Helped Clients Recover Over $25 Billion. Since 1979.
Helped Clients Recover Over $25 Billion. Since 1979.
Buying, selling, or co-owning property runs on contracts and fixed deadlines. Your agent, escrow officer, and exchange intermediary each play a part, but none of them can tell you what the documents mean for you. The Schenk Law Firm represents buyers, sellers, investors, and co-owners from the letter of intent or purchase agreement through closing. We handle commercial and residential property.
Purchase & Sale Agreements
We draft and review purchase agreements, counteroffers, and addenda. We represent buyers as well as sellers, and we document seller financing secured by a deed of trust.
Escrow Problems & Disclosures
Advice when a late seller disclosure or other problem in escrow changes the deal, including extensions, cancellation, and recovery of a deposit.
1031 Exchanges
Counsel to the owner making the exchange, working with the qualified intermediary and the owner’s tax advisor on the sale, the replacement property, and structures such as a drop and swap into a tenancy-in-common interest.
Co-Ownership & TIC Agreements
Tenancy-in-common and co-ownership agreements covering each owner’s share, who covers which costs, refinancing, and what happens when one owner wants out. We also prepare the deeds and recorded memoranda that go with them.
Property-Holding LLCs
Forming LLCs to hold property, drafting their operating agreements, and moving title into them. We flag lender consent and property tax reassessment questions and coordinate the answers with your CPA.
Options & Easements
Options to purchase, and easement agreements that are negotiated and recorded.
Real Estate Offerings
Operating agreements, private placement memoranda, and subscription documents for groups raising investor money to buy property.
Construction Contracts
Owner-contractor agreements for building and remodeling projects.
When should a lawyer see the purchase agreement?
Before you commit, or at the latest before you remove contingencies. Contingency periods are counted from acceptance, and once a contingency is removed, the right to cancel on that ground is usually gone.
Is my deposit at risk?
It can be. In a California home purchase where the buyer plans to live in the property, a liquidated damages clause can let the seller keep up to 3% of the price if the buyer backs out without a contractual right to cancel. We check which contingencies are still open before you decide anything.
What if the seller discloses something new during escrow?
California requires home sellers to make detailed written disclosures. When certain required disclosures arrive after the buyer’s offer is accepted, the buyer has a short window to cancel. We review the new disclosure, the contract, and your deadlines, and advise you on whether to cancel or negotiate.
How does a 1031 exchange work?
A 1031 exchange lets an owner of investment or business property defer tax on a sale by reinvesting in like-kind property. The sale proceeds go to a qualified intermediary so the seller never receives them, the replacement property must be identified within 45 days of the sale, and the purchase must close within 180 days. We handle the legal documents and work with the intermediary and your tax advisor.
How should co-owners hold title?
Joint tenancy and tenancy in common work very differently when an owner dies or wants to sell. Joint tenants own equal shares that pass to the surviving owners, while tenants in common can own unequal shares that pass through each owner’s estate. We explain the options and put the owners’ agreement in writing.
Experience
David Lizerbram has practiced business law in California for more than two decades and has negotiated many commercial leases. Benjamin Schenk founded and runs a commercial real estate investment and asset management firm.
Legal Advice Your Agent Can’t Give
Real estate agents, escrow officers, and exchange intermediaries play important roles, but they can’t advise you on your legal rights. We work alongside them and focus on the contract, your deadlines, and your exposure.
Help When a Deal Goes Wrong
If a deal falls apart, we handle the dispute with the other side through negotiation and mediation. See our real estate disputes page.
Case Study
A family investor held its interest in a commercial building through a company with several owners. When the owners agreed to sell the building for between $10 million and $15 million, our client wanted to defer capital gains tax instead of cashing out. We used a drop and swap: before closing, the client’s share came out of the company as a direct co-ownership interest, so it could go through a qualified intermediary under Section 1031 apart from the other owners’ shares. We prepared the operating agreement amendment, the deeds, and the authority documents that title and the intermediary required, and we reviewed the co-ownership and investor documents for the replacement property. Within the exchange deadlines, the client reinvested more than $6 million in a fractional interest in a large apartment community. Afterward, we cancelled the entities that were no longer needed.
Case Study
A family buying a commercial building with a restaurant tenant planned to redevelop the site later. We reviewed the letter of intent, the seller’s added terms, the existing lease, and the title package. The lease history showed the tenant had no renewal rights. We recommended a tenant estoppel at closing and a longer due diligence period. On the seller-financed note, we asked for default terms, assignment rights, and the seller’s agreement to subordinate its lien to a future construction loan. The buyers closed escrow.
Case Study
Two people owned a home together. One had moved away, and the lender would lend only to the owner still living there. They wanted to borrow against the home’s equity and split the money, which would have left the resident owner alone liable to the lender. We drafted a co-owner agreement that tied the other owner’s share of the loan to his share of the house. It covers monthly reimbursement, exclusive use of the home for a fixed period, the division of property costs, and payoff of any remaining loan balance from his sale proceeds. We also drafted the escrow instructions for that payoff. Both owners signed the agreement.
Case Study
We represented a small investor group buying an established service company and the property it operated from. We formed the buying company, documented the investors’ terms, negotiated the letter of intent, and revised the asset purchase agreement and the separate real estate contract. The seller took a promissory note for part of the price and signed consulting and noncompete agreements. The business and the building closed together through one escrow, with an SBA-guaranteed bank loan secured by a deed of trust on the property.
Client names and identifying details are withheld. Results depend on the facts of each matter, and past results don’t guarantee a similar outcome.
Real estate is governed by the law of the state where the property sits. The Schenk Law Firm is based in North Park, San Diego, and advises on transactions involving property throughout California.
Our real estate practice covers commercial leases as well as disputes.
Entity Formation & Structuring
LLCs formed to hold property, and the operating agreements behind them.
Shareholder, Member & Partnership Agreements
Agreements among co-investors who own property through a company.
Structure and governance for families that hold property together.
Planning for how property and the companies that hold it pass to the next generation.
Contingency periods, disclosure windows, exchange deadlines, and closing dates are fixed by contract or by law. Whether you’re buying, selling, exchanging, sharing ownership, or moving property into an LLC, we can review your documents and explain your options.
Contact us today to discuss your real estate transaction.
Request a ConsultationNot for every deal. A lawyer adds the most when the price is high, the contract is unusual, a problem comes up in escrow, or several owners are involved. An agent can’t give legal advice, so those are the times to bring one in.
Yes. We can step in at any point before closing. We’ll need the purchase agreement with all addenda and counteroffers, the seller’s disclosures, and your escrow instructions.
An LLC can separate the property’s liabilities from your other assets, but moving title can affect your loan, your insurance, and in some cases your property taxes. We review those issues with you and your CPA before title moves.
It’s an agreement that gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy a property at an agreed price within a set time, usually in exchange for an option payment. When an option is paired with a lease, its terms need to match the lease.