For many people, the most expensive thing they will ever own is the house they live in. You can also expect it to be one of the most time consuming and complicated processes of their lives. Despite the need for contracts involving bankers, city, state and county tax assessors and other legal entities involved in the sale of land, most people never even consider hiring an attorney to assist them with the purchase of a home. That's unfortunate, as the relatively small amount of money saved by hiring an attorney now could possibly save thousands of dollars later.

How can an attorney save you money? An attorney has the know-how to make sure everything is signed and all the terms of your agreements check out. Most people who buy homes don't bother to check zoning ordinances or whether or not the home or fence on their property encroaches on that of a neighbor. An attorney can check these things along with tax issues and any one of a number of minor things that most buyers never even know to think about.

Unfortunately, in Texas,many homeowners who have recently lost their homes to foreclosure are now immersed in lawsuits against the company that sold their houses. This company is accused of such problems as:

Buyers with bad credit and bankruptcies from the past were told that they qualified for bloated home loans. Some of these loans had monthly payments that exceeded 50% of the buyers' monthly income. In short, they agreed to lend buyers money that they knew the buyers could not afford to repay.

Provide buyers with mortgage documents that stated that the property wasn't being resold but was rather being refinanced by existing owners.

Offer loan documents that contained a number of blanks which the sellers filled in sometime after closing. Buyers were later shocked to discover that their monthly mortgage payments were much higher than they had been promised.

The company is accused of claiming that the property for sale was worth 2-3 times its actual value by showing the buyers falsified appraisals.

If any of the homeowners had decided to hire an attorney, he/she would have easily seen these problems. And yet hundreds of buyers appear to have been victims of mortgage fraud because they weren't willing to spend a few hundred dollars to have an attorney look over the documents before they signed them.

Buying a house is agreeing to an obligation that can tie up your finances for decades. It only seems reasonable that if you are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a place to live, you might want to consider spending hundreds of dollars to make sure that the terms of your purchase are legal and reasonable. A little money spent now could save you a lot of money later.