At SmithValeriote we use Microsoft
Office 2007. I am familiar with this version because I use it at home on my
laptop. I currently use Conveyancer and PC Law every day. I will be getting
access to Teraview when I have to look up legal descriptions of properties.
I create initial letters for the
purchasers or sellers and either email them if we have the clients email on
file or send them through regular mail. All of the documents are prepared on
Conveyancer. This makes it a lot easier. Yesterday, I actually drafted up a
Agreement of Purchase and Sale for a client. I then sent it to the lawyer who
looked it over before sending it to the client.
I am feeling somewhat comfortable.
This week I am actually doing my entire job by myself after having 4 days of
training last week. For the most part things are going well, however, I still
have questions that I need to ask. People do not mind helping me out and the
girl that trained me sits kitty-corner to my desk so she is right there. I just
can't wait to know the job inside and out so that I can be more relaxed. I am
finding that I am having to look through Condominium Agreements from builders
when clients are buying new property. These are new to me and very lengthy, so
it is taking time to get a feel for where all the information is in that big
package. I think it would be good to see one for a sample in future real estate
classes.
I definitely am not drawing any
skills learned from interpersonal communication class. I felt that those skills
taught in that class are learned better through life experience. The legal
classes that have come in handy for my current position would be Real Estate,
Wills and Estates, and Legal Office Applications. Also Word and Excel.
I have had to interact with clients
on the phone, through email, and in person. Sometimes people will show up at
the firm to talk about getting a lawyer for their purchase or sale of their
property. I tell them what our fees are and tell them was documents are
required of them. We also have a 10-day turnaround for closings, so learning
the closing date of their property is crucial. I find it somewhat easy to
interact with clients, but sometimes they think I am able to give legal advice
and I will have to tell them that they need to speak with a lawyer.
I thought Word 2010 was bad, I can't imagine having to work with Microsoft Office 2007! Also when you talk about Condominium Agreements, are you essentially talking about the Condo's By-Law 1? Because I have to go through those whenever we receive a lien so that we know the date of service- usually it's either the date of mailing or it is 3 days after. I also know how you feel about the legal advice, as me and the other legal assistant here spent probably 15 minutes trying to word an email so that didn't make it seem like we were giving advice to the client, can I ask what type of questions clients would try and ask you?
ReplyDeleteThe condo agreements I go through are the Agreements of Purchase are Sale for new builds only. It's a huge stack of paper and I have to find where the closing, req, and occupancy dates are along with the company name, and condo corporation name is as well. It is very time consuming, but I get through them and it is becoming easier.
DeleteI get clients calling asking all sorts of things. One was calling because they went to build a fence on their property and now it looks like the one part of their lot is still in the name of the builder. So, obviously I had to put them through to someone else. Anytime someone calls the firm with real estate related questions they get out through to me from reception and from there I still have to filter out the calls.
Condos require so much extra paperwork. Not my favourite!
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