Real Estate

The Central and North Florida residential real estate market is booming. Alachua County specifically has seen significant growth according to The Gainesville Sun:

  • Median home price: $272,600
  • Median home price: increased by 22.79% (compared to a year ago)
  • Median listing price: increased by 14.68% (compared to a year ago)
  • Market hotness score rank: increased 38 points (compared to a year ago)

This is good news for North Central Florida residential real estate sellers. Nonetheless, real estate sales can be deceptively complicated, especially for residential transactions, and generally involve more than simply signing where your agent tells you to, at least if you’d like to get the most value out of your sale.

Basic Real Estate Transactions

Selling a home is a complicated procedure that demands a thorough understanding of local, state, and federal regulations. An attorney can assist you to secure your assets and investments while also ensuring that your part of the deal is legal. To avoid mistakes, a seller’s attorney from Holden, Roscow & Caedington will help you by reviewing sales contracts, communicating with all parties, and attend your closing.

In our region, the seller generally selects the closing and title agent, and the title insurance is a seller’s expense. Florida’s Department of Financial Services regulates the cost of title insurance. The attorneys at Holden, Roscow & Caedington are licensed title agents and members of the Florida Bar and bring legal analysis and advice to the closing table. While a standalone title agency is permitted to issue title insurance and close real estate transactions, they are forbidden from the practice law and may not render legal advice.

Regarding disclosures, the good news is that there is no statutory requirement for sellers to submit a particular disclosure form, unlike many states. Florida places the burden of finding defects onto the buyer. Nonetheless, Florida law does require sellers to disclose any significant known property defects that may not be readily visible (“latent”) to the buyer.

When you’re ready, find a trusted real estate professional, like those at Holden, Roscow & Caedington. Remember that real estate transactions are among the biggest, if not the biggest, transactions most people will ever make.

Complex Real Estate Transactions

Complex real estate transactions generally involve numerous residential entities, are often parts of larger, “time-sharing” transactions where multiple parties agree to occupy the property for certain periods of time and may have added complexities such as franchisor/franchisee issues, environmental issues, board approvals, financial contingencies, and issues with any number of federal agencies. We represent national and regional sellers as well as local landowners involved with transactions with such sellers.

In addition, more complicated real estate transactions regularly utilize an attorney to negotiate and review the following:

  • Alternate financing arrangements
  • Mortgage modifications
  • Real estate sharing
  • Condominium purchases, leases, and other condo selling transactions

Commercial Transactions as Residential Property

Commercial property is often simply commercial structures used for residential living, and make their profits out of rentals and multi-unit residential structures. The designation of a property as a commercial property has implications for how it is financed, taxed, and how the laws are applied to it.

Still, what we’re really often talking about is buying a property to be shared among various residents, such as sharing by time, sharing by indifidual units, or sharing in various other ways. When you buy a house for your family, you’re dealing with residential property. When you’re buying buildings to be shared among several residents or groups of residents, you’re dealing with residential, commercial property that is called commercial property for various financial and legal reasons, although true commercial property for business certainty does exist.

Real Estate Litigation

Real estate litigation arises from some type of dispute concerning real property or an interest in real property. Real estate litigation may revolve around real property purchase, ownership rights, or border disputes. For example, disclosures are a very commonly disputed issue, as are returns of deposits. As with most areas of litigation, the disputes commonly revolve around the terms of the transaction rather than the transaction itself.

While our firm is not currently taking litigation, Holden, Roscow & Caedington’s experienced legal counsel at the transaction and negotiation stage can often avoid the need for litigation.  Typical cases involve:

  • Landlord-tenant disputes
  • Foreclosure
  • Quiet title
  • Partitions
  • Easements
  • Boundaries
  • Riparian (rivers and streams) and littoral (oceans and lakes) rights

Let the Experienced Real Estate Attorneys at Holden, Roscow & Caedington Help You With Any Type of Real Estate Transaction

We help our clients with their real estate transactions, whether they are relatively straightforward, like buying or selling a home, or exceptionally complicated, such as commercial mergers or acquisitions. We’re here to help you obtain your best results, and all real estate transactions are complex enough that thousands of dollars are at stake. So contact us today to see how we can help you.

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