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Unfortunately, most people end up frustrated and confused by hidden fees and surprise bills from real estate lawyers. At Ownright, we vow to do better. Now we admit, pricing in this space isn’t simple, but it all comes down to transparency. Traditional law firms don’t do a great job of explaining pricing ahead of time, which results in sticker shock when the final bill comes. We don’t ever want you to experience that.
Why is real estate lawyer pricing so confusing?
Real estate closings involve more than just your lawyer’s time. There are government fees, taxes, title insurance, and other third-party charges layered on top of the real estate lawyer fees. Since many of these costs depend on the property itself — its price, location, and type (condo vs. house, resale vs. new build) — it can be difficult to predict the exact total from the start.
On top of that, transparent real estate lawyer pricing is hard to come by. Some firms will advertise a low “base fee” but leave out common disbursements or administrative costs, which only show up on the final bill. Others use different terminology or lump expenses together, making it hard to compare one quote with another.
The result is that two people paying for the same legal service might see very different invoices, and clients are often left unsure of what they’re actually paying for until the transaction is nearly complete.
How is Ownright different?
At Ownright, we are committed to transparency in pricing. While we can't predict the exact cost in our initial quote, we do everything we can to break our quote down into easy-to-understand sections that give you a good idea what your total cost will be. Once we have provided an initial quote, we'll connect with you to collect any additional information we need to make the quote even more accurate. The sections for each service type are:
Purchase: our fee, disbursements, title insurance, and land transfer tax
Sale: our fee and disbursements
Refinance: our fee, disbursements, and title insurance
We don’t promise the lowest price out there, but we do promise great value for an amazing closing experience that you’ll feel good about. This goes for all of our services provided — purchases, sales, refinances, and status certificate reviews (although these are free!).
What if my situation is more complex?
Our pricing page outlines everything that our basic price covers but some engagements fall outside of the scope of our standard offer. If your needs exceed the scope of our standard service, we will provide you a custom quote before you decide to engage us as your lawyer. We want you to be able to make an informed decision when selecting which company you decide to work with.
Additionally, if any unforeseen needs arise as we work on your engagement that go beyond our standard service, we will let you know right away what the additional cost will be so that you can budget accordingly.
What extra costs should I budget for?
For a detailed breakdown of what costs you should expect, check out our blog on the topic here. For the purposes of this blog, I’ll just touch on a few that you may not be familiar with and that your real estate lawyer is responsible for facilitating for you - disbursements, land transfer tax, and title insurance.
Disbursements are the costs that your lawyer incurs in order to close on your property. More details can be found in the next section.
Land transfer tax is the amount charged by the provincial (and sometimes municipal) government on the purchase of a home. It is calculated based on the total purchase price of the property.
Title insurance is the one time fee paid to secure an insurance policy that protects property owners and lenders against losses related to the property’s ownership.
In addition to the above, don’t forget about real estate agent commissions, mortgage broker commissions, property insurance, and mortgage default insurance.
What about disbursements?
We only charge for costs that we incur specific to your property. We don't charge for admin costs — such as conveyancing software, photocopies, postage, facsimile, etc. — the way other firms will.
Specifically, we charge for the following third party service costs:
government document registration fees
other fees charged by the government
Teranet fees (title search and writ search fees)
the cost of a condominium status certificate, and
bank fees (wires to and from our trust account on your behalf)
payment for letters from creditors' lawyers regarding similar name executions
How do I get a quote?
Interested in our services? You can contact us directly or submit an inquiry, which will give us the initial information we need to follow up with a quote.
