A typical pattern of land division in rural areas is for property to be divided among children following the death of their parents.

The founding generation might have started with 1,000 acres. Three or four generations later each lot might contain only 25 to 50 acres. Eventually, a family member sells a piece of the original property to someone outside the family—and to get the best price, to someone from outside the community.

This upside-down ownership tree is common, and I saw a recent example of how it can create an endless nightmare for an unsuspecting buyer.

The current generation of six sons owned their parents’ land (itself a product of earlier divisions) as an inheritance. Donnie, Ronnie, Lonnie, Dopey, Doc and Cranky Bear owned about 75 acres each, and each had a house on his property. Lonnie found a buyer at $600,000, about three times what any of his brothers individually or collectively would pay.

The first problem in this pending sale was the issue of a road easement over Lonnie for Donnie, Ronnie, Dopey and Doc whose properties lay behind his. Dopey lived year-round on his property, and the others had built hunt camps that they used during seasons and on weekends.

The four back-lot brothers used one road that came off the state-maintained highway and bisected Lonnie’s place. Since the four parcels in the back had always been part of the same family’s holdings, no one had ever thought to “do up a paper” providing for legal access over the common road. The road everyone used passed by Lonnie’s house, and he, too, used it as a driveway.

The buyer wanted to know how many parties had a right to use the road. His lawyer ran the deed search back 60 years as state law required and found no easement to any of the four boys. Then he went back as far as possible; same story. When Donnie, Ronnie, Dopey and Doc were informed that they did not have a legal right to use Lonnie’s road by way of recorded easement, they were unhappy, as might be expected.

The back lots could be accessed over land other than Lonnie’s, but everyone had always used that road. It was convenient, and they had always shared in the maintenance. No one wanted to change.

But change was in the offing. If Lonnie’s sale went through, the buyer could gate off the road to the brothers or write the four a letter saying that he extended permission (a license, is the legal term) for them to continue to use it at his pleasure and subject to immediate revocation. If the buyer did nothing, the brothers could begin the clock of adverse use that might eventually establish their legal right to use the road.

The lawyer advised the buyer that the law probably supported him if he chose to deny access. The lawyer doubted that a claim by the brothers of prescriptive easement or prescription by necessity would be upheld.

But the lawyer said a successful lawsuit would leave lingering resentments, whether the buyer won or lost. The newcomer would be surrounded by the historic family, all of whom hated his guts. Future disputes over fencing, trespass, nuisance activities and so on were likely.

If the buyer granted or sold easements to Donnie, Ronnie, Dopey and Doc, they were not likely to agree to prohibit future subdivision of their properties. So the buyer might face as many as 12 road users rather than the brothers four.

And then there was the problem of the spring right. Lonnie’s house was served by a drilled well. But before the well had been installed, the house had drawn water from a spring across the state road, now owned by Cranky Bear. The spring hadn’t been used in at least 60 years, but a trickle of water still ran out of the old iron pipe at Lonnie’s place.

The buyer wanted spring water, not, as he put it, “drilled water.”  In his mind, the difference between the two was large.

The seller’s broker found a deed that mentioned a spring right. He gave the deed to the buyer, showing, he said, that the buyer had a legal right to draw from a spring. Unfortunately, the spring that the deed referred to was on Dopey, not Cranky Bear.

Cranky Bear suddenly discovered a renewed interest in the spring that he had never used. He would not sell the buyer a right to it. Nor would he trade his spring right for the buyer granting an access right to his four brothers. Dopey was willing to trade access for a spring right “on him.” His three brothers were angered by what they considered Dopey’s “sellout deal.”

When I was told about this situation, I advised the buyer to use his study contingency to walk away from the contract. While I thought the spring right was something the buyer could live without, the situation with the back-lot brothers would fester and find other expressions. Hard feelings would not soften over time.

Lonnie, the seller, could have avoided most, if not all, of this mess had he deeded an access easement to his brothers (with future division restrictions) and secured a spring right from Cranky Bear before he listed his property and accepted a contract.

The buyer was made aware that it’s a bad idea to move into a new place where all of your immediate neighbors are hostile, and Cranky Bear is down right mean.

But when might it make sense to ignore the advice of professionals you’ve hired to advise you?

