Experience in Representing Buyers and Sellers
A commercial real estate lawyer in New York City should have experience in representing both buyers and sellers.
For buyers, although prices are normally fixed or negotiated between the seller's and buyer's agents, a lawyer can investigate whether the prices and other charges are justified. For example, if the unit is listed as a four-bedroom, but one of the bedrooms does not comply with the legal requirements (i.e., no window), the buyer can negotiate a price cut. The commercial real estate lawyer can also assist the buyer who is still interested in purchasing a property with structural issues, with an annotated lien on the title, or located in a flood or tornado zone.
If the buyer seeks to purchase real estate property with one or more persons, the commercial real estate lawyer in can draft joint tenancy or tenancy in common agreements to outline the relationship among co-owners in order to prevent potential disputes. Other typical services of a commercial real estate lawyer in New York City are the review and negotiation of the contract of sale, review of underlying leases, preparation of lawyer opinion letter for the lender, explanation of the real estate contract and mortgage commitment to the buyer, reviewing offering plans, meeting minutes, and financial statements for the purchase of condos and co-ops, title examinations (title and lien searches), computing tax liabilities and verifying whether there are unpaid real estate taxes or liens, to name a few.
A commercial real estate lawyer in New York City can also help resolve issues of sellers facing unique circumstances such as uncancelled liens, selling properties with an existing lease, or selling one's interest in a property co-owned with others. Other services for sellers involve assistance in cases of the buyer's breach of contract, such as failure to have adequate funds for the contract deposit, failure to tender the balance of the purchase price, failure to participate in good faith with pre-closing contingencies, or willful default under the contract.
In a purchase and sale agreement, a commercial real estate lawyer will know, based on experience and standard practice, what's reasonable to ask for, what's reasonable to insist upon, and what's not open for negotiation, for the benefit of his client.