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Real Estate & Property Law

Real Estate Space

Covers commercial real estate finance law and the real estate business.
By Doug Cornelius

Post Frequency: 1.5/day

Last Entry: February 23, 2009 at 09:00:00

Recording Fees for Multiple Transactions in a Single Document

Posted on February 11, 2008
The Massachusetts Appeals Court issued its decision in Patriot Resorts Corp v. Register of Deeds for Berkshire North (No. 06-P-725) [Social Law Library Membership Required].At issue was the proper interpretation of MGL c. 262, § 38 and MGL c. 44B § 8, which specifies the fees for recording documents with a registry of deeds...

Why Every Client Should Want an Attorney Who Blawgs

Posted on February 09, 2008
Teri G. Rasmussen of the Ohio Practical Business Law Counsel has a great post on Why Every Client Should Want an Attorney Who Blawgs.Teri point out that her blawg gets twice as many hits as the website for her 30 person law firm.Teri's reasons why lawyers should blog:Knowledge Entreprenuer...

Securitization and Lax Mortgage Lending

Posted on February 09, 2008
The Chain of Fools is the title of The Economist's Economics Focus column. The article points to the increasing evidence that securitization lead to lax mortgage lending in the United States.The column is based largely on the study by Atif R. Mian and Amir Sufi of the University of Chicago's Business School: The Consequences of Mortgage Credit Expansion: Evidence from the 2007 Mortgage Default Crisis...

REITs and Joint Ventures

Posted on February 08, 2008
Arleen Jacobius of PIonline.com reports on institutional investors entering into joint ventures with REITs to as an alternative to direct real estate investments: Joint Ventures Emerging as New Vehicle for REITs.The nice match of pension funds and REITs is that they are both used to dealing with the complexities of the tax code and other regulatory schemes that affect their investments in real estate...

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Macklowe and his Capital

Posted on February 08, 2008
According to the Wall Street Journal, Harry Macklowe is still battling his lenders and his lenders are battling each other over his New York skyscrapers: Macklowe, Lenders Seek a Deal. At stake are: 717 Fifth Avenue, Worldwide Plaza, 1301 Avenue of the Americas, Park Avenue Tower, 527 Madison Avenue, 1540 Broadway, 850 Third Avenue and Tower 56 with about 6...

Legos and Real Estate

Posted on January 28, 2008
I admit that my first exposure to real estate was building houses out of Lego bricks. Today, January 28, 2008, is the 50th anniversary of the Lego brick. Even the Google logo has been lego-fied today.Some facts I found interesting:There are about 62 LEGO bricks for every one of the world's 6 billion inhabitants...

Closing Protection Letters - New Forms

Posted on January 24, 2008
The American Land Title Association (ALTA), recently approved three new form closing protection letters. These new forms took effect on January 1, 2008.Closing Protection LetterClosing Protection Letter - LimitationsClosing Protection Letter - Single Transaction LiabilityJon Anderson, Senior Title Counsel for CATIC wrote an article on these new forms and how they clarify the underwriter's liability...

Toronto's Land Transfer Tax

Posted on January 23, 2008
From Bruce McKenna at the Canadian Commercial Real Estate Law Blog, is this piece on the increase Toronto's Land Transfer Tax. Here is a copy of the Municipal Land Transfer Tax By-law from Toronto.ca.I spend a fair amount time structuring transactions to avoid triggering the payment of transfer tax...

Financing the Construction and Acquisition of Your Real Estate Development Project

Posted on January 18, 2008
Below is my material from Real Estate Development From Beginning to End in Massachusetts.The document is hosted on a site called Docstoc.

University Designation for a Training Program

Posted on January 16, 2008
We are revamping some aspects of the real estate group's training program. We are using the concept of a college catalog, with numbered designations for each course and summary of what the course is about. We also wanted to give it a brand element. We were thinking of something like: Goodwin Procter Real Estate University...

Trimming Trees in Massachusetts

Posted on January 11, 2008
After this latest snowstorm in Boston, I had to drag some fallen limbs into my compost pit. I thought this would be a good time to post on Massachusetts law on trimming your neighbor's trees.A neighbor may remove branches extending over a shared property line onto his or her own property...

New York and London Office Markets

Posted on January 11, 2008
With the fall-out of the sub-prime loans, there is continuing good news in the commercial markets.London has surpassed Hong Kong to hold the position of having the world's highest office rents. According to the NAI Global Market Report, the Mayfair submarket in London's West End reached $265...

Terror Risk Insurance Act Extended

Posted on December 29, 2007
With a week left before expiration of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, President Bush Signs 7 Year Terror Insurance Extension, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 (TRIPRA). The Act extends the insurance program through the end of 2014...

Free Speech at the Mall

Posted on December 26, 2007
The California Supreme Court upheld the rights of protesters inside a shopping mall when it handed out its opinion on Christmas Eve for the case of Fashion Valley Mall, LLC v. National Labor Relations Board and Graphic Communications International Union, Local 432-M (D...

The Mezzanine Section is the Nose Bleed Section

Posted on December 19, 2007
The Wall Street Journal has an article in the C Section by Jennifer S. Forsyth and Kemba J. Dunham on real estate mezzanine loans: Real-Estate Investors Like View From Mezzanine Section.If mezzanine investors think that it is a "no-lose bet" they are getting themselves in trouble...

REIT Stocks Continue to Tumble

Posted on December 12, 2007
On Tuesday, the MSCI US REIT Index (RMZ) dropped 5.61% to 914.85, and the SNL US REIT Equity Index plummeted 5.59% to 235.96 with five winners, 106 losers and four companies closing flat. The losses mark the worst one-day tumble for the SNL US REIT Equity Index since July 25, 1989...

Webcasts from NAREIT Annual Convention

Posted on December 10, 2007
The NAREIT Annual Convention was held in Las Vegas on November 14-16. Webcasts of the presentations are available on the NAREIT website: http://nareit.454creative.net/Gil Menna of Goodwin Procter LLP moderated the panel on the State of the Industry (MP3)...

Charities Using Limited Liability Companies to Hold Real Estate

Posted on November 28, 2007
Charities should not use a limited liability company to hold real estate in Massachusetts. Robert E. Cowden wrote an article about this in the November/December 2007 issue of the Boston Bar Journal.The Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board ruled that even though a piece of property was owned by a single member limited liability company, whose sole member was a charitable corporation, the property did not qualify for property tax exemption...

Usury in Massachusetts

Posted on November 26, 2007
I ran across two articles on usury and expect we will see more as the debt markets and foreclosures continue to sort themselves out and more borrowers are faced with foreclosure.Usury is the charging of excessive interest on a loan. Most states have a law prohibiting usury and defining what is meant by usury...

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