Hey! Newbie here…
In the Masterclass, there are disclaimers for all of the downloadable material that advises utilizing real estate lawyers to look over the templates prior to mailing/using. Do you find and pay a lawyer a consulting fee with every question, which in my mind can be very pricey, or has anyone used a service like: https://www.justanswer.com/? Just trying to figure out the best/most cost effective way to handle the legal stuff while I’m learning. Thanks!
Hey @vschnur! Great question. All of those disclaimers have to be in there whenever we talk about anything that could be construed as ‘legal advice’ (basically, anything involving a contract or dealing with legal or tax matters anywhere). If we don’t explicitly say it’s not legal advice, people could assume it is, and then we’d have a lot of liability on our hands.
As for paying an attorney for help… when I do this, it’s usually on the first time I’m working in a new state, and I’ve never done a deal there. In these cases, it’s helpful to pay for things like seller financed closing documents, and sometimes even to be sure you have the correct deed templates (there are websites like Rocket Lawyer that can help with this too).
Also, I wouldn’t suggest paying for a single question (because you can usually get one or two questions answered for free in a 15-minute discovery call with most attorneys).
When I hire an attorney, it’s usually when I need them to do an entire job, like drafting ALL the documents for a seller financed closing, using all the correct verbiage for that state.
In some cases, they might even handle the entire closing for me, depending on the customs of that state. This kind of job might cost me $1K the first time… but once they’ve done the job right the first time, and I understand the process and have all the correct document templates, it’s a lot easier for me to do it myself in the future if I need to.
Also, keep in mind; the only time you’d want to do anything yourself (assuming you know what you’re doing) is if the profit margin isn’t there to cover the costs of hiring out this work (this tends to happen a lot when you’re pursuing ultra-cheap deals).
This is why a lot of people will graduate up to higher value deals, because when you’re working with bigger deals, there is plenty of money available to pay for these extra costs, and it can take a big workload off your plate.
@retipsterseth Super helpful. Thanks for replying so quickly!
I have used JustAnswer, RocketLawyer and Avvo. Each one was limited with the advice. JustAnswer was the fastest.
Better than those three is LegalShield (IMO). For the membership fee you get multiple consultations (each month) and referrals to attorneys in other states as well.
Sometimes the process is a bit slow, especially if you are conducting transactions in multiple states. You are assigned to a firm in your home state and then you have to get a referral for every new request that you make. Referral responses can be up to 3 days waiting time.
They will review contracts, up to 15 pages, and give advice for the cost of the monthly membership. If you need additional legal service it is available at a 25% discount of the firm’s hourly rate.
Sounds like a good service. So you can have them review real estate docs, from any state, even after the home state is established? Is this correct?
Yes, up to 15 pages for the monthly fee.
It’s a bit complicated because out-of-state attorneys are referred from your primary firm.
You can get unlimited consultations (Requests) with your primary firm (1 hour call per Request). Each new Request must not be related to any previous Request.
The referred attorneys (in other states) are not in the LegalShield network but they will give you an initial consultation, doc review or an attorney phone call or letter to another party.
Some referral attorneys will give you more services than others.
I’ve had some that followed up a few times and also did research for no additional fees.
Others wanted a retainer when I called back with a quick question.
Great…thanks for the feedback!