In most U.S. home sales, the real estate agent on one side of the deal prepares the home sale contract by filling in a standardized form published by a state or local REALTOR® association. In a short list of states, an attorney has to draft or review the document before it binds anyone. And in a for-sale-by-owner deal with no agent involved, the job falls to you, usually with an attorney, an online template, or a title company stepping in to produce the paperwork.
The short answer covers most situations, but which route applies to you depends on where the property is, whether agents are involved, and how unusual the terms are. Here’s how each path actually works.
How Agents Prepare the Contract
When a buyer or seller is working with a real estate agent, the agent handles the paperwork. The listing agent or buyer’s agent pulls up a pre-printed purchase agreement developed by their state or local REALTOR® association and tailored to that state’s real estate laws.1National Association of REALTORS®. Forms for REALTORS They fill in the blanks: price, address, closing date, earnest money, contingencies, and any other terms the parties have negotiated.
What agents cannot do is write new legal language, modify the boilerplate, or tell you what the contract means for your legal rights. That crosses into the practice of law, which agents aren’t licensed for. The National Association of REALTORS® Code of Ethics tells agents to refer legal questions to counsel rather than answer them. An agent who ignores that line risks fines, license revocation, and in some states, criminal charges for unauthorized practice of law.
So the agent is a skilled form-filler and negotiator. They’ll walk you through each blank, explain how deadlines and contingencies work, and help you decide on terms. If you want something added that isn’t on the form, or a clause rewritten, that’s an attorney’s job.
States That Require an Attorney
A small group of states require an attorney to take part in some phase of a residential real estate transaction. These are often called attorney states or attorney closing states, and the list typically includes Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina, and West Virginia, with a few others depending on how strictly the requirement is defined. The attorney’s role varies by state: drafting the contract, reviewing it, supervising the closing, or some combination.
Some states that stop short of mandating full attorney involvement still build in an attorney review period. New Jersey is the best-known example. After both parties sign, each side’s attorney has three business days to review the agreement, propose changes, or cancel the deal outright. Other states allow similar windows, usually three to five business days. During that stretch the contract exists but isn’t truly final, which gives attorneys room to catch problems before anyone is locked in.
If you’re buying or selling in one of these states, you don’t have a choice to make here. An attorney is part of the deal. The question is only which attorney, and getting one lined up early matters because the review clock starts the moment the contract is signed.
When There’s No Agent: FSBO Contracts
For-sale-by-owner transactions create a gap that agent-assisted sales don’t have. With no agent to open the standard form and fill it in, someone still has to produce a legally sound contract. A few practical options exist.
- Hire a real estate attorney. This is the safest route and essentially unavoidable in attorney-required states. The lawyer drafts the contract to fit your deal, handles disclosures, and can represent you through closing.
- Use the buyer’s agent’s form. If the buyer has an agent even though you don’t, that agent will usually prepare the offer on their association’s form. You’re still a seller without representation, so having your own attorney review the document before you sign protects you from one-sided terms.
- Online legal document services. Platforms like LawDepot offer state-specific purchase agreement templates driven by a questionnaire. These beat a blank sheet of paper but fall well short of an attorney’s eyes on the deal. They work best for simple, cooperative transactions.
- Title company assistance. Some title companies, particularly attorney-owned ones, can prepare a basic purchase agreement as part of their closing services. Title companies without in-house attorneys are generally limited to handing you blank forms rather than filling them out or advising on terms.
The pattern across these options is simple: the less professional help you use, the more risk you absorb. A missing contingency or a sloppy property description can cost far more to fix than an attorney would have charged to prevent.
When to Hire an Attorney Even If You Don’t Have To
Plenty of buyers and sellers hire a real estate attorney by choice in states where no law requires it. The money tends to be well spent when the deal departs from the standard template. An attorney can draft custom clauses the form doesn’t cover, negotiate terms that fit your specific situation, and flag issues like title defects, easements, or zoning restrictions that an agent isn’t trained to analyze.
Situations where an attorney earns their fee include:
- Seller financing or any non-standard payment structure
- A property held in an estate or trust
- Known title problems, boundary disputes, or unresolved liens
- FSBO transactions on either side of the deal
- Any contract term the parties want that isn’t on the standard form
Fees vary widely with complexity and local rates. A straightforward contract review runs a few hundred dollars; full drafting and closing representation can reach several thousand. For a routine sale with agents on both sides and a clean title, the standard association form filled out by the agent generally does the job well. The forms are vetted by attorneys and refined over years of use, and they cover the great majority of transactions.
What a Badly Prepared Contract Looks Like
Contracts prepared by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing tend to fail quietly. Everything looks fine until it isn’t. The common failure modes are worth knowing because they shape when the preparer choice actually matters.
- Missing or vague contingencies. A financing contingency with no deadline or loan type gives the buyer no clear exit if the mortgage falls through, and gives the seller no clear path to move on.
- Incomplete property description. If the contract doesn’t say whether a built-in refrigerator, window treatments, or a storage shed is included, expect an argument at closing.
- No default remedies. A contract that doesn’t address what happens when one party breaches leaves both sides with expensive uncertainty. Standard forms handle this with a liquidated damages clause or a specific performance provision.
- Skipped disclosures. A contract that fails to include required disclosure forms or federally mandated lead paint language for pre-1978 homes creates liability for the seller and can give the buyer grounds to void the sale well after closing.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 US Code 4852d – Disclosure of Information Concerning Lead Upon Transfer of Residential Property
These problems rarely announce themselves at signing. They surface weeks or months later when someone tries to enforce a term that turns out to be unenforceable, or discovers a condition the contract should have anticipated. The person who prepares the contract shapes the legal framework of what is, for most people, the largest financial transaction of their lives. In a routine sale with agents, the standard form handles that framework well. When the deal is anything other than routine, or there’s no agent at all, bringing in an attorney is how you keep the framework from quietly breaking.