“General” Easements: A Cautionary Tale In a previous post, we discussed the way the “magical” power of law in real estate shifted from the physical and verbal act to the written word. It is useful to keep the idea of magic words in...

Given the anxiety and madness of 2020, which still continues into 2021, more people may be planning ahead and thinking about their estate. And when it comes to estate planning, the main consideration is—taxes. So under this new president, what kind...

Real Estate Magic: The Origin of the Deed There is a lot of magic and ritual in the history of law, and in real estate some of this magic is particularly charming. Below, we outline one of the most important rituals...

Creating an LLC for Real Estate Transactions It’s common to use a “limited liability company” (LLC) to buy and sell real estate, or conduct other real estate transactions, whether residential or commercial, and it can be a smart way to protect...

Cloudy Skies – Title Defects and Clouds At Greenacre Law, we prefer blue California skies—but in real estate, the weather doesn’t always cooperate. One common snag you may encounter when buying or selling property is discovering a “cloud” or “defect” on...

Bankruptcy & Covid-19 As of December 2020, California’s unemployment rate rose to 9%, and the fallout from COVID-19 is far from over in 2021. It may be a long time before many industries recover, and many jobs are gone for good. The latest...

LLCs (limited liability companies) can be very useful for conducting business while protecting your personal assets and the assets of other investors (for example, see our previous article “Creating an LLC for Real Estate Transactions.”) At the same time, the liability shield...

The Floating Easement An easement allows you the right to use a property in some manner that you do not own. It is typically established by a specific grant: the standard example of an easement would be where one plot of...

Torts: Personal Injury Tort Liability in the Wake of Covid-19 Many businesses have contracted, evolved, and adapted to stay afloat through waves of COVID-19 cases and the corresponding restrictions, especially in California, which was hit so badly in recent months. As...

Bankruptcy is governed by Title 11 of the United States Code, commonly called the Bankruptcy Code. The chapters of this code govern the process of bankruptcy, which is why we refer to a “Chapter 13” bankruptcy. (The chapters run to 15,...