Archive › real estate law

Hiring The Right Real Estate Professional Pays Off Over Time – guest post by Justin Daniels, Atlanta Real Estate Attorney

I have certain clients who pass through my office who are thinking about hiring a real estate lawyer for the first time or switching lawyers for the all too familiar reasons. They, however, make it clear all they really care about is getting the cheapest price for the services. How often do you hire the [...]

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Don’t Wait to Last Minute to Negotiate Critical Lease Provisions – guest post by Justin Daniels, Atlanta Real Estate Attorney

There are three critical lease provisions that tenants should negotiate at the outset rather than negotiating them as part of a lease review. These provisions are the following: 1) Identifying the buildout completion date and the penalties for landlord’s failure to timely deliver. These are typically 2 days free rent for each day’s delay and [...]

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Do Your Due Diligence or Be Sorry – guest post by Justin Daniels, Atlanta Real Estate Attorney

I have many clients who call me at the 11th hour to request a real estate contract and tell me not to worry about any due diligence that may get in the way of their sweet deal. That is a sour response. Due diligence may seem trite and monotonous but it is essential to making [...]

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Your Contract is Your Bond – guest post by Justin Daniels, Atlanta Real Estate Attorney

I have fielded several phones calls lately with the same lament: “The lease I signed is not what the landlord promised.” I am sure you have heard the phrase “My word is my bond”, today that really means “Your contract is your bond”. Most lease boilerplate contains a clause that says the lease supersedes any [...]

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Landlord’s Forgetfulness is No Excuse: Tenant Obligated to Pay Lease Expenses – guest post by Justin Daniels, Atlanta Real Estate Attorney

I recently had this issue come across my desk: A landlord sent a Tenant a bill for two year’s worth of tax expenses does the tenant have to pay them. Unfortunately, the general answer is yes. Despite the landlord being asleep at the switch, if the tenant agreed to pay such expenses in the lease [...]

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Your Sublease Can be a Risky Proposition, guest post by Justin Daniels, Atlanta Real Estate Attorney

Subleasing is very popular during a down economy. You can find great space at a reasonable price. Subleasing, however, during this economy, can be fraught with peril. If the company from whom you are leasing defaults under its lease, the landlord has the right to terminate the master lease along with your sublease. This problem [...]

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U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson to Pursue “Magic Bullet” Housing Tax Credit

During his August 19 speech at theFMLS Southeast Residential Real Estate Trade Show, U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson shared his aggressive plan to implement a housing tax credit that would aid the ailing real estate market and stimulate the economy.

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Tenant Improvement Allowance and Landlord Defaults, guest post by Justin Daniels, Atlanta Real Estate Attorney

Your Tenant Improvement Allowance is at risk When a Landlord Defaults Certain commercial leases allow a tenant to build out space and be reimbursed by the landlord for such buildout. In the current economic climate, however, a landlord may be having financial difficulty or default on its mortgage and be unable to reimburse the tenant [...]

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Intangible Tax is not owed on Refinancing Debt with your existing Bank

Georgia law provides that you do not have to pay intangible tax again when you refinance a property with your existing lender if the intangible tax had already been paid on the initial loan.

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1031 Funds At-risk? (guest post by Justin Daniels, Commercial Real Estate Attorney)

Did you know that your 1031 funds held by a 1031 exchange agent can be at risk to general creditors should the exchange agent become insolvent? In order to safeguard your exchange funds and, hopefully, avoid such issues you should ensure that: 1) your exchange funds are deposited directly into one or more segregated accounts [...]

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