No one-size-fits-all answer exists. Those of us with a few years etched into our faces have encountered lawyers, doctors, consultants, brokers, agents, engineers, surveyors and others who have given us wrong advice. Most of the time we get reasonably good advice from those we hire. Sometimes, you get both types from the same person.

Here are a few situations where I would follow my own lights.

1. When the professional’s self interest, not the client’s, seems to be driving the advice.

Twenty years ago, I asked a roofer to come by to fix a small hole in a standing-seam metal roof that was 80 years old. He advised replacing the whole roof. I told him to fix the hole—a $100 job, rather than a $2,500 new roof. The patch is still good. I learned, subsequently, that he routinely urged full replacements whether or not circumstances required them. He would make more money on a new roof, which was the source of his advice. This is true for many trades and professions–mechanics, builders, doctors, piano tuners, among others.

As a property buyer, I once sat in the office of my lawyer while he advised me to go ahead with a purchase that had no deeded access. “You have it by prescription,” he counseled. Maybe, maybe not, I thought. No judge had established the seller’s right to access by prescription in a court case. Whether the seller’s claim to prescriptive use met all of the state’s tests was undetermined. What was not ambiguous, however, was the likelihood of an expensive lawsuit that may or may not have succeeded. I rejected the lawyer’s advice and never used him again.

I have had real-estate agents, presumably representing my interests in a purchase, cheerlead for me to buy, despite many yellow flags and occasional red ones. Sometimes they would subtly minimize negatives and focus on positives. Other times it’s been blatant go-for-it with the idea that all problems can be worked out after closing, at my expense.

2. When the professional’s advice seems to be founded in a conflict of interest.

A lawyer who proposes to represent both sides at closing is worth examining even though this arrangement works well in certain circumstances. It’s not a format for most purchases in my opinion. I recall how furious I was many years ago when I showed up for a closing only to discover that “my” lawyer was also representing the seller.

Similarly, dual agency — when a broker/agent represents both buyer and seller — can involve not playing square with one side or the other. I’ve seen dual agents work primarily for the deal (their commission), even though it was not in the best interest of one or both parties.

I’ve seen examples where local professionals involved in a land deal have had pre-existing relationships with either the seller or the buyer, usually the former. These can involve prior work (or anticipated future work), friendship, membership in the same club or church, or kinship. I’m not sure that disclosure of such relationships (or conflicts of interest) is sufficient protection, but it’s a start.

Finally, I’ve seen brokers either encourage a sale or discourage a particular buyer, because they owned property adjacent to the subject real estate that would either benefit or not.

3. When the professional’s counsel doesn’t make sense–analytically, tactically or strategically.

This is not a matter of substituting your gut feelings for paid professional advice. Each of us has to be honest with ourselves about what it is that we know (which is different from beliefs, hunches and dice-rolling), don’t know, can’t learn in time or lack the context and experience for understanding. But it’s possible that your knowledge is superior to the person you’ve hired on some things but not all things.

Take, for instance, stock picking. Even a schnook like me occasionally has a hunch about a stock, and it goes up. Hunches should not override the advice of a financial analyst who knows a company, its industry, the trends and the pitfalls. Stock-pickers make mistakes and wrong judgments, but their methods over time and over many stock decisions should prove to have better outcomes than my notions. I don’t play the market, and I don’t play hunches on stocks. (The last word on intuitive stock-picking must belong to Mr. Madoff, who, when asked by SEC investigators in 2006 to explain his success, said: “Some people [like me] feel the market.” He failed to add that the market he felt was that of his investors, not the DJIA.)

When I’ve disagreed with a professional’s advice, I’ve talked it through with that individual. Over the years, I’ve come to know those parts of my judgment that have proven to be reliable and those that have been less so. If you’re young and inexperienced, bring in some helpers who have relevant experience.

Remember that your goal is to solve the real-estate problem. You want to make the best choice. You want more options on your table rather than fewer. Your discussion with your advisor is not a personal tussle. It’s simply a matter of making the best decision you can in the circumstances with the information available to you at that time. If you disagree with your advisor, don’t personalize it. Keep the discussion on a business basis. If you find that you distrust the advice you’re getting more and more often, get a new advisor.

