Finding an attorney who gets it.

General Real Estate Investing
1

After years of doing a lot of the paperwork myself, always worrying if I was leaving my backside open by not filling something out correctly, or putting up with an attorney who fought me tooth and nail the whole way through a deal, I was finally able to find an attorney who understands and even embraces Creative Real Estate Investing.

I was able to locate the attorney, by asking several different Realtor’s ,whom already knew how I operated, who they though would be a good fit for my business.

I like using an attorney as it helps bring a certain level of credibility to the table.

My question is two fold.

  1. What methods have you used to find attorneys who are willing to help with creatively financed deals line sub2 and lease options

and

  1. Do you use attorneys regularly or do the closings (buy or sell side) on your own?
2

ive got one in los angeles who deals with title holding land trusts simulating lease options. eliminated majority of the risks when dealing with lease options and seller financing by having a land trust as the vehicle.

3

James, I found myself an attorney for lease options but for sub2’s its a different story. The 2 creative investing attorney’s I found were only good for about an hour of argueing. So I’ll probably go through WendyPattens hubby, he provide a pre-paid legal and services and is available through her site. I think you know Wendy is a LO and Sub2 guru so I’m sure her hubby takes care of her legalities. Herbster

4

Thanks Herbster.

It does seem to take while to find one that is on board. It is comparable to finding a Realtor who is comfortable with what we do.

They are out there… but you really have to look.

I remember one attorney I used when I was trying to get an easement for a two car parking space next to a commercial building we were buying kept pushing for a survey and for us to buy the land from the seller… as the seller of the building we were buying owned both parcels. a Survey and sale was the attorneys only answer to the problem.

Keep in mind that the seller was on board with throwing the parking easement in as part of the deal…

The problem I had with the attorney’s answer was that it was going to cost us at least $10,000 to do.

While I agree that the attorney had the most “correct” answer, the area next to the building had been used for parking for decades… It was understood that parking was what was going on there. All we wanted was a piece of paper to stand on that allowed it officially.

I had asked if there was a way the seller could lease us that section of land for 99 years for $1 or something… then the attorney was worried about what would happen at the end of 99 years.

I told him that I didn’t really care what happened at the end of 99 years and that I was sure a lot of things will have changed by then.

Not to mention I probably wasn’t going to be around.

He then stated that He didn’t want his name on anything like that.

So after a few days of me throwing different options at him, including adverse possession, he finally gave in and begrudgingly wrote up the easement.

The main problem I had with this attorney was that he was only able to tell me why something wouldn’t work, and had no suggestions as to how it could be accomplished.

I operate on the belief that if there are two consenting parties on just about anything, there has to be a way to write it up legally.

That easement was the last time I used that attorney for anything.

5

I went to my local real estate investor’s club meeting. The attorneys that advertise in the newsletter do investor type projects. In fact every professional listed deals in investor grade projects. In one club there are 4 lawyers listed. I am a member of 3 pay clubs and 2 more free clubs. Each has 2 to 4 lawyers. One of them is on each club’s lists.

6

I wonder if part of it is that I am operating in a relatively small Midwestern city. (~5000 people). I have property in the three counties surrounding it, so the area I work it pretty large, but the low population may lead to a more conservative group of professionals.

What size city do you work Blue?

7

I’ve had good luck with referrals from other investors and creative realtors. But nowadays I rarely use an attorney since most of my deals are assignments.

The smallest town I’ve done business in any meaningful way has a population of about 100,000 and I thought that was small. I’m amazed you can find any creative deals at all in a population of 5,000!

8

The nice part is that there is literally no competition for what we are doing. All of the other investors seem to be going to banks for everything they do.

The bad part is that the concepts are very foreign to most people, so I find that we have to educate them as we go.

If we are patient and look out for their best interests, most people understand how some of more creative ideas can often be their best option.