Why Successful Real Estate Investors Hire Real Estate Lawyers

Transcript

good afternoon everyone my name is stephanie garces donat welcome back to pink mic legal confessions where we're always trying to make sure you're updated on the latest updates of things that can help you with real estate with estate planning with some of the stuff that we are experts on so today's topic is why successful real estate investors hire real estate attorneys now people always want to make money on the side or perhaps this is your full-time career you want to be a real estate investor so if you want to become a real estate investor one of the critical pieces in the long-term suspects of building this sort of niche area is that this building of wealth through real estate is making sure everything that you are signing everything that's being trans you know everything is in the transition you know with with transaction whether that's papers being passed money being passed terms everything has to be reviewed in detail every single deal is different so primarily to avoid unexpected pitfalls and costs and surprises things that you wish you would have known um really a real estate attorney can really be valuable especially if you're starting to do this more than once you know most people just buy their home and that's the end of the story but for those of you that are actually looking to build wealth through real estate you certainly want to hire a real estate attorney immediately so we're going to talk about that but the most successful investors especially ones that in my experience know the most and do uh really well in building real estate um profiles and their wealth through real estate um they usually work with the real estate lawyer and they usually build a really strong relationship with their attorney keep in mind that everyone really understands the value of this so when we talk about this i'm actually talking about individuals that are new to real estate investing or perhaps you've been doing this for a long time and maybe you want to know what we really do in the background so one of the things that is important is that real estate investing is an aspiration for many people and their goals for many people and so someone who understands this and understands really the the the reason behind buying so many properties and to build this wealth generational wealth that is also part of the recipe you want to make sure the person that you're hiring does understand why i need an attorney why do i need someone on my side to represent me through the transaction so um through the whole process i'll kind of talk about um today and pink mic what we do in the process of real estate especially for investors so uh just to keep you updated on what's going on so uh but then again thank you again for the investors that actually um are tuning in today that can know what we do but but those of you that are thinking about it we always want you to watch these shows on tuesdays to cumbersome important stuff so um like i said i'm attorney stephanie garces donat where we help people prepare for the unexpected especially when it comes to real estate i'm the attorney lead partner at this firm and we handle this stuff every single day so it's really important for us to be able to help individuals to use our platform to make sure that people understand you know what it is to build wealth and how do you protect that wealth that you were that you're building and how do you make sure your financial future is protected and making sure that it's passed down to generations to come so today's episode is really for real estate professionals particularly investors that are looking to do this or already do this full-time so as you already know and you've heard me say this many times the real estate market is on fire that is not changing it's kind of an interesting time because a lot of people that haven't invested before are now investing for the first time or people that were you know in the past investing a ton and kind of took time off are now doing it so homes are in record high record prices right now and people are buying and selling like crazy so for new and experienced investors having a real estate attorney is really invaluable especially when it comes to reviewing everything on your side the details of the transaction the money that is being handled is super important and vital to the success of any transaction you have so i'm here to share reasons as to why why as a real estate investor you need an attorney especially if you want to be successful at this so the choice to invest in real estate is one of the most critical financial decisions whether it's buying or selling a property especially for an investor who has a different uh motive different emotions to that of a person that's actually living there you know typically when real estate investors come to us their goal is to buy up properties whether it's to flip them make some money and sell it right away or some of them are buying it they're buying it to be able to use that income it's passive income um with tenants maybe they want to rent it out uh perhaps that's i've even heard people even say this building is for my kids college you know people really look at real estate in in a number of ways but specifically when we're talking about investors they're very different than individuals buying the home that they're actually living in so it's important to understand you know what that what the objective is um when doing this a massive misstep that many new investors make is going through the process on their own i like to call these people the diy uh diy individuals that maybe you go to google maybe you go to legalzoom you go to the online sources that are free to you to kind of kind of guide you and hoping that your investment that you're making is not worse off and so uh these diyers are people that do things on their own really are at a disadvantage when it comes to buying property because keep in mind real estate investing it's to build wealth it's to build uh financial security and so many times these transactions are not cheap um and even if they are cheap it really doesn't matter because it's not like it being expensive being cheap really changes the idea of having an attorney to help you but really um many believe that hiring an attorney is unnecessary maybe just an expense an additional cost and maybe it's unnecessary for what they're trying to do maybe they could do it themselves and try to keep costs to a minimum i definitely understand that cost is always important everyone should have their own budget for things but you also have to make sure to protect the investments that you're making so one of the things that we talk a lot about in pink mic is to make sure you are protecting your future make sure you're protecting your investments you have assets you know what you own today is not something you're going to own in two years perhaps maybe you own more especially if you're