I’ve often found that getting more information swings a decision one way or the other. If your advisor objects to more investigation or a second opinion, find another.

I think you should listen to your gut when you feel doubts about your direction or cornered by the circumstances of your deal. Then, it’s time to stop, reassess, get more information, change direction, go forward or turn around. Professionals can help in a focused rethinking. Whenever you feel that your professional is advocating too hard for a particular position or refusing to give you direction when you ask for it, it’s time to reevaluate and find someone else.

If a piece of advice fails to convince me, I get a second opinion, or even a third.

I’ve also come to listen for excessive qualifications on advice, which may or may not be voiced explicitly. No one has a crystal ball, but if I sense too many “generally speakings” or “typicallys,” I get the sense that my advisor is not sure of his counsel.

When all is said and done, each of us is responsible for what we do and don’t do.

Don’t follow professional advice blindly, but don’t override it for the wrong reasons.

My wife — who is a certifiable her and a dirt lawyer to boot — still, occasionally, gets asked to do up papers, for which she was once paid in homemade horseradish and day-old Krispy Kremes. Those days are fading. I encourage her to work for cash.

The simplest property transaction now involves much paperwork to comply with local, state and federal regulations. Buyers need to understand these matters. Mortgage documents, which buyers rarely see prior to closing, are usually long, impenetrable and one-sided; their boilerplate is rarely subject to negotiation between borrower and lender.

The purchase offer is typically a pre-printed form supplied to a buyer by either an agent representing the seller or the FSBO seller.  I’ve seen FSBOs hand “contracts” to buyers that the seller himself had drafted. The seller and his agent may delete, amend or add language to the standard contract before handing it to the buyer.

I encourage buyers to become familiar with all of the documents involved in a purchase before submitting an offer to anyone for anything. These include the documents arising from regulations, financing, deed, title search/certificate, title insurance, survey, inspections and so on. Becoming familiar with these complicated documents should involve going through them with an experienced real-estate lawyer.

One type of “paper” — the buyer’s contract offer — can be made subject to a contingency that allows the buyer’s lawyer to approve it before it binds the buyer. In addition to protecting a buyer against adverse language, a lawyer’s review can guard a buyer against making an offer that a seller’s agent unduly shapes.

The job and responsibility of the seller’s agent is to work to get the best deal for his client—the seller. Buyers have complained about (and sued) real-estate agents, because they believed they sustained harm from a lack of clarity and/or understanding of agency obligations in the buy-sell process. The buyers said they were not informed or did not understand that the agent working with them represented the seller, and, for that reason, one or more terms were included in the contract offer that worked against the buyer’s best interests.

A just-released, free publication from the American Homeowners Foundation, Home Buyers’ Guide to Real Estate Representation, explains agency from a buyer’s perspective. (www.americanhomeowners.org; AHF@AmericanHomeowners.org.) Possible confusion over buyer’s agency, dual agency, exclusive buyer’s agency and seller’s agency is one reason why more buyers are using a lawyer-review contingency in their proposals.

Earlier columns have discussed the need for a buyer to understand the boilerplate in the pre-printed offer form, which turns into a binding contract between buyer and seller, upon the last required signature.

But sometimes a buyer has to move quickly and for whatever reason doesn’t have the opportunity to read through the standard contract with his local lawyer’s help before having to sign an offer.

In those circumstances, a buyer can add a contingency that reads something like one of these two options:

1.  This offer is contingent on the review, possible modification and approval of this offer by the buyer’s attorney to take place within 7 business days of its submission to the seller.

2.  This offer is contingent on its review and approval by the buyer’s attorney to take place within 7 business days of the last required signature being affixed to this proposed contract.

The first option allows a lawyer’s review and alteration prior to submitting a final version to the seller. This is, in my opinion, a more straight-forward approach for a buyer to take, because it involves his lawyer as part of the offer-drafting process.

The second option allows a buyer to void an accepted offer if his lawyer objects to some provision (or, to be honest about it, if the buyer gets cold feet). Negotiation can take place to try to resolve the objections before the deal dies. But I think a seller would be miffed at a buyer taking a second bite out of his apple this far along in the process. If a buyer uses the second option, he should take care to explain his intentions and concerns to the seller just in case his lawyer finds a deal-killing problem.

