SEASON 5: Jeff interviews real estate attorney Bruce Rosenwater

Questions for Lawyers is back for Season 5. Personal injury attorney Jeff Adelman of Brotman, Nusbaum, Ibrahim & Adelman interviews his friend Bruce Rosenwater about his real estate law practice. Jeff and Bruce discuss the current South Florida real estate market, the low cost of hiring a real estate attorney, the reasons for hiring a real estate attorney and more. Bruce Rosenwater can be reached at 561-688-0991 or by email [e-mail] . If you are interested in being on the show or have any other legal questions, contact Jeff Adelman at 561-417-5656 or email him at [e-mail] .

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Hello, and welcome to another editionof Questions for Lawyers. I'm Jeff Aidelman
of the law firm of Brotman,Nussbaum, Ibraheim and Aidelman, and I
am proud to bring to you oneof my good friends, Bruce Rosenwater,
who have known for quite a longtime. Bruce and I got to know
each other when we served on theFlorida Bar Clients Security Fund. He is

(00:27):
a real estate attorney. He doesdivorce work as well, and I'm just
very pleased to have him with ushere today. Bruce, how you doing
great, Jeff, good afternoon.Good to see you again. Brought up
a lot of good times. Ithought that was a great committee we were
on and we were able to doa lot for people that were taken advantage

(00:49):
of by bad attorneys and able tohelp them. And I think it was
one of the more important committees,and it was a fun committee and it
was good working with you on thatcommittee. Yeah, we made a lot
of good friends on that committee.And again a lot of people don't know
the Florida Bar does that kind ofwork where people have their money taken by

(01:10):
certain lawyers who aren't practicing anymore.There is a committee to apply to to
get some relief when the courts can'tgive you any So the Florida Our Client
Security Fund. It's very proud toserve as chair of that committee, and
it was great being on there withyou, Bruce. But tell me a
little bit about your practice in PalmBeach County. Okay, Jeff, I've

(01:34):
been practicing on Palm Beach County forquite some time. I don't even go
into the air that I started,it would be dating me. But when
I first started practicing, I wasworking for a large savings alone and we
took over a lot of property fromdevelopers that went back. So I was
dealing with large real estate projects.And then thereafter when I went on my

(01:56):
own, I've been dealing with residentialand I do represent commercial developers. Some
do multifamily and some do shopping centersand other developments, but I a lot
of my practices are just any individual, you know, the simple home transaction
where your first time buyer or peopledon't buy for a long time, to
try to help them get the homeof their dreams. Well, I'm sure

(02:20):
that in this environment that we've hadfor the past couple of years, everyone
knows that the South Florida real estatemarket has been so hot, and I'm
sure you've been quite busy in yourreal estate part of your firm. Well,
that's true, the market has beenvery hot. But you know,
on the other hand, the realestate market for attorneys's there's not a lot

(02:46):
of inventory. So it's like forbrokers and attorneys, you know, you
would think you were having a lotof transactions. So a lot of the
properties, like I know in mydevelopment where I live, we would typically
have ten percent of the homes onthe market at any time. Now you're
lucky to see one home on themarket, and that person is pretty much

(03:07):
sends out something by direct message.I'm looking for a buyer from my home,
and people send them people and youdon't even have a realtor involved in
the transaction, and they're bidding.They have a bidding war on the on
the home. So it's it's agreat market, but you know, there's
there's the volume is not as muchas it was previously. If you want
to you know, the prices area lot higher, but the volumes down.

(03:30):
Well, let me ask you this, Bruce, given the fact that
brokers, i mean they're still active, but there's a lot of buy owner
sales going on, don't do.Buyers and sellers still need attorneys even if
they're not getting brokers involved in theirtransactions, even more so because these are

(03:51):
laid people, most of them.And so if there's a broker involved in
the transaction, it's and a brokerthat's a good real estate broker. They
can help their client in and theymost of those real estate brokers are going
to lead them to an attorney andfor someone to represent them on the legal
issues. So it's very foolish toproceed with a transaction without having an attorney

(04:13):
or someone that can go over thenuances and make sure that there's no title
issues or there's no do the propersearches to make sure there's no misbeleans against
the property or or you know,any any defects in title. So they
be foolish not to get someone torepresent them legally. I think what keeps

(04:35):
people from getting attorneys involved sometimes isthey worry about the cost. I mean,
that's really what it comes down to. How does it work with attorneys
fees when you're doing a real estatetransaction and talk about title insurance? Okay,
you know, typically Jeff in PalmBeach County. In most counties,

(05:00):
they use what it's called the standardfar Bar contract, and in that contract
in Palm Beach County, the selleris typically the one that chooses the party
to do the title work and paysfor the title insurance. Now, if
there's a loan involved in the transactionand lenders policy, that would be something

