Real Estate Investors

Buying property as an investment raises questions a home purchase does not. How you hold title affects your liability and your financing. Selling one property to buy another can trigger a large capital gains tax bill, or it can be structured to defer that tax under federal rules. Multi-family buildings come with existing tenants and leases that need to be reviewed before you close.

Fisher Stone represents real estate investors across New York City buying and selling investment and multi-family property, including single properties and portfolios. A licensed New York attorney handles your contract, title, and closing work directly, for a flat fee quoted after a short, free consultation. You reach your attorney by call, email, or text, with no call center and no handoffs to junior staff.

How Fisher Stone helps real estate investors

An investment purchase or sale involves the same core steps as any New York real estate closing: negotiating the contract of sale, reviewing title, coordinating with the lender, and attending the closing. What changes for an investor is the planning that needs to happen before the contract is signed. That includes deciding whether to take title in your own name or through an LLC, reviewing any leases and tenant estoppels on a property that already has tenants in place, and, when you are selling one property to buy another, structuring the transaction as a 1031 like-kind exchange if you want to defer the capital gains tax.

Fisher Stone advises on these decisions as part of the transaction, not as a separate engagement. Your attorney reviews your goals for the property, whether that is long-term rental income, a fix-and-flip, or growing a multi-family portfolio, and structures the closing around them.

Taking title in an LLC

Investors often take title to investment property through a limited liability company rather than in their own name. Holding the property in an LLC keeps liability connected to the property, such as a claim from a tenant or a visitor, contained within the entity, so it generally does not reach the owner’s personal assets outside the LLC. An LLC also keeps the owner’s name off the public deed, since the LLC appears as the record owner instead.

Using an LLC changes some practical details of the closing. Some lenders have additional requirements or different terms for a loan made to an entity rather than an individual, and the LLC has to be properly formed and in good standing before the closing can proceed in its name. Fisher Stone coordinates the entity’s formation, or confirms an existing LLC’s standing, with the lender and the title company so the closing proceeds on schedule. If you need to form the LLC first, see our LLC formation service.

1031 like-kind exchanges

Selling an investment property at a gain normally means paying capital gains tax on the profit in the year of the sale. A 1031 like-kind exchange, named for the section of the federal tax code that allows it, lets an investor defer that tax by reinvesting the proceeds into a new investment property instead of taking the cash. The gain is not eliminated. It is deferred until you eventually sell without doing another exchange.

A 1031 exchange has to be structured correctly before your existing property closes, not after. The rules require a qualified intermediary to hold the sale proceeds so you never take possession of the cash, and they impose strict deadlines: you generally have 45 days after the sale to identify replacement properties and 180 days to close on the purchase. Missing either deadline disqualifies the exchange and the deferred tax becomes due. Fisher Stone coordinates the timing and documentation a 1031 exchange requires alongside the purchase or sale itself, working with your qualified intermediary and your accountant so the exchange holds up.

Multi-family and investment closings

Multi-family buildings and other tenanted investment properties add review work that a vacant home purchase does not require. Before closing, your attorney reviews the existing leases, confirms the rent roll matches what the seller represents, and, where appropriate, obtains estoppel certificates from tenants confirming the terms of their tenancy and that the landlord is not in default. These steps protect you from inheriting a lease dispute or a rent discrepancy you did not know about at closing.

Fisher Stone represents investors on transactions ranging from a single rental unit to a full multi-family building or a portfolio of properties, and handles both residential and commercial investment property. If your investment is a house, condo, or small residential building, see our residential real estate service. If it is an office, retail, industrial, or mixed-use building, see our commercial real estate service. When your purchase involves a loan, we also coordinate directly with your lender’s counsel, and separately represent banks and private lenders through our lender and bank representation service. For the full range of Fisher Stone’s real estate work, visit our real estate practice page.