Real Estate Insights
Analysis and practical guides on real estate.
70 articles, checklists, and guides on real estate law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice—for a specific matter, contact the firm.
Residential Real Estate Toolkit: Offers, Contingencies, Disclosures, and Closing
A working kit for residential transactions. Section A compares deed types, title policies, and loan products in tables built for decisions. Section B is a contingency clause library with strong and weak versions of each provision side by side. Section C holds letters and forms: an inspection response, a title objection, a repair credit amendment, an appraisal reconsideration request, an escrow release demand, a walkthrough form, and a post closing occupancy agreement. Section D holds a wire fraud verification protocol and a Closing Disclosure comparison worksheet. Section E holds a co ownership agreement term sheet. Section F collects the primary authorities.
Home Purchase and Sale Checklist: A Practical Checklist
A deadline-driven checklist for a residential closing, run from both sides. The buyer sequence covers budget and pre-approval, the eight negotiable offer terms, the first seventy-two hours after acceptance, the inspection set to order, the written response that preserves the contingency, reading the title commitment where the surprises live, appraisal gaps, underwriting discipline, the three-day Closing Disclosure comparison, the walkthrough, and post-closing confirmation. The seller sequence covers the pre-listing title search and permit history, the listing agreement terms to negotiate, honest disclosure, evaluating offers on more than price, and escrow management. A shared section covers wire fraud prevention and deal failure.
Zoning, Land Use, and Entitlements: How Local Government Decides What You Can Build
Whether you can build something is decided by a local body applying a local ordinance, and the process is more political than most business owners expect and more procedural than most political actors expect. This article explains how it works. It covers the comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance it authorizes, the difference between uses permitted by right and those requiring discretionary approval, and the four principal entitlement paths: conditional use permits, variances, rezonings, and planned unit developments. It then covers site plan and subdivision review, nonconforming uses and when they are lost, and vested rights and development agreements. A long section addresses exactions and impact fees under the Nollan, Dolan, Koontz, and Sheetz line of cases, regulatory takings under Penn Central and Lucas, and the ripeness rules that changed with Knick. Later sections cover constitutional and statutory constraints including RLUIPA and fair housing, historic preservation, and environmental review, with a worked example, a strategy checklist, and an FAQ.
Buying or Selling a Home: A Practical Guide from Offer to Keys
This guide runs a residential transaction in order, from both chairs. The buyer track covers setting a real budget, getting a commitment rather than a pre-qualification, writing an offer whose contingencies actually protect you, the first-week tasks that decide the deal, inspecting properly and negotiating the response, reading the title commitment where the surprises live, surviving underwriting, using the three-day Closing Disclosure window, the final walkthrough, and the closing table. The seller track covers pre-listing repairs and title clearing, the listing agreement, honest disclosure, evaluating competing offers on more than price, and managing escrow. A shared section covers costs, what to do when a deal breaks, and where to get help.
Buying and Selling a Home: Contract, Financing, Inspection, Title, and Closing
A home purchase is the largest contract most people ever sign, and it is signed under time pressure with an agent explaining the paperwork. This article explains what a purchase and sale agreement actually does, why the statute of frauds means the writing is everything, how earnest money works and when it is forfeited, what each contingency protects and what happens when one is waived, the difference between caveat emptor and modern disclosure duties, how title searches and title insurance actually protect a buyer, what the different deed types warrant, what RESPA and TILA require lenders and settlement agents to disclose and when, and what remedies exist when a deal falls apart. Written for buyers, sellers, and the lawyers who close these transactions.
Commercial Leasing Toolkit: A Roadmap for Tenants and Landlords
A lease is a five- or ten-year contract that most small businesses sign in a week, using a form drafted entirely for the other side. This toolkit walks the transaction from site selection through surrender, written so that either side can use it. It covers the diligence that should happen before the letter of intent, the economics that a stated rental rate conceals, the operating expense provisions that quietly determine the real cost, the construction and delivery mechanics that decide whether the space is usable on time, and the transfer and guaranty provisions that matter years later when the business is sold or fails. Later stages cover the landlord's perspective on credit and remedies, the administration practices that catch a missed renewal window, what to do when a tenant stops paying or a landlord stops performing, and the end-of-term obligations that generate the most post-lease litigation.