an investor or perhaps you continue to flip you're selling and buying more often so uh what often happens is individuals may over overlook or maybe not fully understand what a real estate attorney can do to really make their life easier and to really help them in the long run so here are some of the top reasons why real estate investors hire real estate attorneys in general just as just as a matter of fact the first one is we review carefully uh scrutinize and approve every single term that's in there and what i mean by this is we actually make sure that what you're signing or about to sign really it protects your interests now you may be thinking well it's the same contract people always say that's the same contract well not always i mean it depends you know i've seen in my career many different contracts and now if you're in real estate you understand there are standard contracts that are used but there's also ones that are not standard and so it's really hard to maneuver these contracts if you've never done it before or perhaps you are not attorney don't really understand what some of the terms mean so we really make sure to approve the terms to really make sure we're educating clients and what they're actually signing and we'll talk about the timing on those things um soon but it's always a good idea to try to get something in place because if you don't again you make sure that you know you're protected um if you if you do this um if you don't do this well i can't say i didn't warn you um but that's kind of what i'm what i'm trying to get at so specifically when it comes to the terms in the contracts that kind of take place there's purchase agreements the purchase agreements are ones that are pretty often used obviously to purchase a property you also see ones that are used for purchasing vacant properties sometimes the property is vacant in that it's there's no home on it um you want to buy a lot that's very common to use as well different contracts like i said different deals depending on what you're buying um even like i've seen even new construction maybe you're buying an area that's a subdivision and you're going to actually build out a subdivision that's a completely different uh transaction a completely different um direction that you go with that so everything is really subject to the type of deal it is it's really hard to do a one-size-fits-all win this type of thing the other thing that comes up a lot is title documents title documents are used all the time title documents are what actually puts everything together when it comes to the transaction specifically the transfer of the property that's part of our job is as attorneys we make sure that the transfer the property goes through flawlessly that there aren't any outstanding issues whether it's a lien it could be a lawsuit it could be a violation with a particular city the list goes on there can be so many things wrong with the property but you'd never know it unless you have an attorney that really understands real estate and quite frankly maybe understands the title world because the title documents are super common to be used but all of them have a purpose and all of them mean something different so just something to keep in mind we also make sure to look at transfer documents which i mentioned before mortgage documents if there's a mortgage involved believe it or not the mortgage documents we do see every day but every loan is different and it's really important to understand what loan documents are what are the expectations of some of the stuff that you're signing many times people will not understand the terms of what they're signing or how we got to where we got it's important to know uh there's so many different type of loans especially when we're talking about investment properties they're actually kind of different they're very different than just you know i'm going to live in the home so there's different types of terms and things you need to know going in we also make sure that the closing docs those that are prepared for the transfer or that you're accepting for the transfer are adequate these are legal documents that only an attorney can prepare yes i'll say that again that only an attorney can prepare so make sure you know that because a lot of times people say oh i'll just get it offline or i'll get it off wherever and you have to make sure that some of these documents specifically when it comes to real estate property only an attorney can draft that and i should say even though you can get one online um you have to know what you're drafting because you have to protect your investment something that does not draft properly can really cause an issue for you and the investment property that you're buying or selling so you don't want anything coming aft coming back to you or even you know after the fact and haunting you who wants that nobody um so that's just something to keep in mind another thing we do is one of the actually bigger values i should say outside of just what our services are is we're actually business advisors as much as we are attorneys now i'm not trying to make myself out to be a financial advisor because i'm not and i don't want to say i'm an accountant because i'm not but we do consider a real estate attorney you know have multiple hats because we also work to kind of make sure that you don't have any issues when it comes to local regulations or requirements of a property we make sure when it comes to taxes that the taxes that you're getting or paying are adequate that you're kind of going through the motions of what you have to do from a business standpoint with the village um also there's sometimes tax issues that pop up ones that you have to report to the irs when it comes to investing capital gains is a really popular term you'll hear a lot with real estate investors they want to know you know how do i maneuver this how do we work with around this and we definitely can advise on that we also understand that your master plan and to consider the impact of each sales really important to your long-term goals so that is something that we also value and we really take a big picture of everything we don't just focus on the transaction because these transactions like i said while you know you may think okay i'm just investing to invest there's always something tied to these whether it's taxes whether it's your money whether it's your financial future so we really look at the big picture the other thing that's really important for you to understand as especially as a real estate investor or even thinking about this is as a real estate attorney we do have access to other professionals in the industry that are really well versed much well worse than we are because it's their arena it's their focus to a network of related professionals and what i mean by this is as attorneys we have a network of accountants tax consultants um individuals like that work at title companies that may know more about um you