Contingencies can be used either in good faith or as tactics to recast an offer’s terms once the seller is invested in a deal. A lawyer-review contingency can function in both ways, but it ought to be limited to protecting a buyer’s interests rather than advancing them at the last minute.

The tasks of the seller’s lawyer can be divided into two stages—before the contract is signed and after.

Before a contract is in place, many sellers rely on their lawyer for help in drafting the terms of their sale and reviewing a listing agreement, if one is involved. The attorney may offer advice on many issues, such as whether or not to divide the property, impose a development-limiting covenant, keep a right of first refusal on a future sale or reserve one or more interests (such as minerals, the right to timber within 10 years to certain specifications, the right to hunt or carve out an access easement to property the seller is not selling).

The seller should review contract language with his lawyer before authorizing his agent to use the agent’s standard contract and its boilerplate with interested buyers. Most lawyers have worked up their own “standard” real-estate contract over the years, and this may be the document a seller prefers to use. The agent’s contract may be fine “as is,” but the prudent seller should talk over its provisions with his lawyer in advance of using it with any buyer.

If you find yourself in circumstances where you have to sign a contract before reviewing it with your lawyer, add the following seller contingency: This contract is contingent on review and approval by the seller’s attorney to occur within seven business days of the last dated signature on this contract.

If you are a FSBO, it’s advisable to collaborate on a contract with your lawyer rather than draft one on your own, pull one off the Internet or lift one out of a legal forms book. Internet sites and forms books can get you started, but I would always have a local real-estate lawyer review the final contract before using it with a buyer.

The seller should consult his lawyer as offers come in and counter-offers are made. Certain proposals will have adverse or beneficial tax implications, which an experienced real-estate lawyer will be able to flag for his seller.

The second stage of legal work for a seller begins once a signed contract is in hand. The buyer’s lawyer will search the title to make sure it is free of defect. The seller’s lawyer takes the lead in resolving the problem.

Once the buyer’s lawyer gives a green light on the title, the seller’s lawyer drafts the deed that conveys the property to the buyer. This is usually a simple job of reusing the language from the deed into the seller and updating it with whatever changes might be required.

Where the seller’s property has improvements (residence, structures), the seller’s lawyer will typically get the seller to sign a mechanic’s lien waiver, which states that either no one who has done work on the property for a certain period of time prior to closing remains unpaid or that the seller promises to pay any such bill prior to closing.

The provisions of this type of waiver vary from state to state.

Prior to closing, the seller’s lawyer will review the proposed settlement statement that the buyer’s lawyer has prepared. Debits and credits will be reviewed, and the math checked.

The seller’s lawyer should get the pay-off number from any lender holding a note secured by the property and give this information to the seller and the buyer’s lawyer.

The seller’s lawyer should prepare a certificate of satisfaction that shows the seller had paid off any such lender. This certificate is recorded after closing.

The seller’s lawyer represents the seller during closing.

Sellers should look for a lawyer who has negotiating and problem-solving skills. Many of these tasks are routine, but the seller’s lawyer is needed when a problem has to be solved quickly to save the deal.

1. Get yourself organized. Good real-estate lawyers prefer clients who have organized their own objectives and needs before they come for an interview. Think through the following: type of property you want; size range; features (open, woods, crops, etc.); with or without an existing residence; price range; need for borrowing; your capacity for doing repairs; your financial and personal objectives for the property; whether the property will be a transition platform to full-time residence in the county; what your needs are in a county’s service infrastructure and so on.

Talk about your need for legal services and for general advice.

2. Understand what a lawyer is not. Lawyers are not mind-readers; they can’t help you if you don’t have at least a general idea of what you want. Lawyers are not therapists; don’t expect a real-estate lawyer to fix your emotional and psychological issues.

Lawyers vary in their familiarity with the federal tax implications of farms operated as profit-making businesses, hobby farms, rental properties, timberland, conservation properties and the like. I advise getting a tax-savvy local CPA involved at the start for this type of advice, though some lawyers may be as knowledgeable.

If you sense that you are asking for information beyond what the lawyer knows, don’t push it. If you feel that the lawyer doesn’t want to share information with you, go to the next candidate.

