How do you find good attorneys? Are they all bad?

Tax, SDIRAs & Cost Segregation
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How do you find good attorneys? Are they all bad?

Orlando Goodon
Member since 2018 · 125 posts · 21 votes

This is my first time dealing with multifamily rentals and every attorney I've come across seems dishonest and lazy. I've been struggling to find a good attorney for weeks now. I'm now starting to think:

-I'll need to accept hiring a bad attorney who is not as bad as others (lesser of two evils)
-I'll have to do much of the work myself (reviewing laws and finding exceptions that can help with evicting non paying tenants protected by ERAP)
-The main job of the attorney will be filing the paperwork, showing up in court, answering my questions and finding flaws in strategies that I come up with
-They all want to do the laziest thing. The most basic strategies like the last one who was doing a non payment eviction on tentents programs that specifically block you from doing so, rather than using things that are not blocked by the programs (owner occupy)

So how have you found good legal help? You can't even trust referrals because people refer people they LIKE, not necessary people who are good. If I hire a lawyer and they are NICE and friendly and SEEM knowledgeable, I'll probably recommend them. Problem is, if you are not an attorney, how do you know your attorney did a good job? Lazy attorney CAN win cases or SEEM to be doing good work. I think, only another attorney that you TRUST is capable of doing a worthwhile referral.unless you can find an attorney who handled your exact situation before and was successful.

For refence, I just need to do an owner occupy (primary residence) eviction on ERAP tenants in NY house I just bought. ERAP supposedly does not apply to 4 units or less and won't stop owner occupy...supposedly...but I need a good attorney to be sure.

Thanks in advance.

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  • Janet Behm
    Accountant · West Jordan, UT · Member since 2017 · 182 posts · 95 votes
    4y
    Orlando,
    Slow down and take a breath. 
    I am going to tell you a quick story about a farmer...(very brief)
    Farmer working in his field is greeted by traveler #1 who asks, 
    "I'm thinking of moving to this town. But before I do, what kind of people live here?"
    Farmer asks, "What kind of people are in the town you're leaving?"
    Traveler #1, "They are petty. Mean gossip. Nasty people."
    Farmer, "That's pretty much the kind of people you'll find here."
    Traveler #2 "I'm thinking of moving to this town. But before I do, what kind of people live here?"
    Farmer asks, "What kind of people are in the town you're leaving?"
    Traveler #2, "They are the kindest, most loving. The summer bar-b-ques at the fire station attracted families from a 50-mile radius."
    Farmer, "That's pretty much the kind of people you'll find here."
    As a transition step buy, my friend, Daniela Liscio's book, HOW NOT TO BE SCREWED BY YOUR LAWYER
    Good Luck, Janet



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  • Sergey A. Petrov
    Real Estate Consultant · Seattle, WA · Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 784 votes
    4y

    It sounds like you are trying to be an attorney and micro managing. The laws, the exceptions, the loopholes, whatever else you find may or may not work, may or may not be applicable in your situation, and may or may not expose you to more risk. The only way to mitigate that is through experience (and them trusting the attorney to do their job instead of questioning every decision they make and every line they write on whatever document they are working on)

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  • Orlando Goodon
    OP
    Member since 2018 · 125 posts · 21 votes
    4y
    Quote from @Sergey A. Petrov:

    It sounds like you are trying to be an attorney and micro managing. The laws, the exceptions, the loopholes, whatever else you find may or may not work, may or may not be applicable in your situation, and may or may not expose you to more risk. The only way to mitigate that is through experience (and them trusting the attorney to do their job instead of questioning every decision they make and every line they write on whatever document they are working on)


     There are basically only two exceptions to the rental protection and they're pretty simple and in your face, not buried anywhere. I might understand that you don't find a problem with attorneys who after a year of this law being created don't even know the only two exceptions that would allow for an eviction? How can you do an eviction and not know?

    it's acceptable to you to after a year of being paid by multiple homeowners to not even have 5 minutes worth of knowledge of the very rule that you're challenging?

    the law very explicitly States that evictions will not be allowed unless the owner is looking to occupy as a primary residence and it's a four family or less. What reason would an attorney have for not knowing this after being paid but dozens of clients in the last 12 months to do evictions?

    how on Earth would this be considered micromanaging? If you hire a mechanic to do an oil change who does not know how to check the oil being concerned is not micromanaging...

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