All Forum Posts by: Chris K.

@Kenny M. Lewis

I think there are too many variables for anyone to reasonably answer your question. What state and what area? And what kind of real estate contracts? 

Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it for legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.

@Jimmy Lin

For asset protection, each LLC can hold whatever dollar amount you are comfortable holding. For example, if you buy 100 unit apartments, it probably makes sense to create an LLC for each building. If you are buying cheaper properties, maybe you could combine a few different properties into one LLC.

Now asset protection is only one consideration. You may have other considerations as well. For example, if you intend to 1031 exchange the properties later down the line, you may need to adjust the above. I can't say I know what the rules precisely say on the issue but it can sometimes cause issues. 

For banking and finances, many banks provide ability to access different bank accounts for different LLCs using a single ID/PW. Once you own a certain number of units, you probably need to outsource your bookkeeping anyways. So I'm not sure if that is a reason to combine all real estate under a single LLC.

Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it for legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.

@Daniel Montes

Not on my laptop but if you just google "Scranton" and "real estate tax," you'll be able to find the new official page where you can check for taxes. Or you can just google the Lackawanna Tax Assessment Data and then calculate it from there. 

Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it for legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.

@Cody L.

I think you have a two different issues. There are folks that you can hire to get a space look aesthetically pleasing. Then there are folks you can work with to make space functionally for it's intended purpose. For example, you can hire an interior designer that can help you make choices to end up with a very nice looking shared office space. But that's kind of pointless if the space is a nightmare for the tenants to use because it doesn't actually meet their needs. This kind of situation happens a lot in specialized industries. For example, I know many restaurants and coffee shops where people end up with a nice looking space that is impractical for it's intended use. 

With that in mind, maybe look for architects or interior designers that worked on similar projects. 

Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it for legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.

@Daniel Montes

That depends on the property. But as a general rule, it's hard for a landlord to dump sewer and waste fees to the tenant for practical reasons. 

Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it for legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.

@Michael Johnson

Legal malpractice cases --- at least in Pennsylvania --- are generally very difficult to bring and win. Even if you could "win" in theory, the damages you could recover for it is minimal. For example, take a situation where the attorney just flat-out misses the statue of limitation (i.e. deadline to file a lawsuit). While that is surely "negligent" in the common sense of the word, providing negligence in court requires you to prove damages. So how do you prove damages in this scenario? Your attorney messed up and now you can't sue someone. But the fact that you could've sued someone doesn't mean you were going to win that lawsuit. To over come this issue, you often have to have a "trial within a trial" where you try to prove that you would've won the underlying lawsuit had the attorney not missed the statute of limitation. Needless to say that's incredible time consuming and expensive to do. 

If I had to guess, this person will struggle to bring a lawsuit against the former foreclosure defense attorney. In most residential foreclosure cases, the defendant doesn't really have a defense if they failed to make payment. There was some interesting legal cases during the 2008 crisis since many banks simply lost track of who held the underlying mortgage/note. But in most scenarios, the best that a foreclosure defense attorney can do for most residential defendants is to delay the inevitable and try to negotiate out a settlement. Not surprisingly, most foreclosure defense attorneys also work as bankruptcy lawyers. 

Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it for legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.

@Rich Littlefield

I don't really have a dog in the dispute. But a few thoughts: 

• To add to what @Nik Moushon, any firm that is big enough to have both architects and engineers under the same roof will typically be massive firms that specialize in some kind of specific field. Even the kind of commercial construction my company does, it's pretty rare. It just wouldn't make much business sense for engineering firms to have architects vice versa.

• When it comes to new construction, I do think the quality of the plans really matter. Now if you are just building cookie-cutter modular homes, it probably doesn't matter as much. But if you are doing anything beyond that, having good plans and having access to an architect is critical for the construction to go smoothly. This is even true on a smaller jobs. While we don't do too much smaller jobs anymore, but they can go disastrous due to design conflicts between the contractors. 

• One other factor is the ultimate management of the actual construction. While it's not perfect, the AIA system works well and its basically fair to all parties in its default form. It's a better system than most other contracts you find in the smaller new construction world. So when it comes times to actually build the building, working with an architect who knows how to manage a project under an AIA system can make life easier for everyone involved. 

Just my two cents. As someone who owns a construction company, I can say that nothing infuriates our field and design team more than terrible architectural drawings. 

Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it for legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.

@Redha Laafia

What county/municipality, what kind of taxes, and what kind of tax sale? There are too many missing information to even try to answer your question. 

Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it for legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.

@Joshua Stewart

My company works on fairly large projects all over the northeast. For these bigger projects, qualifying for LEED certification can become important depending on all the grants, tax benefits, and other "funding" factors. Incidentally, we like those jobs because glass/glazing items can have a big impact on that process. They typically need to order "higher spec" products to meet the requirement. In turn, that typically means bigger contracts for us and our vendors.

Now for residential homes, I suppose it depends on the market. In the area that I live, I would guess that 99% of the potential buyers won't care about it. In more "hip" areas, I can see it being an attraction.  

Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it for legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.

@Maneesh Joshi

Probably the most important question you need ask is how you intend to finance this purchase. Historically, you couldn't get the traditional Fannie/Freddie Mac Loan with an LLC. There has been some updates on that but you would need to qualify and find a lender who is willing to deal with the process.

Most CPAs can work anywhere. Note that some CPAs won't give advice on state-specific tax issues like realty transfer tax. For example, my CPA doesn't handle anything related to sales tax and use tax in any state. It's a different kind of expertise than Federal tax. 

If I was a NY attorney, I wouldn't feel comfortable advising on a PA matter. Setting aside that fact, you are probably better off owning the underlying property under PA LLC if you are going to do it. But assuming it is a single member LLC, you probably don't need to open it until you are reasonably ready to purchase.

Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it for legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.