know how do you even protect these investments from a standpoint of you know in case someone were to get sued you know because someone found the property uh do you have proper insurance to insure these properties these are all questions that come up outside of the legal things that we advise on that we certainly have a book of professionals that can help you that are a good fit for you to make sure that the investment that you're making isn't just one where we're protecting it but you also have a team of professionals to help you make sure that everything is is is really um put together well and everything is protected not no stone goes in turn that's typically how we we try to do this um a lot of this is streamlining the process and making sure we navigate post-closing um issues with you that might come up even after and that may be you know again tax issues or maybe tax protections we also advise depending on what your real estate portfolio looks like and your estate planning needs believe it or not real estate and estate planning of their cousins i mean they're very very connected so one of the things we talk a lot about with investors um is estate planning needs how do we make sure that these properties are protected so that it goes to your loved one so it stays in the family so that you don't end up you know without an owner on that property so these are all things that are super important to discuss and here we actually help with all of that not just the real estate transaction so i just want to recap for some of you that are just joining me now thank you for watching of course this is pink mic legal confessions my name is attorney stephanie garces donat the owner of garces law firm where we help you prepare for the unexpected at all costs we try to make sure to help individuals especially when it comes to making investments to protecting their future and today's topic happens to be about real estate real estate investors or new and experienced investors looking to continue what they're doing um in the real estate space and maybe they're wondering what does my attorney do why do we even need one and what's the what's the value and so one in my opinion i've worked with many investors in my career and i will tell you that the most successful investors especially those that really um do well and kind of don't sit too long on some of the bigger issues that come up in real estate typically they have a team and a real estate attorney is one of the biggest assets on their team because they really just kind of make sure to relay to us everything that they need for the property and our job is to protect it and make sure we get to the next one so that is really the value that we provide now why do successful real estate investors hire real estate attorney well there's a number of reasons and we're going to go through a couple of questions that i get from some of the viewers when we do these types of meetings with you guys online but also ones that have have happened in my practice so we want to make sure to tackle those today so that you can understand what are the reasons why you should have a real estate attorney help you with your real estate investments now one of the most common questions that i get which i actually enjoy this question is can i hire a real estate attorney to review the proposed legal contract before making an offer the answer is yes now typically you may consider saying well i've heard that we don't review it until after it's signed while that's true it's typically done that there's a review period at least in some of the contracts not all that doesn't allow the attorney to review it after the fact not all the contracts have that so you really have to be careful as to what it is that you're signing and we are happy happy to review anything that you're signing ahead of time because we have to make sure are you sending the right type of contract does it reflect what you're actually getting i mean all of this stuff comes to light whether you want to admit it or not nobody wants to be haunted by contracts that they should have never signed right um and i can say this with confidence that i've had clients say why didn't i call you sooner so don't be that person make sure you know that we can always assist you even when you're making the offer you just have to give us a call now another question that i get every so often is can a real estate attorney help with tax implications associated with capital gains post sale absolutely and actually i would even go on to say that a real estate attorney that also was well-versed in estate planning has a lot to do with this now not every attorney knows much about taxes and let me tell you it is very important especially if you're worried about capital gains if you're worried about hey am i going to have to pay a lot on this and what happens if i have a partner that i'm buying this with how does that work and you know how do we do our taxes every year to make sure that nobody is is taxed more than necessary there are so many answers to this because it all depends on your situation how much are the properties that you're buying how much are you making on the sales whether it's in the short term the long term so these purchases and sales really do matter and as a real estate professional an attorney we can certainly help guide you in that we can also make sure that your estate planning is up to date to make sure that you aren't going to have long-term effects with tax implications because of the properties that you have for example i have a client not too long ago that came to me with more than one more than two more than 10 more than 15 properties i don't want to give away the full number but let's just say it was so many properties and with what they had on their portfolio it was impressive i will not say it wasn't but but the thing is is that if this isn't protected and you are not aware of tax implications that could impact you or your state if something happens to you it matters to make sure that you speak with an attorney that does estate planning and who knows real estate because these things cannot be overlooked and there's a whole episode we can have on this but i just want to make sure you know that it's very important to consider text implications and is something we can help you with now while i'm sitting here someone messaged us asking us a question they said do you offer a fixed retainer for your time or is it billed hourly for every single question now this is a great question because my general answer to this is it's a flat fee if we know that your transaction is very similar to the ones we've done in the past which most times they are we do charge a flat fee as opposed to hourly this makes it affordable it makes it predictable and quite frankly it's reliable we are not going to change the fee on you unless there's something that's out of the ordinary and when i meet out of the ordinary i mean if you call me to do your traffic ticket