(05:20):
different. But typically if you're representingthe seller, the same attorney or the
person handling the closing would issue theloan policy as well and can get what
it's called the simultaneous issue. Soit's a lot cheaper for the buyer to
use the same individual to do thatend of the transaction as well. But

(05:43):
the title title insurance, the titlecompany or the attorney that's handling that gets
paid a premium and it's and it'sbased upon a rate that's set by the
state. And so usually depending onthe transaction, that's how you base your
attorney's fees, because if you're representingindividual buyer seller not doing the title,

(06:08):
you basically charge either an hourly rateor if it's a or a flat rate
depending on the transaction. But typicallyif the attorney's handling the title, there
are client's going to get a lowerattorney fee attorneys fees because they get the
premium from the title policy. Interms of attorneys fees, what can people

(06:30):
expect if they're getting the title insuranceand all that. I mean, again,
we're talking about large transactions, mostlythe largest transactions that individuals will have
in their lifetimes. So give theman idea of what the real cost is.
Well, typically, I mean,if you're selling the home, probably
it's going to be with the realtorsand all the other costs. You're going

(06:55):
to have your about ten percent ofthe sales price on the buyer. If
they're not paying for title or havingtheir you know, attorney do the title
work, they're going to be payingeither a flat fee depending on the transaction.
If it's a loan involved, there'smore work. If it's a cash

(07:16):
closing, there's less work. Itjust you know, typically it's the case
by case. Mean, if it'sa simple transaction, you're going to see
fees anywhere. I think attorneys chargeanywhere between five hundred and fifteen hundred dollars
further just to handle the closing withoutdoing the title work. So for five
hundred to fifteen hundred dollars you canavoid a lot of headaches after the transaction.

(07:43):
That is true. What type ofproblems could somebody have by not doing
their due diligence and having a legalprofessional looking over the closing documents. Well,
they may buy a property that theseller didn't have title to. You
never know. There's a lot ofscams in South Florida. They may have

(08:05):
large leans against the property that occurredfrom the previous owner, maybe pulling up
doing work on the property without apermit, or not closing an open permit
that needs to be closed, orthey had code enforcement leans that have never
been satisfied that are run into thetens of thousands of dollars they you know,

(08:28):
going through it. There may beprevious issues regarding defects in the title.
You never know, and that's whyyou have an attorney come in there
and check everything out. Understood incomparison to the purchase price, It's peanuts,
is what you're really telling me.Exactly? Is now a real good

(08:48):
time to refinance your home if infact you are already in a residence.
It depends on what your rate ispresently. I mean the rates are still
low, but they are going upso and if you plan to stay there
for some time. Yeah, it'sa good time. Tell us how that
works, how that process works.Refinancing a home, Well, refinancing a

(09:13):
home is you have a mortgage onyour home and you have your rate maybe
seven percent or a higher interest rate, and you may want you may have
built up some equity in the housethat you need for maybe do home improvements
or other work, or you justmay want to just lower your your payments

(09:33):
and the interest rates. You know, up to recently, we're very low.
I mean you never there are ratesfor a thirty year mortgage under three
percent. People are paying two pointssomething for a interest on your home.
They'd be foolish not to refinance ifyour prayer rate was five six seven percent

(09:54):
unless you were in the house fora long time and you've paid off most
of your principal balance. Gotcha.So what other type of real estate issues
do you deal with besides closings andrefinance. Well, basically, we deal
with anything that may come up.I mean a lot of times there's uh

(10:16):
matters where maybe there's two people thatare on title and they have they don't
get along. There's disputes and you'regoing to have to partition the property because
the parties can't agree and who's goingto get the property, so you have
to file an action to partition theproperty. There may be actions to quiet
title. There may be something ofon the title that needs to be that

(10:41):
needs to be removed, and youhave to file the quiet title action.
Sometimes you have just bounded boundary boundarydisputes with the adjacent property owner that maybe
the reoffense that's on their property ornot. So there's always issues that come.
Uh, you know, in realestate, there's you know, so
many issues that could happen understood nowwith we're in twenty twenty two now,

(11:07):
In the past two years, somany things have changed, I know with
my business and I'm sure with yoursas well. How has us well we're
on Zoom right now. How hasvideo conferencing, DocuSign, all these digital
options that we all use in everydaylife. How has that affected real estate

(11:33):
practice? I think, you know, it's like any other practice. Now.
A lot of it helps. Andyou have remote notaries, so basically
you don't have to be in thesame place to have the document notarized.
A lot of documents can be signedelectronically now, so you may not even
see or deal with any of theparties that you're dealing with involved in transaction.

