Real Estate Lawyer Questions

[Gabe Smith]

What do you think would be some good qualifying questions to ask of a prospective real estate lawyer? For context, my business partner and I are just starting out in real estate investing in the Boston area, and we are building our contact list. First on that list will be a real estate lawyer so we are developing somewhat of a shortlist of vetting questions and focus points.

[Dan K.]

Hi @Gabe Smith,

To be honest, a lawyer shouldn't be on your list of contacts at this point. You might actually need the following lawyers:

- Landlord / Tenant (if there is an issue in the future or to review your leases)

- Small business (for LLC creation)

- Real estate (to handle closing)

Some lawyers can do all three tasks, others only one. Any competent real estate lawyer can handle your closing. You actually need to pay the bank's lawyer, and in some cases your lawyer can represent the bank, and in other cases it will make financial sense for you to use the lawyer that the bank chooses.

You can form an LLC in MA very, very easily. Of course for the actual LLC agreement between the general partners you will want to go to an attorney. To avoid potential conflicts of interest, each LLC partner may want to have their own attorney (of course costs will go up).

Finally, although lawyers often give a "free consultation," no lawyer is going to want to sit there and feel like they are being screened by gotchya questions. Attorney generally charge between $200 and $800+ an hour, so keep that in mind when creating a set of screener questions. You should generally feel a good level of comfort with the attorney you choose and obviously they should be competent. 

-Dan