well that's not really real estate related so i guess that's out of the ordinary but other than that it is always a flat fee so that is a great question and i love when people ask that because we are very transparent with fees and we do make sure to work with everyone's budget so just keep that in mind is there a minimum value um to the sale and purchase of a real estate property that would merit hiring an attorney now i might have mentioned this before but from my standpoint a transaction is a transaction whether it's thirty thousand dollars or three million dollars it's still a transaction every transaction comes with contracts and terms and risks and it doesn't really matter on the price i mean this is your investment your investment and it is always valuable to hire an attorney whether it's a small property a lot a big property because the issues regardless of the price can still be the same there can still be issues with the taxes they could still be issues with the city maybe there's a pending lawsuit that you know nothing about uh perhaps the property has deeper issues maybe ones that you're comfortable taking on and others that you're not so these are the types of things that if you're going to get in the real estate space you really do have to understand that having an attorney from the outset regardless of the price is one of the best investments you're going to make because we will tell you point blank these are the risks these are not the risks these are the things you should be concerned about and these are the things you can't be concerned about so it's important either way and it's really invaluable and until you're actually in it and you see some of the stuff you have to sign and you're not comfortable always reach out to an attorney because i think regardless of the purchase price you definitely want to put out there that you're represented by someone i will tell you again from experience if you show up to a real estate transaction without any attorney without any help it could be bad i mean you're kind of going in without any sort of guidance without any sort of help so you definitely don't want to diy this of all the things and you can diy the house you can diy you know the stairs the windows you could deal with what you're going to do with the house but something from a legal standpoint don't see a why that is now worth your time or the headache quite frankly the stress that could come if you don't actually work with someone that knows what they're doing now another question i get from one of the viewers was uh can a real estate attorney help negotiate the purchase or the sale if i'm out of state answer is yes we help people all over this all over the country quite frankly and all over the state uh actually specifically just had a client that called in from a another another state they're actually investing in our general area buying up properties and while he or she is not in this specific specific state we can still help them because quite frankly the properties that they're buying they're in illinois so as long as the properties are in illinois and we are licensed in illinois we can certainly help and and if we can't help i always try to make sure you get in the right hands but yes the answer is yes we can certainly help people that are out of state we do it all the time as long as you have a phone and that we can contact you out we do offer virtual and in-person or phone call appointments for those of you that are out of state and keep in mind if the property is in illinois and you're buying and selling it even if you were in another country if you can believe that we could definitely still help you i have had people that are actually abroad and it works just fine but it's just a matter of communicating with everybody and making sure we understand what's expected what needs to be signed what doesn't have to be signed when it comes to these these transactions now as always i always get the question of are you doing in-person appointments or are you only offering virtual well we offer both lucky for us we actually have the capacity to do both so it's really up to you whatever you're comfortable with you do not have to come in person if you're not comfortable but if you are we are certainly offering those you could also do virtual from the comfort of your own home you can even put on your pjs if you want as long as you have a camera i mean people nowadays i think everybody uses their phone you don't even need to have a laptop i mean it's very doable if that's something you're interested in but if you want to come on in come on in we are happy to meet you to make sure how we can help now where do you contact me if you have any questions about what i discussed today you can always call me at the number below you can always text this number as well because we do answer text messages for those of you that don't want to call and you can always email us as well it's always a pleasure talking to everyone in this show and actually for all the viewers that are constantly watching and giving me ideas of some of the things they want to see please feel free to keep sending those i love feedback and i love seeing what people have to say so it's always great to kind of get some idea of what it is you want to see right now the real estate market is a really really good one people are just eager to know more and if you're looking to invest or in the process of investing and you want to see what kind of service we offer or what a real estate attorney really does i welcome you to give us a call so that we can have an opportunity to serve you so i want to thank all the viewers today for watching as always and for your excellent questions and continued support for pink mic legal confessions with the craziness of the real estate market day in and day out it's really really it's strongly encouraged and recommended to hire a real estate attorney with a reputable career with a reputable outlook on things because you want to make sure the person that you hire gets you to the closing table actually closes the transaction and assists you to the best way possible in all facets of the transaction buying and selling real estate is an investment that brings different types of challenges implications and can really be great for your family it can really help you in the long run to have a very successful financial future but also because it helps build wealth and so all these considerations to the process are really really important so as always i invite you to watch me here on tuesdays next week pink mic legal confession is at one o'clock and we are always always looking for more questions more support on anything you want to see and as always thank you for letting us use our platform to make sure that you the viewers are educated and learning something that you didn't know before this started so same time same place next week please feel free to share your recordings with your family and i hope you stay well