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Recent Blog Posts
What Sellers Should Know About Owner Financing in Texas
Owner financing a house in San Antonio can be an attractive option for sellers in certain situations. However, you should fully understand the intricacies of owner financing in Texas and perform your due diligence. An experienced Texas real estate attorney at Geoff Mayfield, Attorney at Law can provide critical guidance to ensure your owner finance transaction is trouble-free.
What Is Owner Financing?
Owner financing is a real estate transaction in which the home seller offers the buyer a loan to buy the house instead of the purchaser obtaining a mortgage from a bank or lender. In an owner financing transaction, the buyer makes interest payments to the seller over a certain period. The buyer pays the loan until it is paid in full or they refinance.
Owner financing is an attractive option for a seller who wants to earn a higher interest rate and sell the home faster than on the traditional real estate market. That said, there are several points to keep in mind about owner financing your property to ensure a smooth transaction:
How Can Zoning Laws Affect Real Estate Development Projects?
Zoning and land use laws determine how land can be used and developed. These laws regulate everything from the types of structures that can be built in certain areas to the kinds of businesses that can operate there. When a developer is planning a residential community, a commercial center, an industrial facility, or another type of real estate development project, they must comply with local zoning regulations to avoid legal obstacles.
An experienced real estate attorney can help developers understand the zoning and land use laws that apply to their projects, identify potential challenges, and request variances when necessary. This legal guidance can help avoid costly delays and ensure compliance with all applicable regulations.
Understanding Zoning and Land Use Laws
Zoning laws divide a city into different districts, each with its own rules regarding land use and construction. The City of San Antonio enforces zoning regulations through several codes and ordinances, including the Buildings Code and the Unified Development Code (UDC), which outlines what is permitted in each zoning district.
What Terms Should Be Included in a Vendor or Supplier Contract?
Every business needs contracts, especially when entering into relationships with vendors or suppliers. A well-drafted vendor or supplier contract can help protect a business against financial losses while addressing unexpected situations such as delays or disputes. Whether your company is purchasing raw materials or office supplies or is hiring another person or business to provide professional services, a legally enforceable agreement will ensure that all parties involved understand their rights and responsibilities. An experienced business attorney can help draft and review vendor contracts and negotiate acceptable terms, ensuring that these agreements meet all legal requirements while serving your company's best interests.
Essential Terms to Include in a Vendor or Supplier Contract
- Payment Terms: By including clear details about the payments for goods or services, a contract can help prevent misunderstandings and ensure that both parties meet their financial obligations. The contract should specify: the total cost of goods or services, the payment methods, schedules and due dates for payments, and penalties for late payments. Including these details ensures that vendors can receive timely payments, and it will also help your business avoid unexpected financial burdens.
What Happens if I Die Without a Will?
Making an estate plan can be uncomfortable. Deciding who should inherit your money and property when you are gone forces you to consider the fact that you will not be here forever. Other people avoid making an estate plan because they do not think it is worth it with a small estate, because they expect their closest loved ones to inherit automatically, or because they simply never get around to it.
Unfortunately, not making an estate plan can make administering your estate very complicated for your closest family members. Passing away without an estate plan is called dying intestate. The laws of intestacy decide which of your relatives will inherit what share of your estate. These may or may not be the people you would want to inherit from you. An experienced San Antonio, TX estate planning lawyer can help you create the documents you need to take control of your estate and make the administration process easy for your loved ones.
Estate Planning to Protect Your Disabled Child
When you learn that your child has severe lifelong disabilities, it is normal to worry about how his needs will be met should you predecease him. Fortunately, there is a lot you can do through estate planning to protect your child with disabilities throughout his entire life. Most people with significant disabilities will qualify for government benefits like Social Security and Medicaid. However, these programs are only designed to meet a disabled adult’s most basic needs, like food, shelter, and medicine. Most parents want much more than this for their children. However, a disabled adult who inherits money directly could lose his benefits, hurting him in the long run. An experienced San Antonio, TX estate planning attorney can help you set aside an inheritance for your child with disabilities without compromising the benefits he will rely on throughout his adult life.
