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Decided to payoff my mortgage.
Additional Posts in Real Estate - Law
Any insight into DLA transactional RE in LA?
Anybody worried about the market?
Pro forma or proforma?
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There is a book out there called commercial mortgages 101–it is more geared toward investors, but it shows what to look for. What you really need is a set of forms to see the kind of stuff lenders want. Each lender is different—one of ours has a boutique law firm do everything for them, another does everything in house. I’m not in the office now, but go to PLI, Thompson Reuters, or Lexis—among others for a good legal treatise on the subject. Especially in your state. Your law school library should have something on this.
I would ask your partner contact what you can read to prepare. That said, a number of state bars publish practice manuals covering commercial real estate mortgages. In terms of learning to understand your clients’ businesses you may also want to go online and familiarize yourself with basic accounting concepts (GAAP and/or IFRS), cap rates, debt service coverage and loan-to-value ratios, debt yield, and the Uniform System of Accounts if you will be involved with hotels.
I am a little confused- you'll be representing lenders? Then are you in finance group? I am a finance associate representing lenders at a real estate firm and I found Hotshot Legal's material helpful (it should be free for law students) and LSTA's guide to credit agreement is also recommended.
Many law firms with big real estate finance practices, including both firms I have worked at, refer to their group as the real estate group. I have found that is more common than referring to the group as a finance group, when the focus is real estate financing. It’s all marketing though, there’s no science to it.
Graduating law?
ABA RPTE has a whole boot camp thing that’s free to law students. It’s a great primer.
Obviously bar exam would need to be the main focus in ‘study outside work’ until that’s complete.