3. Look for minimum chemistry. Lawyers are like everyone else: You will get along with some, and not others. If you do not feel personally comfortable with the lawyer you’re interviewing, move on. It will only get worse.

If I get a sense that the lawyer does not like me, or my kind (whatever that is), I walk.

I look for verbal intelligence, local knowledge and flexibility. I want someone who will work with me, not just someone who will work for me.

I rule out pompous, insufferable know-it-alls (who usually don’t).  I also rule out lawyers who make grammatical mistakes in their writing. I have found sloppy writers are sloppy lawyers.

4.  Local knowledge. The out-of-county buyer should be seeking a range of local information from his lawyer beyond legal expertise.  Ask about different neighborhoods, personalities, crime (particularly break-ins and vandalism of second homes if that’s what you’re proposing to do), zoning, local politics, plans to develop particular areas, places to avoid and vendors (excavators, contractors, surveyors, consulting foresters, lenders, brokers, inspectors,  etc.) to use/avoid.

5.   Local real-estate experience. I use an arbitrary 10-year-minimum rule. I may exclude a great young lawyer, but it’s a trade that usually works out for the best. I also avoid really old lawyers who won’t type and avoid computers and the Internet.

I’m looking for someone who has worked on a range of local real-estate issues beyond researching titles. I test for problem-solving and negotiating abilities.

By 10 years, a local real-estate lawyer will know many of the problem properties in a county—those with access issues, bad dirt, quarrelsome neighbors, hinky titles and so on.

6.  Skills. I can’t judge in an interview whether a lawyer is a good brief writer, a shrewd litigator or a skilled advocate. But I can get a sense of his intellectual traits. So I look for organized, methodical, analytical intelligence; a sense of humor; a sense of perspective about the foibles of life; the kinds of questions he asks; what he says he doesn’t know when I ask; and how good a fit he seems to be with the kind of work I will need.

7. Props. I look for individuality, even a quirky streak, in office props. I look for clues as to how the lawyer likes to distinguish himself. I want to know what this lawyer takes pride in.

8. Degrees. I admit it: Law degrees from tougher law schools mean something to me. It doesn’t mean that a lawyer from a “lesser” school is dumber. It means that the holder of the harder degree has been tested in a competitive environment, not an easier one.

Graduates of lower-ranked schools may have made those choices for reasons of money or family, not for lack of intelligence and a willingness to swim with toothed fish.

I don’t rule out lawyers from lower-ranked law schools by any means. I’m always willing to throw out my own bias. I have found, however, that I work better with smarter lawyers than with dumber ones, though degrees don’t determine smartness or dumbness.

9.  Connection. I look for some common life experience, such as same age, political outlook, organizational memberships, lifestyle, and so on.

10. Money. When I interview lawyers, I say at the top that the billing clock should start. I am using their time and gaining knowledge from the discussion. That’s worth a lot. I am not looking for free legal advice. I’m looking for fair value, fair billing and frankness.

Hourly rates are often misleading. The cheaper lawyer on an hourly basis may simply pad in more hours for the same work to even things out—from his point of view. I try to get a sense of the market hourly rate for similarly situated lawyers in a community. I make a point of saying that I want to authorize work before a lawyer does it.

11.  Sex. (Or should I say gender?)  The biggest idiot lawyers I’ve run into were men–stupid, lazy, deceitful, incompetent and unpleasant. I’ve also worked with and been represented by smart, capable male lawyers who I would use again. On real estate, I prefer working with female lawyers, notwithstanding that I’ve married two.

Paying for a few hours of general discussion time with several local lawyers is money well spent. Use this time wisely. Have questions written out in advance. If you don’t like what you hear, say your thank-yous, pay at the desk and look for someone else.

Most of us seek a personal connection when searching for a new lawyer. We feel word-of-mouth references can be trusted. My experience is that the value of such references depends on the source. If the source is relatively unknown to the buyer, the value of the referral is anybody’s guess.

If you don’t have a trusted local contact whose experience can screen local lawyers, you might try talking to the clerk who handles deed recordation and more than one local lender. Be wary of a lender or real-estate broker who recommends only one lawyer—it might be the lawyer on the bank’s board or the lawyer with whom the broker has some personal tie. Steering of this type can be either a favor done to keep you away from the bad eggs or a self-interested ploy to direct your business away from equally good eggs for reasons that have nothing to do with competence.

