Real Estate Paralegals: How Do They Support Real Estate Agents?

Though they often operate behind the scenes, the work that paralegals do is incredibly important and instrumental to any legal process and proceeding. As a result, paralegals are in high demand; from 2021 to 2023, the employment rates for paralegals is expected to grow by 14%, which is faster than average for other occupations. In the real estate industry, what they do is also essential for the legal side of the business. Without their support, real estate attorneys and real estate agents would struggle to make a sale or closing.

Real estate paralegals assist in the legal aspect of real estate processes. This involves tasks such as preparing contracts, lease agreements, and closing documents, as well as communicating with buyers, lawyers, real estate agents, and more to create a legally binding transaction. These professionals should have at least an associate’s degree in paralegal studies or a similar program and have an education in legal terminology, documents, and practices.

Aside from this, the real estate paralegal skills listed on LHH include an excellent grasp of the English language, grammar, and legal vocabulary to create and send professional court documents. Communication and organizational skills are necessary to ensure transparent and smooth processes, especially when dealing with complex legal matters and important documents and schedules. Real estate paralegals must similarly have other soft skills like organizational leadership and multitasking. With these, pressing agendas and tasks can be smoothly managed on a daily basis.

Now, while these skills are obviously valuable to the real estate industry as a whole, here’s how real estate paralegals support real estate agents:

What are real estate paralegals?

Streamlining communications

Forbes highlights that communication is vital for real estate agents since it helps build trust, resolve conflict, and promote collaboration—all of which are important factors in the industry. Fortunately, one of the major responsibilities of a real estate paralegal is to communicate with various parties, from clients to lenders and real estate attorneys. Real estate agents specifically benefit from this, as paralegals help bridge and conduct discussions between the attorney and the agent to ensure a sale is legally closed.

In the event of a disagreement, paralegals are the ones smoothing things out and delivering messages between the involved players, so everything is on track for a closing.

Preparing documents

Real estate paralegals have to deal with a lot of documents like contracts, lease agreements, purchase offer documents, closing documents, and more. They are in charge of preparing them with the research they’ve gathered. Not only do these help attorneys, but real estate agents require these files to close a deal. After all, a recent Salesmate report stated that paperwork and documentation are among the most common struggles a real estate agent faces. As such, a detail-oriented, punctual paralegal who can conduct the research efficiently in order to prepare and review these documents is essential for the real estate agent to conduct their business.

Ensuring organization

Other than preparing documents, real estate agents, attorneys, and other players need to have access to these papers, and they need to be carefully written and understandable for whoever will be reading them. For processes to run smoothly, paralegals are instrumental in ensuring everything is transparent and that all information, whether verbal or written, is handed out to the right parties and addressed correctly. On top of this, paralegals organize all these files and make sure they’re prepared as soon as possible, thereby increasing efficiency and productivity so that closing deadlines can be met and everyone is satisfied.

Both real estate paralegals and real estate agents rely on each other’s work to carry out a successful real estate transaction. Agents provide a valid agreement to work on, and paralegals give the former the ability to legally bind a deal.

If you’re looking to start or grow your career as a real estate agent, check out our post “Should I Get a Real Estate License?” to determine if this career path is the right one for you.