When most buyers think about what a real estate lawyer does, they picture signing day. In reality, signing is the smallest part of the job. Here are five of the things your lawyer is actually doing between accepted offer and closed file.
1. Reviewing the Agreement of Purchase and Sale
Your lawyer reads the agreement front to back, including every schedule. They flag clauses that put you at risk. Unusual conditions, vague chattel descriptions, schedules that shift cost or risk in the seller's favour. On builder agreements, this review is often the difference between a clean closing and a five-figure surprise.
2. Running the Title Search
A title search confirms the seller actually owns the property and has the right to transfer it. It surfaces:
- Mortgages and other registered liens
- Easements and rights-of-way
- Restrictive covenants and notices
- Any cloud on title that needs to be cleared before closing
Most clean titles can be searched in a day. Messy titles. Old estates, unregistered interests, easements that don't match the survey. Take longer and often require requisitions to the seller.
3. Coordinating with Your Lender
Your lawyer is the bridge between you and your lender. They receive mortgage instructions, confirm the terms match what you agreed to, prepare the mortgage documents, and arrange the mortgage advance for the day of closing. If anything is missing. Appraisal, insurance binder, identification. They chase it down.
4. Calculating Adjustments and Closing Costs
The statement of adjustments balances out everything that's been pre-paid or pre-owed: property taxes, utilities, condo fees, oil tank fills. Your lawyer prepares yours, reviews the seller's, and reconciles the two so that on closing day, every dollar is in the right column.
5. Registering Title and Releasing Funds
On closing day, your lawyer:
- Registers the transfer of title electronically through Ontario's registration system (Teraview)
- Registers the new mortgage at the same time
- Wires the purchase funds to the seller's lawyer
- Confirms key release once the seller's lawyer confirms receipt
That moment of registration is when ownership legally passes. Everything else is logistics around it.
What Most People Don't See
A handful of less visible things also happen on every file: PPSA searches for rental equipment, off-title searches (work orders, building department compliance, tax certificates), insurance binder confirmation, source-of-funds verification. None of it shows up in your closing statement, but all of it has to be done.
If you have a closing on the calendar and want to know exactly what your lawyer is doing for you, get a free quote. We send a clear breakdown with every quote.