrued up to closing that have not been billed yet. The contract sets the proration as a percentage of the most recent full-year bill, and the attorney computes the credit, checks whether the Homeowner or Senior Exemption on that bill will carry over, and confirms the first installment due after closing has been paid. Association assessments, rents and security deposits on a two-flat, and prepaid fuel or utilities are prorated the same way.

What happens at an Illinois closing?

The closing takes place at the title company's office or by mail-away signing. The title company acts as settlement agent: it receives the buyer's funds and the lender's wire, pays off the seller's mortgage, pays the transfer taxes and recording fees, issues the title policies, and records the deed and the new mortgage with the Cook County Clerk, whose recording fee for a deed is a flat $107. The buyer's attorney and the seller's attorney each confirm their client's side of the settlement statement before anyone signs. Possession passes at closing unless the contract provides for the seller to stay briefly, in which case each side's attorney will have negotiated a holdback in escrow.

How is a real estate attorney paid in an Illinois closing?

Residential work is usually quoted as a flat fee for the transaction, paid at closing from the settlement statement, with recording fees, courier charges and any municipal certificate fees passed through at cost. We quote the fee in writing before any work begins.

What a real estate agent or title company cannot do

The agent's license covers marketing, negotiating and writing up the offer on the standard form. Under Quinlan & Tyson, the agent cannot draft modifications, give legal advice about the contract, or prepare the deed and closing instruments. The title company insures title and settles the money; it represents neither party and will not advise you whether to accept an exception on Schedule B or whether the seller's credit is enough. The only person at the table whose job is to protect your money is your attorney, and the same lawyer can almost never represent both the buyer and the seller in one sale (ISBA Advisory Opinion 17-04 calls the permissible cases "extremely rare"); we do not.

Why it helps when the real estate attorney is also a CPA

Every closing produces tax consequences that the closing documents record but nobody at the table explains. Hani H. Khatib, Attorney at Law · CPA · LL.M. (Taxation), handles the legal work and reads the tax side in the same engagement:

  • Basis. The Closing Disclosure is the record of your purchase price and the closing costs that add to basis. Keeping it, and knowing which lines count, decides the gain on the day you sell. The IRS explains the rules in Publication 523.
  • The home-sale exclusion. A seller who owned and lived in the home for two of the last five years can exclude up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 on a joint return, under 26 U.S.C. §121. A seller who converted a rental, inherited the house, or is selling after a divorce has a calculation to run before the closing date is set.
  • Investment property. A seller of a rental may want a like-kind exchange, which has to be structured before closing, not after. A buyer of a two-flat is buying a Schedule E business. Our article on commercial contract review covers the larger transactions.
  • Foreign sellers. When the seller is not a U.S. person, the buyer is responsible for withholding under FIRPTA, and the attorney who misses it has made the buyer the taxpayer.

That analysis happens inside the attorney-client privilege, which tax advice from an accountant carries only in a narrow set of federal tax matters. The attorney-CPA page explains the difference.

Frequently asked questions

When should I hire the real estate attorney?

Before you sign the contract if you can, and the same day you sign it if you cannot. The five-business-day attorney review and inspection periods start at the Date of Acceptance, and a lawyer hired on day four has one day to do five days of work.

Does the buyer or the seller pay for the attorney?

Each side pays its own attorney. The seller pays for the title commitment, the survey, the Illinois and Cook County transfer taxes and the seller's $1.50 share of the Chicago tax; the buyer pays the lender's charges, the lender's title policy, the recording of the deed and mortgage and the $3.75 buyer share of the Chicago tax, unless the contract allocates them differently.

Can one attorney represent both buyer and seller?

Almost never. Buyer and seller are directly adverse under Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 1.7, and the Illinois State Bar Association's Advisory Opinion 17-04 concludes that in most circumstances a lawyer cannot represent both and calls the exceptions "extremely rare." The interests conflict at every step, from the inspection credit to the proration. Each side needs its own lawyer, and this firm does not represent both sides of one sale.

What to do next

If you have a contract in hand or expect one this week, call (708) 722-2222 or request a consultation. Send the signed contract and the listing sheet, and tell us the Date of Acceptance. We will confirm the deadlines, send the attorney review letter, and quote the fee in writing before any work begins. The rest of the practice, including deeds, trusts and investment property, is on the real estate attorney page.

General information as of October 4, 2026; not legal advice; laws change; consult a lawyer about your situation.