FSBO- how to find a real estate attorney?

[MayDay]

We made an informal offer on a FSBO house, and if accepted, will then sell our house FSBO.  Details are in my journal if you want to read more.  If accepted, we want to hire a real estate attorney to do a formal contract, and represent us at closing.  And then we would use the attorney to do the same for selling our house.  Google says it might run us 500$ for the contract, plus some amount to represent at closing. 

My main question is, how do we find one?  I know the answer is always word of mouth, and I am going to work on that if our offer is accepted.  In the mean time I tried to search on Angie's List and didn't have any luck (not exactly a home service I guess).   Google finds a bunch but how do I know who is good (and they all list a billions specialties).  Is there some magic way to find a lawyer that I am unaware of?  We have never needed a lawyer for anything other than our will (which was in another state so a referral from her wouldn't be helpful). 

We are in central Ohio if anyone happens to be local and have specific ideas. 

[Spork]

My non-answer is "god I wish I knew."

We recently used a lawyer that came with a stellar, trusted referral and he turned out to be a total loser that won't even return my calls or respond to mail (but did manage to cash my check.)

[MayDay]

My non-answer is "god I wish I knew."

We recently used a lawyer that came with a stellar, trusted referral and he turned out to be a total loser that won't even return my calls or respond to mail (but did manage to cash my check.)

That's what I am afraid of. 

I only came up with one local friend who might have a clue.  She owns some rental houses so I figure she must have used an attorney at some point.  Texted her, we will see.  Who else to ask?  All my other friends who might know are real estate agents, who obviously will not be too pleased about giving me their attorney's names, lol.

[starbuck]

We used a real estate attorney in our area that had a positive review on Yelp. And she turned out to be stellar!

[sparklebunny]

Check out Avvo and call estate planning attorneys.  I'm an estate planning atty and I have an awesome real estate atty I refer to (and who has done my real estate closings and refis).  You can also check with CPAs or financial advisors, if you know any or have friends who do.  But vet closely and definitely get someone who specializes in real estate and not just dabbles in it.  If they also own a title company, you at least know they do a lot of real estate. 

[hoodedfalcon]

I bought my house FSBO and contacted an attorney on the criteria that she be a lady lawyer. I looked in the phone book for law firms headed by women, and she was the first one. She drafted the contract for a few hundred bucks and then did all the closing. I had absolutely no problems with the service I received. She was on the ball but I was also not one who needed their hand to be held.

That was 12 years ago and now as a lawyer myself, I'd say it's all a gamble and I just happened to get lucky. Bar referrals services are sometimes a paid service. Call your bank maybe? See who they use? If your real estate friends get pissy about you going FSBO, well, that's just silly.

[MayDay]

Didn't get the house, there were other offers and at least one was better than ours. Bummer.