Criteria For Choosing A RE Attorney
I am starting to interview real estate attorneys regarding my upcoming foray into full time real estate investing . I am building a Q&A list to see which of these expensive suits are right for me. I dont have a specific type of deal that I am focusing on just yet: LO, wholesale, retail, long term hold ... whatever make sense depending on the motivated seller's situation. Outside of the usual familiarity with incorporating (e.g., establishing an LLC), possible background in doing Land Trusts, etc, what other things might I want to find out about these characters to sort out the "best" one for me?
Real estate is a pretty broad practice area and may include, for example, representing developers in zoning and permitting, representing clients in foreclosure (plaintiff or defendant), landlord/tenant, and real estate closings. Even with real estate closings some attorneys choose to handle solely commercial properties.
I would say your first question is "What specific area of RE is your practice devoted to?". Find out how long such person has been practicing law in general and how long they have been specalizing in the particular practice area. Find out who many investors they work with and approximately how many cases (transactions) they handle in a given month. Also bounce some terms off of them and see if they are familiar with them. Finally, find out what their prices are and whether they charge on an hourly or flat fee basis.
J