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Courses/Law/Property / Real Estate Law

The Lawyer's Role in a Purchase Transaction: Step by Step

This program will take you through a basic residential purchase of a resale house or condo from start to finish.

Created byTannis Waugh
4.7
(23 reviews)
IntermediateUpdated May 2, 2025
The Lawyer's Role in a Purchase Transaction: Step by Step

What You'll Learn

check_circleUnderstand the step-by-step process of a basic residential real estate purchase, including resale houses and condos.
check_circleIdentify the lawyer’s role in navigating tax implications, ethical constraints, conflicts, and timing challenges in transactions.
check_circleLearn to review and interpret an agreement of purchase and sale to spot potential issues.
check_circleGain expertise in reading a title abstract and understanding its relevance to the transaction.

About This Course

Real estate purchase transactions may appear straightforward, but they can quickly become complex. This course guides you through a basic residential purchase of a resale house or condo, step by step, with a focus on the lawyer’s critical role in ensuring a smooth transaction. You'll gain insight into the legal process, from reviewing the agreement of purchase and sale to closing the deal, while understanding how to protect your client’s interests.

The program addresses common issues that may arise and explores their implications for the purchaser—and in some cases, the seller. Key topics include tax concerns, ethical constraints, conflicts of interest, timing, and legal procedures. The course also provides hands-on learning through review of a title abstract and a practical issue-spotting exercise, helping you develop the ability to offer well-rounded, 360-degree advice to your clients.

Your Instructor

Tannis Waugh
Tannis Waugh

Certified as a Specialist in Real Estate by the Law Society of Ontario

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star64 reviews

Tannis was called to the bar after receiving a B.A. in Law with a concentration of Criminology and Criminal Justice from Carleton University and a J.D. from University of Ottawa. She practices in the areas of real estate, corporate/commercial, and estate planning. As a former Trustee for the Toronto Lawyers Association, Tannis has been involved in advocacy and education initiatives, most notably the moderator and presenter of continuing education programs and writer of articles for the TLA journal. She was previously on the education committee which is responsible for producing CPD programs for Toronto lawyers. She is also a member of the Condominium Sub-documents Committee of the Working Group on Lawyers and Real Estate which is responsible for producing province-wide precedent materials for lawyers to be used in condominium transactions. As of 2021, she sits on a mentoring sub-committee of the Working Group on Lawyers and Real Estate. Tannis is a frequent speaker and, in the past, has spoken on the issue of real estate, litigation and estate conveyancing/preservation of property, technology in real estate and ethics for the Ontario Bar Association, Law Society of Ontario, The Commons Institute and the Toronto Lawyers Association.​ For the last 7 years, Tannis has been focusing her research efforts on disruptions within real estate and has a particular interest in the sharing economy, innovations in affordable housing, and cryptocurrency and its relationship to real estate. In fact, legal fees can be paid in Bitcoin and Ethereum subject to the firm's cryptocurrency policy. ​Keeping current with technology is a significant part of the office's workflow. Real estate transactions were mostly paperless prior to the COVID-19 crisis and are now fully paperless with accomodations based on a client's specific need. As of August 2018, Tannis has been certified as a specialist in real estate law by the Law Society of Ontario. Personally, Tannis enjoys the hobby of photography and has competed in the sport of powerlifting.

Credit Information

Is this course eligible for my CPD requirements as a Canadian CPA?

Provincial regulators of CPAs in Canada do not require that independent providers of CPD be approved to offer courses. Instead, individual CPAs are responsible for assessing whether a CPD activity meets their requirements, and may take activities from any source provided those requirements are met.

Every course offered on LearnFormula is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, and advances learning objectives that are relevant to the responsibilities or professional competencies of Canadian CPAs. All activities on LearnFormula are quantifiable in terms of hours, and are also verifiable, in that users receive documented evidence of their attendance via a certificate of completion after finishing a course (and this certificate is stored by LearnFormula indefinitely). Nearly 100,000 Canadian CPAs successfully satisfy their CPD requirements via LearnFormula on an annual basis.

What Students Are Saying

4.7
Student's Choice
23 reviews

Frequently Asked Questions

We are a registered provider with 327+ associations and regulatory bodies worldwide. We operate across 29 global markets including Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. Every course page clearly displays its specific accreditations. Upon completion, you receive a professional certificate that can be validated online. Our certificates include all necessary accreditation details, credit hours, and completion dates, and are formatted specifically to meet the submission requirements of most global regulatory bodies.