law firm or real estate agency to take care of this for you. Don't let loose your purse strings easily. based on my personal experience dealing with individual sellers via real estate agencies, the buy/sale transaction went through smoothly with clean ti<x>tle though. The time you sign the buy/sale contract and hand over the money to the agent and the seller, you get the keys of the place and the ti<x>tle certificate takes about 30 days to get (in Shanghai).