(11:56):
You may not meet the if you'rethe seller, you may not meet
the buyer, the buyer's attorney,the title company, just your attorney's going
to give you documents you can signelectronically and send them back if it's alone
closing. Some lenders have electronic packagesthat you can sign. So it does

(12:16):
make a big difference, and itmakes it, frankly, a lot easier.
You don't see a lot of sittingaround the round table and everybody trading
the documents and all. Yeah.Yeah, that's definitely an improvement for sure.
Now it may seem obvious, butyou know, with the South Florida
market being what it is, Imean, the reasoning for it is it

(12:41):
just a lot of people from thenorth coming down here during COVID. Is
that the main drive for real estategoing up? Or are there other reasons?
I think at the beginning of COVID, I think you had a lot
of people that were or from theNortheast that we're coming down here and they

(13:01):
found it to be a lot cheaperso that they were able to, you
know, with the limited inventory bidup the prices and it'd still be you
know, relatively inexpensive for them,where the person that's been living down here
would find it pretty expensive with theyou know, the the homes, the

(13:22):
what they're selling for. But alsoI think you still see other You still
see other people coming in, especiallyMiami from you know, Latin America.
You still have a lot of otheruh, those those people coming in.
You have people that are buying homesto invest, you have do it.
You do have a lot of secondhomes, third homes sometimes. So but

(13:46):
you know, now I think you'reyou're trying to the the people that live
in South Florida are trying to comeinto the market and buy a home.
But it's hard, as I saidbefore, because there's a very limited inventory.
But I don't think we see asmany people coming down now that we
saw earlier from out of state orunderstood. So, if somebody is looking

(14:09):
to sell their home right now andthen move into another place, what's the
best advice you can give them aboutpreparing for those two transactions. Well,
you know, you're you're gonna you'regoing to get a lot of money for
your home. Probably you're going tomake a lot of money in your home,
but you're going to pay a lotmore than you typically would for the

(14:30):
if you're going to buy another property. So maybe if you have the ability
to do so, and if youuh uh aren't bothered by not owning,
you may want to just maybe tryto rent a home or something for a
period of time, or maybe acondo and then wait for the prices to
come down and stabilize and then jumpback in unless there are some deals still

(14:54):
out there. So I you knowpeople are finding deals, but you know
you're at sticker shock. You're goingto paying You made a lot of money,
but you're going to pay a lotmore money on your next home if
you're going to buy another home.What do you foresee for the rest of
this year in the real estate market? Is it going to stay as high
as it is? It appears thatit is that we haven't seen anything that

(15:18):
any indications that it's moving any otherway. Now. If interest rates go
up significantly, that may have achange on the market, all right,
but as of now, we don'tknow if or when that's going to happen.
Correct, all right? Is thereanything else that you think are you

(15:39):
or anything you'd like to share withthe audience just about real estate transactions in
general. Any advice, anything thatI haven't asked you that you think might
be important. Well, I thinkyou touched on the most important aspects of
the real estate transaction, and especiallyyou need to be properly represented. Unless
you're involved in real state or you'vebeen a realt or an attorney, Get

(16:03):
an attorney. It's going to bemoney well spent and you're going to be
save you a lot of worries anda lot of aggravation. So you know,
don't bet, be penny wise andpound foolish. This is probably the
major one of the major decisions andpurchases that you're going to be making in
your life, typically to the averageperson, so it's important to do it

(16:26):
the right way. Be represented.You'll be happy, You'll have a lot,
you'll have a lot of more RESTfulnights, no doubt about it.
Bruce. If anybody would like toget in touch with you, what's the
best way to do so? Okay, my email address is a BSR at
rosenwater dot com. That's the easiestway to reach me. Available twenty four

(16:51):
to seven. My office numbers five, six, one, six, eight,
eight zero nine, nine to one, and my office is in West
Palm, but we handle transactions throughoutFlorida, so it's very easy to handle
a transaction and anywhere in the stateof Florida. Now we've done you know,
major deals in Tallahassee, we've doneit in Jacksonville, all over the

(17:15):
place, so it really doesn't matterwhere you're located. We can handle the
situation for you. Bruce. It'salways good saying. It's better to see
you in person, obviously, andwe'll have to do that again very soon.
But I certainly appreciate you coming onand uh if you would like to
get in touch with Bruce again.His numbers five six one six eight eight

(17:38):
zero nine one one. Bruce Rosenwater, real estate Attorney. I'm so glad
that you were able to join ustoday. If you're interested in being on
questions for lawyers, feel free togive me a call five six one four
one seven fifty six fifty six orif you have any legal questions whatsoever,

(18:00):
you can call me there or youcan email me again. My name is
Jeff Adelman, Jeff at lawbni dotcom. Thank you so much for watching,
for listening. Be well and we'llcatch you next time.