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Qualities To Demand For In A Professional Real Estate Attorney

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    Those looking for the best real estate attorney they can find are looking for someone who is going to help protect their assets in a number of different ways. That can include using everything from IRAs to LLCs to insulate you from potential liability.

    We’re going to talk a bit about what separates your typical real estate attorney from the great ones. The ones who you can count on to have your best interests at heart as you protect yourself from potential lawsuits or government overreach.

    Creativity and Knowledge

    Creativity bolstered by knowledge is an almost unbeatable combination. In real estate, asset protection involves using already existing vehicles, like LLCs and trusts, to protect your assets from those who would want to come after them. That requires not just knowledge of how the structures work, but the creativity to employ them for purposes that they may not even have been initially designed for.

    For instance, a savvy real estate attorney can help you set up chain LLCs or anonymous trusts for the purpose of making your properties more difficult to find. This effectively insulates your assets from one another.

    Those who hold all of their real estate assets in their own name are leaving one property vulnerable to be sued if something goes wrong with another property.

    When an individual files a lawsuit against a property owner, and that owner holds a number of properties in their name, the lawsuit can not only target the property itself but other assets the owner holds. An LLC adds a layer of protection between the property being sued and the owner’s other assets.

    Business structures such as these can prevent a real estate investor from being wiped out by a difficult lawsuit.

    Preventative Medicine is the Best Medicine

    Protecting your assets is less about litigating claims that have been made against you and more about pre-empting potential litigation. Litigation is a part of what a good professional real estate attorney can do, but once you’re being sued, you’ve already lost control of the situation. It’s in the hands of a judge and a jury now.

    For every property you own, you want to establish a separate legal account. That can be a trust, an LLC, or even an IRA or 401(k). The trick is to isolate your assets for the purpose of insulating your assets from one another.

    The best real estate attorneys will anticipate potential lawsuits against you, help you shore up any potential problems with the property itself, and then create a structure for your assets in a manner that protects them from being wiped out by a single lawsuit.

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    Hall CPA PLLC, real estate CPAs and advisors, helped me save $37,818 on taxes by recommending and assisting with a cost segregation study. With strategic multifamily rehab and the $2,500 de minimus safe harbor plus cost segregation, taxes on my real estate have been non-existent for a few years (and that includes offsetting large capital gains from the sale of property).

    Mike Dymski - Business Owner