Walter Rywak, another attorney, contacted Jahrling and asked him to prepare closing documents for a real estate transaction. Rywak paid Jahrling $400 for doing the closing work. The transaction was the sale of Stanley Cora's home. Cora was 90 years old. He was approached by Rywak's clients and offered $35,000 for the property. That price was far below the fair market value of a fee simple title; the property was worth at least $106,000 and was later resold by the purchasers for $145,000. Cora later alleged he understood that one term of the deal was that he would keep a life estate that would have allowed him to live in the upstairs apartment of the home rent-free for the rest of his life. The problem was that the sale documents prepared by Jahrling did not include a life estate for Cora.