Unlike some states, Florida doesn't require an attorney to conduct a residential real estate closing. A closing can be handled by a title company or a closing attorney, and knowing what each one does saves your client — and your agency — from surprises.
What the title company does
The title company runs the title search to verify the ownership history and surface liens, judgments, or lawsuits; prepares the settlement documents according to the contract; and issues title insurance, which protects the buyer and the lender from hidden title problems. One nuance worth keeping clear: the title company represents neither the seller nor the buyer — it acts as an agent for the title underwriter.
What a closing attorney adds
A closing attorney can do everything a title company does and, on top of that, legally represent their client: an attorney-client relationship is formed and the attorney answers to the party who hired them. When a transaction has a wrinkle —an inheritance, a partnership, a disputed lien— that figure matters.
Whoever closes, the broker still answers for everything arriving complete and on time. That's why in Galilei the title attorney is a role inside the same transaction: the record, the documents, and the communication all live in one place, in Spanish and English, without forwarding loose PDFs among five people.
The closing isn't a separate errand; it's the last meter of a race that started with the first lead.
Aynoli Abreu Delgado, co-founder