Prior to joining Patel Law Group, I worked for two large servicers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, and eventually ended up working in one of their special servicing departments managing underperforming loans. It wasn’t fun, and borrowers were annoyed, but it gave me a great understanding of what borrowers deal with once a…
Category Archives: Real Estate Transactions
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Wrap Your Head Around Seller Financing
As the economy grapples with a potential banking crisis, buyers are seeking ways to reduce interest rates and qualify for loans. Some sellers are willing to take on a bit of risk to help these buyers purchase through seller financing. Although seller financing is rare, it has grown more common as the Fed continues to…
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What to Assume About Loan Assumptions
As interest rates remain high, one option for investors seeking multifamily financing for acquisitions is a loan assumption. A loan assumption occurs when a real estate buyer purchases a property and takes over a seller’s existing mortgage loan through the lender. Many types of commercial loans can be assumed, including most Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac,…
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The DSCR: Calculating Your Property’s Financial Health
In the search for an investment property, one of the first things any investor will consider is the property’s ability to cover its own operation and debt costs. Your lender will be just as, if not more, interested, and their underwriting team will delve deeply into the property’s recent financials calculating the annualized Debt Service…
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The Due-On-Sale Clause: What It Is And When To Ignore It
A Due-On-Sale Clause can be found in most contemporary mortgage instruments and, as the name suggests, states that the mortgage debt will become due upon sale of the property. From a lender’s perspective the logic is fairly straightforward – security for the loan is put at risk when the collateral property is owned by a…
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Introduction To Easements
An easement is, simply put, a right to enter or otherwise use someone else’s land for a specified purpose. Stated another way, but with slightly more pretention for effect; an easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. As you might imagine, merely labeling something…
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A (Very) Basic Introduction to Estates in Land
As with most legal concepts, the question of real estate ownership is not simply a yes or no proposition – like cakes and onions, the answer has layers. Specifically, the various rights accompanying real property ownership can vary in kind, degree, and duration, and include – but are most certainly not limited to – the…
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The Fundamentals of a Hotel Transaction: Buyer’s Edition
Hotel investors typically have two paths to take ownership of a hotel asset: Build or Buy. In my experience as a hospitality and transactional attorney, I have learned that those that build (via ground-up new construction or re-development of an existing asset) generally prefer to build a hotel asset over buying an existing asset for…
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The Importance of a Commercial Lease Review (Part 2)
In my previous article, I discussed the importance of a lease review. The lease agreement is the binding agreement between the Lessor and Lessee and many important considerations exist. In most leases, the Lessor-Lessee relationship is known as the Landlord-Tenant relationship. There are many important considerations when reviewing a lease. A few additional items we…