Internet sites, the local Chamber of Commerce, Martindale-Hubbell and the state bar directory can turn up names. www.findlaw.com depends on lawyers registering on the site, so all lawyers are not included. Martindale includes only those lawyers who pay for this service. In small rural counties, local real-estate lawyers may see no reason to pay for a Martindale listing.

As cumbersome and as outdated as it is, I think the hard-copy yellow-pages phone book is the best first step to finding a local lawyer in a new community. (The online edition requires that you know the lawyer’s name to do a search. When I typed in lawyer for Monterey, Virginia, where two lawyers practice [one of whom is my wife], neither came up.)

The hard-copy yellow pages shows what local lawyers say about themselves, locally. Look for “real estate” as one of the lawyer’s principal practice areas. If it’s listed first, it’s the major practice area.

A buyer can go into the courthouse and check through the most recent deed book to see which lawyers are doing the most real-estate work. I would not rely on this search technique alone.

An out-of-county buyer can also ask his lawyer at home to provide a couple of contacts.

I prefer country lawyers who are sole practitioners or in a very small practice. The bigger firms charge higher rates and, generally, assign deed research to a paralegal. I also prefer working with women. My experience is that they are smarter and more flexible than male country lawyers generally speaking, but I’ve found exceptions that demonstrate the opposite. I look for someone with at least 10 years of real-estate experience in that county.

As a rule, I want a lawyer who practices in the county where I have targeted a property search. Out-of-county lawyers might have fancier offices and spiffier law degrees, but they’re not likely to know as much about local people and conditions as the local practitioner. The best deals I’ve negotiated as a buyer have involved high-priced out-of-county lawyers who knew nothing at all about what the sellers were selling. These guys weren’t dumb; they were just ignorant.

I advise against asking the seller to recommend a lawyer, except perhaps as a way to find out who the seller likes.  Brokers and agents representing the seller might be asked to provide names of two or three local lawyers.

A buyer can place more confidence in a referral from a broker or agent representing the buyer, though I would check out that reference too. I think it’s probably true that a buyer is likely to get the best referral from an agent who works exclusively for buyers, but I have no way of testing that generalization.

A buyer should schedule an appointment with at least two of the lawyers turned up.

Next week, I’ll discuss what a buyer looks for when interviewing a real-estate lawyer.

Typically, the buyer signs the contract and then asks his lawyer to check into the seller’s deed and chain of title, and be present at closing. Other tasks may arise.

Title work is fairly routine and easy, except when it is not. When title problems are serious – lack of a deeded right of way, mismatch between the calls in the deed and the boundaries established on the ground, a break in the title chain, or disputed ownership issues – the buyer needs a competent lawyer.

A quick look at the seller’s deed and title chain prior to placing a contract on the seller’s property can often alert buyer, lawyer and seller to deed and title issues in advance of signing an offer. The issues, when known in advance, can modify the offer and give the seller a heads up.

A routine title check looks into documents that are recorded in the local office where deeds are kept. Most lawyers do not make inquiries into the possible presence of unrecorded encumbrances on the seller’s property, such as an oral life estate or an agreement that allows a third party to hunt the land. I’ve even once had a lawyer who I had to tell to for mineral ownership, which he did not routinely do on his own.

I encourage clients to use their lawyer for other matters, principally advice.

Rather than patch in a lawyer after a contract is signed, I encourage buyers to find — and get comfortable with — a lawyer as one of their first steps in looking for property in a particular county. Here are some ways a lawyer can help a buyer before a contract is signed:

1. Reasonableness of asking price: Don’t expect a lawyer to do a comp analysis or an appraisal. But local lawyers who have been doing real-estate work for a number of years should have an accurate feel for prices, price trends, volatility and current market conditions. Buyers often get a better bead on the reasonableness of a seller’s asking price from their lawyer than from an agent representing the seller who may be their first and only source of local market information.

2. Local insight into seller’s motivations: Lawyers know their communities, and usually know personally, or know of, individual sellers. Buyers are enormously advantaged when they can learn why a buyer is selling and how intense the motivation is.

