Finding a Good RE Attorney

First generate a list of potentials from referals (best method), or go to yellow pages and look in the Real Estate sub-heading if your phone book categorizes attorneys. I found about 6 that looked promising and then made sure they also were not advertising in any of the following sections as well: personal injury, family law/divorce, bankruptcy. You want to avoid a big comapny with lawyers who do everything, and a jack-of-all trades type attorney -- because frankly they will spend their time on cases that lend themselves to the 'big bucks', like personal injury; the real estate stuff will be their short-term cash flow deals (i.e. a side hobby).

My attorney is essentially 100% in real estate; although I would imagine that anything around 3/4 or more is good. Also, I insist that they own investment property or do a lot of other REI deals such as rehab and sell.

Once you get your list, you should interview each one. Here are the questions I ask:

• What percentage of your business is based on real estate?
• Do you own investment property yourself?
• How often do you represent landlords in landlord-tenant law disputes?
• What is your familiarity with Lease/Option contracts?
• What is your familiarity with purchase money mortgage/notes?
• Do you know how to title properties into Land Trusts?

Good Luck!