Residential Real Estate Paralegal

Pay: $35.00 - $40.00 per hour

Why This Is a Great Opportunity

• Join an established, welcoming law firm where your experience will be valued and your contributions will make a real difference.
• Take ownership of residential real estate closings and enjoy meaningful responsibility from day one.
• Work directly with experienced attorneys in a collaborative, supportive environment.
• Expand your legal expertise with opportunities to learn estate planning and probate.
• Enjoy a stable, full-time opportunity with a team that embraces modern technology and efficient workflows.

Location

Braintree, MA | Full-Time | On-Site

Join our team in Braintree, where you'll enjoy a collaborative office environment, direct attorney support, and the opportunity to become a valued part of our daily operations.

Note

We are seeking candidates with 2+ years of residential real estate paralegal experience who are comfortable independently coordinating closings. Estate planning experience is a plus, but not required. We're happy to train the right candidate in that area!

About Us

Confidential Employer

We are an established, community-focused law firm specializing in residential real estate, estate planning, and probate matters. Our close-knit team combines personalized client service with modern technology to make legal processes more efficient. We value teamwork, professionalism, and people who take pride in their work.

The Role

This is a senior, hands-on position for a paralegal who already knows how to run residential closings and wants to own them. You will carry your own docket of purchase, sale, and refinance transactions from intake through recording and post-closing, working directly with buyers, sellers, lenders, brokers, real estate agents, opposing counsel, title underwriters, and municipal offices. Expect 5 to 10 closings per month.

You will work alongside our senior paralegal, two administrative staff, and four attorneys, and you will support the firm's estate planning, probate, and tax practices. That secondary work is real and recurring, but residential real estate is the core of this job.

We are hiring for demonstrated competence rather than for potential to be trained. Prior residential conveyancing experience is the qualification that matters most.

What Independence Means Here

You run the file. You set and hold the closing timeline, order and review title, clear routine issues, prepare the documents, coordinate the parties, and handle recording and post-closing follow-through without waiting for direction at each step.

An attorney reviews the exceptions: title defects, probate or chain-of-title gaps, unusual deal structures, and anything presenting a judgment call. Recognizing those moments and raising them early is part of the job. Everything else moves on your own judgment within the firm's supervision structure.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage purchase, sale, and refinance transactions from intake through recording, tracking every milestone so nothing slips.
• Own the deadline calendar: every purchase and sale, inspection, financing commitment, and closing date calendared with reminders the day the file opens.
• Serve as the day-to-day point of contact for the firm's buyer, seller, and lender clients, keeping every party informed from offer to recording.
• On buyer-side files, work the seller's first-draft purchase and sale agreement provision by provision against the firm's rider templates, then assemble the revised draft and the transmittal package.
• Order and review title examinations, plot plans, and MLCs.
• Identify and clear routine title issues, including outstanding discharges and releases, missing signatures, and recording errors, and escalate genuine defects and judgment calls to the responsible attorney.
• Order payoff statements early and track each discharge to record, escalating any lender that fails to deliver.
• Assemble the municipal package: municipal lien certificate application and reconciliation, betterments and special assessments, and final water, sewer, and municipal light readings.
• Pull and review the building department's permit history, reconciling it against the inspection report and the assessor's record to surface open permits and unpermitted work.
• Draft and revise purchase and sale agreements, extensions, deeds, trustee certificates, homestead declarations, affidavits, and the full closing package.
• Review lender closing instructions and closing packages, and prepare and balance settlement statements and closing figures.
• Prepare, coordinate, and facilitate closings so they proceed on schedule.
• Handle electronic recording through Simplifile, confirm recording, and manage post-closing follow-through: return of recorded documents, title policy issuance, and file closeout.
• Assist with closing disbursements and reconciliations in accordance with firm procedures.
• Manage the escrow and holdback lifecycle: a separate ledger for each escrow, a calendar entry for every release condition, and the condition's proof in the file before any release is requested.
• Prepare title commitments and policies and work with title underwriters on underwriting questions.

