What is attorney review
in New Jersey?

In New Jersey, a residential contract your real estate agent prepares does not become firm the moment both sides sign it. It first goes through attorney review, a period of three business days during which either party's attorney may review the agreement, propose changes to it, or cancel it. The clock starts when all parties have signed and each has received the contract. That is what makes a New Jersey contract different from what many buyers expect: signing is the start of the review, not the end of it.

In practice it looks like this. An offer is accepted on a Monday, everyone signs and receives copies that day, and the review window runs through Thursday. Business days means weekends and holidays do not count. If a buyer's or seller's attorney sends changes during those days, the two attorneys work through them; if either side cancels within the window, the deal ends there and both parties move on.

For a buyer, the three days are when the attorney is engaged and reads the contract, and when the next steps get lined up. In most deals the inspection window starts when attorney review ends, so the inspector is booked now rather than after. For a seller, the same three days apply: the buyer's side may still change or cancel, and so may yours, so the home is under contract but not yet firm.

Not every contract carries the clause. Under the New Jersey Real Estate Commission's rule, the three business day provision goes into contracts a real estate licensee prepares for homes of one to four units and for vacant one family lots, and into residential leases a licensee prepares for a term of a year or more. A contract an attorney wrote is a different situation: no review window follows the signature, so the reading and the changes happen before anyone signs. New construction runs both ways. Some builders sell on a standard form an agent prepares, and those carry the window like any other; others hand you a contract their own attorney wrote, and that one does not. Commercial is different again, because a licensee does not prepare those contracts at all. The question worth asking on day one is who wrote the contract in front of you.

What to ask, on day one: does this contract carry an attorney review clause at all; does your attorney have it in hand; which day does the window close; and is there anything your attorney wants changed. Your agent can walk you through how the process runs and what usually comes next. What the contract means for your own purchase or sale is a question for a licensed New Jersey attorney, and a good agent says so. Once the window closes with no cancellation, the contract is in force as signed, or as the attorneys amended it, and the next steps begin.