REAL ESTATE AND CONSTRUCTION

Real Estate Law is a major emphasis of the firm. Mr. Crockett has over 30 years of experience in all types of Real Estate Law matters including extensive litigation and trial experience. Real estate documents are carefully prepared and reviewed with the concept that they be understandable and enforceable in a court of law. Also, any real estate deal must make economic sense.

PLEASE CALL and an attorney will speak with you about your situation.

WHAT MATTERS ABOUT YOUR SITUATION-HELPFUL HINTS

• DON’T SIGN real estate papers without legal advice ( Documents may not mean what you think they do!)
• If the documentation is not correct, or if people change their minds, it may cost TENS OF THOUSANDS of DOLLARS and more in expensive litigation to try to fix the problem.
• We can prepare and interpret ALL the documents properly from the beginning and advise on whether an LLC, corporation, trust or other legal entity would be preferable
• We have a dual insight into all parts of any deal, especially the money, the financing part and the property and income taxes.
• A real estate deal must make economic sense. (Projections and “hype” about how good a deal is may not really be accurate!)

Eviction cases ( you want non-payers removed ASAP)

• Advice and preparation of all the proper notices when tenants are late in their rent.
• Prosecution of eviction lawsuits where necessary to have non-paying tenants removed from the premises and to collect unpaid rent.
• Advise about tenant security deposits and offsets against the deposit.

Real Estate Lawsuits (sure, anybody can file a lawsuit but is it worth it?)

• Aggressive representation in lawsuits dealing with purchases and sales, lis pendens, fraud, title claims, joint ownership and partnership disputes, investments, escrow, foreclosure, easements, partition cases (i.e. forcing the sale of jointly owned property), and brokerage disputes.
• Lawsuits dealing with fraudulent real estate matters.
• Landlord- tenant eviction lawsuits.

Real Estate Purchases, Sales, and Leases (if you are going to spend all that money you don’t want to have problems)

• Preparation, negotiation, and review of purchase and sale agreements, leases, options, deposit receipts, escrow instructions, joint ownership, financing, loans, notes, trust deeds, brokerage and commission matters.
• Advice on how to structure a deal, what entities to use and how to set it up to minimized taxes.
• Tax advice on Section1031 tax-deferred exchanges, capital gain & loss, tax basis, and the relationship of the transaction to overall income or estate tax situation.
• Advice on methods of holding legal title and title insurance questions.

Real Estate Operations (It is not that easy to make money!)

• Determine and form the proper legal entity whether that be a corporation, partnership, limited liability company, trust, or joint ownership. Planning to maximize financial benefits by review of tax returns, financial data and loan documents.
• Negotiation and preparation of leases and management agreements. Advice on commercial landlord tenant matters.
• Advice on troubled properties, rehab of older properties, foreclosure and lender dispute matters.
• Hotel, motel, and apartment acquisitions, sales, financing, taxation and operation matters.

Building Construction and Development (A complicated business that can make or break either the builder or the customer!)

• Formation of construction and development companies. Advise on contracts.
• Construction defects, mechanic lien lawsuits, and disputes with contractors and subcontractors.
• Collection of money due for construction work.

The Three Taxes (You can really get bitten if you don’t figure the taxes in advance)
Every real estate situation involves three taxes; income tax, property tax, and estate taxes. We analyze these tax effects of any real estate case or transaction before proceeding because the taxes can be very significant.

The importance of legal title (determining who owns what)
Unfortunately, people sometimes sign deeds to properties and make property transfers without being fully aware of the consequences. There are specific laws about the form of holding legal ownership to real estate. Virtually every real estate matter involves a review all the real estate deeds and ownership documents to make sure the form of ownership is proper. Also, consideration must be given in any type of real property transfer to obtaining title searches and title insurance. If the legal title is not properly set up, serious unintended consequences and expensive litigation can result. Different categories of ownership have different legal rules as to rights of the owners. Here is a basic overview of the legal categories of holding legal title ownership in California.

• Sole ownership: Only one person or legal entity (such as a corporation or an LLC) is on the deed and only that one person’s signature or that entity’s signature is needed to sell or to place liens against the property.
• Tenancy in Common: 2 or more persons or entities can be owners and ownership can be equal (50/50) or unequal (such as 40/60). All owners have the right to possession. Each owner has the right on their own signature to sell or place liens against their portion without the consent of the other owners. A tenancy in common agreement is strongly recommended to avoid problems of possession, use, collection of rents, management, sales of partial shares and what to do on death or when somebody wants to get out or sell.
• Joint Tenancy: 2 or more persons are equal owners and have equal rights to possession. Upon the death of one owner, the other owners automatically succeed to the deceased’s person’s share without any court proceeding. Also, a joint tenancy supersedes a will so the deceased person cannot give his or her share to someone else through his will. Each owner has the right on his own to sell, transfer, or place liens against his share. If a joint tenancy owners sells or transfers his portion, the joint tenancy is ended and the form of ownership reverts to tenancy in common.
• Community Property: This form of ownership is available only to husbands and wives and domestic partners. Ownership, right to control and possession are equal. The signatures of both owners are needed to sell or place liens against the property. Either one, through one’s will, can transfer away his or her portion on death to anyone so the surviving spouse is not guaranteed to get it.
• Community Property with Right of Survivorship: This form of ownership is the same as community property except that there is no right to transfer on death. In other words, the surviving spouse or partner automatically gets the entire ownership on the death of the first.
• Trustee ownership: Trustees of trusts often hold title to real estate. This is prevalent where people have formed a living trust and transfer their property to that trust. In that instance, the trust documents control who gets the property when people pass away.
• Corporate and/or LLC ownership: Businesses and investors often own property in the name of a corporation or a LLC (limited liability company). In those cases, the corporation or LLC documents control the operation of the property and what happens to it on the demise of company owners.

Useful websites concerning real estate:

After Tax Mortgage Rate Calculator http://mortgages.interest.com/content/calculators/index.asp
Calif Dept of Real Estate http://www.dre.cahwnet.gov
California Real Estate http://www.countyrecordsresearch.com
Commercial Listings-Loopnet http://www.loopnet.com/xNet/Mainsite/Default.aspx
Countrywide Home Loans http://my.countrywide.com
Creative Real Estate Investing http://www.creonline.com
Ditech-Home Loans Online http://www.ditech.com/index.html
E-Loan http://www.eloan.com
Foreclosure Listings http://www.foreclosure.com
Foreclosures- another site http://www.foreclosures.com
How to plan for mortgage savings http://www.fullspectrumlending.com/ToolsCalcs/MortgageSavings
Insurance Quotes https://www.2insure4less.com/ho
Interest rates & loan quotes http://www.banx.com
Lending Tree http://www.lendingtree.com
Mortgage & Financial Calculators http://www.hughchou.org/calc
Mortgage Quotes http://www.moving.com/Mortgage_and_Finance/Quotes
Orange County Tax Collector http://tax.ocgov.com/treas
Prepay vs. Invest http://www.hughchou.org/calc/prepay_v_invest.cgi
Real Estate Investing and Analysis Software http://www.investmentre.com
Real Estate Investment Trusts Info http://www.reitnet.com
Real Estate TRAnsaction Network http://www.retran.net
Redloc http://www.redloc.com
Residential Listings-Nat’l Assn Realtors http://www.realtor.com
Valuations & Data http://www.zillow.com
Yahoo Finance Education-Real Estate http://biz.yahoo.com/edu/ed_real.html
Yahoo Real Estate http://realestate.yahoo.com