Estate Planning (secondary)

• Draft wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, and health care proxies from firm templates and attorney direction.
• Prepare and record deeds, trustee certificates, homestead declarations, and estate tax affidavits and releases of lien.
• Conduct Registry of Deeds research and prepare informal title rundowns.
• Support signings and assemble final signed portfolios for delivery to clients.

Probate and Estate Administration (secondary)

• Prepare and file probate documents with the Probate and Family Court, using the Massachusetts electronic filing system.
• Track case progress, required filings, and deadlines, and surface them before they become urgent.
• Work with personal representatives and beneficiaries to gather asset information, compile inventories, and coordinate distributions.
• Handle the real estate component of estate administration, including sales of estate property.

Individual Income Tax (secondary, concentrated February through April)

• Organize incoming client tax documents and track returns through preparation, review, signature, and filing.
• Manage the electronic signature process for client authorizations.
• Communicate with clients about status, missing items, and delivery or pick-up of completed returns.

Qualifications

Education: Associate's degree or paralegal certificate required. Bachelor's degree preferred.

Experience: Five or more years as a paralegal with a primary focus on residential real estate transactions, including representation of sellers, buyers, and lenders. Probate and/or estate planning experience preferred but not required.

The qualification that matters most: demonstrated ability to progress residential real estate transactions independently, with limited attorney supervision. Be prepared to describe transactions you carried on your own and problems you resolved without being told how.

Required Skills

• Working knowledge of Massachusetts residential conveyancing: title examination, closing procedure, recording, and post-closing.
• Local-practice discipline: registry, assessor, building, health, and collector procedures vary by municipality and registry district, and the local procedure gets confirmed on each file rather than carried over from the last one.
• Ability to manage a full docket of concurrent transactions and competing deadlines without dropped items.
• Rigorous attention to detail on documents and on figures.
• Clear, professional written and verbal communication with clients, lenders, agents, and opposing counsel.
• Massachusetts notary public commission, or the willingness and eligibility to obtain one within 90 days of hire.
• Demonstrated aptitude for learning new legal technology quickly and adapting to firm-specific workflows.
• Sound judgment about what to handle and what to bring to an attorney.
• Discretion with confidential client information.
• High proficiency with Microsoft Office 365 (Word, Outlook, Excel).

Preferred Skills

• Hands-on experience with a title and closing platform such as E-Closing or Qualia.
• Experience with Simplifile or another electronic recording platform.
• Familiarity with Massachusetts Probate and Family Court practice and electronic filing.
• Working knowledge of the tax issues that arise in estate administration, estate planning, and residential closings.
• Experience in a small firm, where the paralegal owns the file rather than a slice of it.

Technology

Because we prioritize technology, fluency with the tools below, or a clear aptitude to learn them quickly, is important. High proficiency with Microsoft Office 365 (Word, Outlook, Excel) is required. None of the other tools below is a strict prerequisite, and experience on a comparable platform translates.

• Running the closing file: E-Closing today, with a transition to Qualia planned.
• Getting documents on record: Simplifile, for electronic recording with the Registry of Deeds.
• Getting documents signed: DocuSign or a comparable electronic signature platform.
• Managing matters, intake, and document assembly: Clio Manage, Clio Grow, and Clio Draft.
• Filing with the court: the Massachusetts electronic filing system, for probate matters.
• Everyday drafting, correspondence, and file storage: Microsoft Office 365 (Word, Outlook, Excel), Adobe Acrobat, and OneDrive.
• Supporting tax season: CCH ProSystem fx Tax.
• Drafting assistance and client communication: AI-based tools, used with attorney review.

Compensation and Benefits

• Hourly wage: $35 to $40 per hour, commensurate with experience.
• Overtime at 1.5 times the hourly rate, available during tax season (February 1 through April 15) and year-round for those who want additional hours.
• Retirement: 3% employer match.
• Paid time off: three weeks of PTO plus 10 paid holidays, with a flexible unpaid time-off policy as needed.
• Health insurance: a premium contribution arrangement is available to employees who need coverage. We will review the details with you during the hiring process.

JPC - 2735

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance