An attorney plays a vital role in real estate acquisitions, improvements, and management. When choosing an attorney to handle the legal components of your real estate business dealings, it helps to know what questions to ask.
Reasons to Hire a Real Estate Attorney
First, let’s look at the reasons why you’d want to hire a real estate attorney in the first place.
Review Contracts
Real estate transactions can be complex since they involve agreements with many moving parts. To make sure your contracts serve your best interests, you’ll want them looked over by someone who is familiar with the nature of these agreements.
Add Weight To Negotiations
Efforts to buy or sell real estate involve a great deal of negotiation. Having an attorney to represent you and advise you—particularly one who is familiar with real estate—can add weight to your position, allowing you to negotiate with more authority.
Provide Legal Insight On Best Practices
The processes of managing properties, developing them, leasing them out, and buying/selling them can all run into legal complications, from zoning laws to health and safety regulations. In addition, premises liability is always worth considering. Your attorney will advise you on best practices to follow in order to comply with local, state, and federal regulations while keeping liability to a minimum.
Questions to Ask When Hiring a Real Estate Lawyer
A competent real estate lawyer is professional, knowledgeable, and experienced in all matters relating to real property. To determine whether an attorney will be a good fit, consider asking the following questions.
How Long Have You Practiced Real Estate Law?
Practical experience is at least as vital as formal training. Experience, in general, is important, but it’s especially important that your attorney has experience in real estate law specifically. The more experience your attorney has in real estate, the more capable they will be when it comes to resolving unique situations.
What Are Your Specialties?
Even within real estate law, there are specific specialty areas, such as acquisitions, land development, multifamily property management, and so forth. It’s best to choose an attorney who has experience in the exact area of real estate law you’re focusing on.
Who’s On Your Team?
Often, you won’t be working with a specific attorney alone, but rather with multiple members of their firm. If your legal needs are going to be passed on to another member of their firm, then you’ll need to be sure that party is qualified to provide the legal services possible.
How Have You Helped Past Clients?
The best real estate attorneys will be able to provide examples of times when they’ve helped past clients through situations similar to yours. A successful track record is a good sign that you’ll benefit from their services.
Choosing the Right Real Estate Attorney
With the above questions, you’ll be able to tell whether an attorney will be a good fit for your needs, whether you’re buying a house or managing commercial property. One option you have is Hart David Carson LLP. We have years of experience in real estate law, including acquisitions, dispositions, financing, leasing, management, and so forth.