Oil, Gas, and Mineral Rights: Ownership, Leases, Royalties, and the Rule of Capture
Under most American land, the minerals are a separate estate that can be owned, sold, leased, and inherited apart from the surface, and the mineral estate is generally dominant over the surface. This article explains that structure and what follows from it: the rule of capture and the conservation regulation that limits it, the oil and gas lease and the clauses that determine how much a landowner is actually paid, the post production cost fight that consumes a large share of royalty litigation, pooling and unitization, the implied covenants that fill the lease's silences, division orders, and the surface use and accommodation rules that govern what an operator may do to land it does not own.
Foreclosure and Mortgage Servicing: Default, Loss Mitigation, and the Sale
Foreclosure is a collection remedy dressed as a real estate transaction, and almost everything that decides its outcome happens before the sale date. This article explains the two foreclosure systems and why the difference between them matters more than any other fact, the servicing rules that give homeowners real procedural rights and servicers real liability, the loss mitigation options in the order they should be evaluated, and the defenses that actually work as opposed to the ones that circulate on the internet. It covers standing and chain of title, dual tracking, the bankruptcy alternatives, deficiency judgments and their limits, and what happens to a homeowner after the sale. It is written for homeowners in default, for lenders and servicers, and for counsel on either side.
Construction Contracts and Payment Disputes: Change Orders, Delay Claims, and Mechanics Liens
Construction disputes are rarely about whether work was done. They are about whether a change was authorized, whether a delay was excusable, and whether a notice was given within the time the contract required. This article explains the machinery. It covers project delivery methods and pricing structures and how each allocates risk, then the payment chain from schedule of values through payment application, retainage, and the pay-if-paid clauses that decide who bears the risk of an owner that does not pay. It works through changes and the constructive change doctrine, differing site conditions, and delay claims including critical path analysis, concurrent delay, and no-damages-for-delay clauses. Later sections cover the implied warranty of plans and specifications, completion and warranty obligations, mechanics liens and their unforgiving notice deadlines, payment bonds and the Miller Act, and dispute resolution, with a worked example, a claims checklist, and an FAQ.
Landlord-Tenant Toolkit: Notices, Repairs, Deposits, and Court Filings
A working kit of landlord-tenant instruments. Section A maps remedies to conditions and shows which statutes to check. Section B holds tenant templates: a repair request, an escalation letter, a rent escrow notice, a lease addendum, a notice-defect audit, an eviction answer, and a deposit demand. Section C holds landlord templates: screening criteria, an FCRA adverse action notice, a maintenance log, a rent ledger, pay-or-quit and cure-or-quit notices, a proof of service, and a deposit itemization. Section D holds shared documents: a cash-for-keys agreement, a settlement stipulation with sealing language, and a payment plan. Section E collects the primary authorities.
Lease Review and Eviction Response Checklist: A Practical Checklist
A two-sided checklist for residential tenancies. The tenant side runs lease review clause by clause, the move-in documentation that decides deposit disputes, the written repair request sequence, the remedy decision, notice review for defects, the answer and hearing preparation, and deposit recovery. The landlord side runs lawful screening and FCRA compliance, a compliant lease, repair response that defeats a habitability defense, the notice audit that prevents the most common fatal defect, filing prerequisites, and deposit itemization. A shared section covers settlement terms worth trading and record sealing.
Managing a Construction Project from the Owner's Side
An owner building a project is buying a promise about the future from parties whose interests diverge from the owner's the moment anything goes wrong. Almost every construction dispute traces to a decision made before the first shovel—the delivery method, the allocation of design responsibility, the way the price was structured, and what the contract said about time. This guide covers the owner's side in sequence: selecting a delivery method and understanding what each one does to risk, engaging the design professional, structuring the price, the contract provisions that decide claims, running the payment and lien waiver process, handling changes and delay, closing out the project, and resolving disputes. It is written for owners who build occasionally rather than continuously.