3. Problems and issues with particular properties: An experienced local lawyer is likely to know first-hand, or have acquaintance with, many properties in a county, particularly those that have been sold during his years of practice. The more years of practice, the more likely it is that he will know about problems and issues that may or may not be of a strictly legal nature.

4. Lenders and vendors. The buyer’s lawyer will also have opinions about local lenders, brokers, agents, title companies, surveyors, excavators, local officials (building inspector, zoning office), appraisers and contractors. If this advice is sound, it’s worth

a small fortune to a buyer who will be directed to the best local options for each service.

It can save a buyer money, time, aggravation and mistakes.

5. Contract terms. Most buyers are shown property by an agent representing the seller and given a standard purchase-offer contract that, in my opinion, is skewed in favor of sellers. A buyer’s lawyer should be asked to go over either the standard agent’s contract or one the lawyer uses well in advance of a buyer having to read and understand contract terms under pressure. Previous columns have discussed many of these boiler-plate terms and their implications.

6. Local idiosyncrasies: The buyer’s lawyer should know something about local politics; local folks and neighborhoods to avoid; and local ground conditions (such as, which areas of the county have dirt that rarely passes a perc test, routinely flood, get lightning strikes, are situated over karst, go dry in August and so on).

I have used the masculine gender to refer to both male and females. I do this because I am old and hate the use of neutral plurals to refer to singular, gender-specific subjects in order to be gender free. I actually prefer working with female lawyers. There, I’ve now offended everybody, including myself.

These six issues can be covered in an hour or two of face time with a lawyer. It is the best money a buyer will spend when buying real estate.

2. Visit on a cold, rainy miserable day.  Look for water problems on the roof and at the foundation.  Is the creek high or in flood?

3. Visit at night and on weekdays.  Is night-time lighting offensive?  Traffic?  Noise?  Odors?

4. Submit your offer in the lowest low of the off-season.  Early January is a great time to buy rural property outside of the South, especially when the seller’s Hummer bogs down as he’s driving you around.

5. Never confide in a real-estate broker or agent who is working for the seller. Never reveal your finances or your best price.  Never tell such a broker or agent that you love the seller’s property or that you need to have it. NEVER.

6. Rework the standard broker’s purchase contract with your lawyer.  Delete what you don’t like and add language that you want.  Do this before you present your offer. Read the contract you submit.  Make sure that you understand the meaning and implications of phrases like, “___ acres, more or less,” “Warranties to survive contract” and “Time is of the essence.”

7. Have your local lawyer with you when you present your offer to the seller or his agent. Have your lawyer help draft any last-minute changes that are needed to get the deal done. If you’re not confident in your negotiating ability, have your local lawyer dicker with the seller over price and terms.

8. Ask both the seller and his agent to disclose in writing all material defects, both latent and manifest, in the property and its title that would negatively impact your possession, use and enjoyment.  Buying “as is” does not exempt a seller from state-established disclosure requirements; it means that the seller refuses to fix/repair anything the buyer doesn’t like.

9. Let the property you’re buying help you pay for it.  Sell something from what you buy at a higher price than what you paid.

10. Location, Location, Location.

Location is important, but it’s a factor that a buyer can use to work down the seller’s price.  In buying country property, location has three meanings.

First, it’s the proximity of the seller’s property to local goods and services.  A farm ten miles from town may not be priced lower than a property five miles from town, because farms, locally, are valued for other factors not their proximity to town.  A remote property—far from a publicly maintained road—should be priced lower than one with road frontage, all other things being equal.  A buyer who does not need or want proximity to town or public road should not be expected to pay as much as he would for more convenient property.  Use the absence of location and access to your advantage.  Hunters looking for hunting tracts should look for land that’s comparatively cheap owing to its remoteness.  If the seller’s property is close to town, complain about its closeness.

Second, location involves the proximity of the seller’s property to the buyer’s principal residence.  The buyer, not the seller, puts a value on this location factor.  Use distance from your home in your negotiations with the seller.  Even if they’re pretty close to each other, complain about the stress of increasing traffic—a fact of everyone’s life.

Third, the seller’s property is valued higher or lower according to what’s around it. A public trash station opposite the seller’s entrance decreases value.  Complain in a resigned voice about something around the seller’s property.  A pretty open field across the road may become the next mega-development—it’s possible.