3 Important Issues to Address in a Commercial Lease
Commercial leases and residential leases are wildly different types of documents. Residential landlords know how all of their tenants will be using the property. The terms of residential leases are so similar across most rental housing that many rules, such as not making noise that will disturb the neighbors’ peace almost go unspoken. Commercial leases must be drafted specifically for the type of property involved, what kind of business activity it is suited to, the landlord’s preferences, and the tenant’s specific plans for the property. A lease for an antique shop opening on the ground floor of a mostly residential building would have to be quite different from a lease for a bar in the nightlife district. An experienced San Antonio, TX commercial leasing attorney can help make sure the right terms are included in your commercial leases. Legal disputes with commercial renters can quickly arise if the terms of a lease are unclear or silent on the wrong issue.
Signs of a Fraudulent Will
If your intuition is telling you that something is wrong with your loved one’s will, it would be wise to investigate further. The signs of fraud in a will can be subtle, or they may be glaring. If you knew your loved one well and are shocked by the contents of her will, surprised that she had one at all, or find the date of execution questionable because your loved one became incapacitated towards the end of her life, you should speak with a San Antonio, TX probate attorney promptly. Fraud is a fairly common problem in estate planning. Elderly people are often easy for bad actors to take advantage of in this way. People seeking to commit estate fraud may forge a will entirely, write a will, and then instruct an elder to sign it without explaining it or change a person’s will without authorization. It is important to act promptly if you suspect that your loved one’s will is fraudulent. It is best to file a contest within a few weeks of the will being introduced to probate.
Five Things You Should Do if You Suspect Your Partner Is Embezzling
Discovering that your business partner might be embezzling money from your business is a serious and stressful situation. Embezzlement — the theft or misuse of money entrusted to someone — can threaten your company’s financial stability, damage your reputation, and even lead to serious legal issues.
If you suspect your partner is stealing from the business, taking the right steps is crucial to protecting your interests. A Texas business litigation lawyer can help you get through this difficult situation and choose the best course of action.
Do Not Confront Your Partner
It may be tempting to confront your business partner as soon as you suspect he or she is taking money, but acting too quickly could backfire. An accusation without solid proof could lead to legal disputes, retaliation, or even the destruction of evidence. Instead, consult with a business litigation attorney before taking any direct action. A lawyer with experience in handling these kinds of situations can advise you on the best way to proceed while protecting your legal rights and business interests.
How Do Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts Work?
Most people will need Medicaid or Medicare later in life. Few people are able to maintain private insurance between the time they retire and the time they pass away. Medicaid and Medicare can help people access the care they will need during their old age. Nursing home care can be incredibly expensive - paying out of pocket is not an option for most people. A quality nursing home can cost upwards of $5,000 per month. The problem with using Medicaid is that you can be subject to a Medicaid reimbursement action. A Medicaid reimbursement action can force you to pay Medicaid back using any assets you have. A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT) can help protect your assets from Medicaid reimbursement and help you qualify for Medicaid in the first place. An experienced San Antonio, TX trust attorney can help you set up this essential type of trust.
When to Evict a Tenant for Nonpayment
Evictions due to nonpayment of rent have increased over the past five years. During economic downturns, people often struggle to keep up with rent payments even when they are trying to make on-time payments. These situations can be upsetting for landlords as well. Few landlords want to evict a tenant who has a generally good payment history and has always taken care of the property as soon as the tenant falls behind on rent. As a landlord, it may sometimes be worth it for you to give your tenant a chance to catch up. However, there are also times when the best course of action is to proceed with filing an eviction. An experienced Wilson County, TX landlord-tenant law attorney can help you decide what to do when you have a tenant who has stopped paying rent.
The Benefits of Giving Tenants a Chance to Pay Past-Due Rent
In some cases, it is better for the landlord to allow a struggling tenant with a good rental history a chance to pay past-due rent and stay in the unit. If the tenant has been with you for several years and has always paid on time, there is a fairly strong chance that the tenant will follow through with paying past-due rent and late fees and go back to making on-time payments in the future. Evicting the tenant and then replacing him will take several months or more, and you may incur costs for advertising or refurbishing the unit. If the tenant does catch up promptly, you will likely save money in the long term.
1602 N. PanAm Expressway, San Antonio, TX 78208
210-535-0870
