Real Estate Attorney New Hampshire by Raj S

Purchasing Property in Nashua New Hampshire



My name is Len Foy, and I am a real estate attorney in Nashua, New Hampshire. Those of you who are watching this video have no doubt seen other videos that I have produced. Many of those videos were prepared with my daughter Natalie Foy serving as the moderator, but today I am offering viewers a rare solo performance. The purpose of this video is to tie it all together, if I can, and to provide the audience with a general overview of our firm and the universe of services that we offer those who are buying, selling or refinancing real estate.

My hope is to include answers to frequently asked questions, as well as an overview of our firm and our featured services. Finally, I plan to include useful tips and pointers for those new to real estate, and for those with some real estate experience.

Initially, by way of background, my name is Len Foy. My given name is Leonard W. Foy III, which can be a long and formal name. For many years people have been calling me Len Foy which short and easy to remember. I mention this in case you see references to a “Leonard Foy” on the internet, that’s probably me. Anyway, to continue, I was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, raised in nearby Hudson, New Hampshire, and today I am fortunate to be an attorney with a successful law practice in Nashua, New Hampshire. I have been practicing law for just about 20 years.

Throughout my life I have lived in many different places and I’ve been fortunate to have travelled around the country. I’ve lived on the West Coast, in California, and I’ve lived in New York, in the heart of New York City, and I’ve lived in Florida – so certainly I’ve made the rounds. Today I’m where I belong and quite happy where I am – my office is located in Nashua, New Hampshire. Together my two firms – Foy Law Office, PLLC and Sunset Settlement Company, LLC – these firms conduct real estate closings in four New England states: New Hampshire; Massachusetts; Maine and Rhode Island.

Editors note, Attorney Len Foy is licensed to conduct real estate transactions and to issue title insurance in Rhode Island, but is not admitted as an attorney in that jurisdiction.

So again I’ve been practicing law for just about 20 years. I was admitted to practice in the state of California in February 1995 so I have a twenty year anniversary coming up in February 2015. And in that twenty years I have handled just about every case one can imagine. I’ve handled divorce cases, accident cases, I’ve prepared trusts, I’ve prepared wills, I’ve probated estates, and this only scratches the surface.

I’ve had a diverse and rich history in the practice of law and throughout my career as an attorney I’ve been handling real estate matters. I handled my first real estate matter within a month or so of being sworn in, so real estate has always been a part of my practice. Beginning in 2002, my practice became increasingly concentrated in real estate matters. Today my practice is probably 99% real estate matters and 1% other assorted legal matters.

So, I consider myself to be a real estate attorney. That is the focus of my practice, that’s the concentration of my practice. We handle real estate matters in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island. This includes representing buyers of real estate, representing sellers of real estate, and representing lenders, consisting of banks, mortgage companies, credit unions, and other types of lenders, perhaps even a family member who is making a loan in connection with a real estate transaction, so we could be representing the biggest bank or the smallest local lender, and of course everything in between.

The scenario might be that you are in the process of buying real estate or you may be in the process of selling real estate, or you are refinancing real estate which you already own, if this applies to you please call my office. I have a considerable amount of experience practicing law, a considerable amount of real estate experience, and legal real estate experience especially, and I am confident that I can be of service to you, and provide a benefit to you, and I can help you through the real estate process which can sometimes be complicated and even laden with traps, in some cases.

Real estate, in my view, and again as someone who has been handling real estate matters for just about twenty years, real estate has probably reached its high point in terms of complexity and difficulty – and I could do a video segment on that subject alone. I think its cultural, it’s the way we have evolved, it has to do with the advent of email, it stems from the immediacy of our communications. I think we have these expectations that our communications and return communications are to be conducted with a sense of urgency and immediacy. As an aside I can still remember the dawn of the fax machine and how the fax machine transformed our communications. I remember the dawn of the word processor, and I remember several of the older attorneys at the firm where I began practicing law, attorneys who didn’t actually utilize the word processor, instead they or I should say their secretaries used the typewriter – so I have seen how technology has changed our business and our industry, and I think technology has changed and affected the real estate business as much as any other.

Consultations

Consultations are always free, so if you have an interest in working with me, or you want to at least explore the possibility of working with me, I hope that you will give my office a call and – again – the consultation will be at no charge. So we can actually examine your scenario, whatever it may be, whatever action or project you are contemplating, whether you are buying, selling or refinancing real estate – and I can give you my sense of where I may be able to assist you. We can also explore the likely or projected cost of my assistance, and we can go from there. If you make a decision not to utilize my services, but of course I hope you decide to use me, but if you decide against retaining me certainly the consultation will still cost you nothing.

Frequently asked questions

There are so many of them. I would say that probably chief among them would be the following recurring questions:

Q: When should I hire an attorney if I am in the process of buying, selling or refinancing real estate?

A: Anecdotally I can tell you that there are times when friends, associates and colleagues have telephoned me a week before a real estate closing and say, “Okay I think it’s time that I bring you into this deal!” By the way, feel free to bring me in at any time. Bring me to the closing if that’s all that circumstances allow for. If you need a ride to the closing or you want me to accompany you to a closing and that’s the most notice you can give me, and that’s the extent of my involvement, then that will be the extent of my involvement. But if we can make plans in advance I would say calling me earlier in the process is better.

But back to my original point, I have had people call me, reach out to me and say, “Hey I’m closing in a couple weeks and I want you to handle my closing.” And at that point it may be too late. It won’t always be too late but at some advanced point in the process of buying real estate it’s going to be too late. As you voyage deeper into the process, decisions have already been made about which attorney is going to handle the closing and attempting to bring me in late in the game means that somebody else basically gets the file taken away from them, and that creates political problems and tends to upset the proverbial apple cart. So I would offer you the following general proposition: the earlier you contact me in the process the better, and that way we can lay out everyone’s respective role in terms of which attorney is going to be handling the closing, or more specifically which attorney will represent the lender.

Q: Can I or my office represent both a buyer and their lender in a real estate transaction or do different attorneys need to represent each party. This is a great question and definitely frequently asked.

A: Generally speaking, and I say generally speaking because obviously there are exceptions to every rule, but more often than not it’s entirely appropriate for a single attorney to represent both the lender and the buyer. The buyer is the person to whom the lender is making the loan in the transaction, commonly we refer to the buyer as the borrower under these circumstances. Obviously the bank needs to approve this arrangement, the buyer or borrower needs to approve it also, but we certainly can do this – with borrower and lender consent – there are cost savings and economies of scale involved for people that utilize this arrangement, as opposed to having an attorney for themselves and a separate attorney for the lender.

Q: Can a single attorney represent a buyer and a seller in the same transaction?

A: No, that’s generally prohibited because there would be a conflict of interest between the parties, the circumstances would have to be unique to permit this arrangement.

Tips

I love to give out tips. I enjoy receiving tips myself, if anyone ever throws me a cooking tip or a golf tip – what a lift that gives me! We’re all looking for shortcuts. The term “shortcut” probably does not have the greatest connotation but I think you understand what I mean – not cutting corners just taking the fastest route. We’re all looking for ways to avoid the hard knocks, none of us want to learn things the hard way. If somebody can say to us, “Listen, rather than taking this difficult path to get to where you are going, instead try going this way, you’ll get there faster, the journey will be smoother, easier, less expensive,” most of us will gravitate towards that advice.

A couple of tips that I can offer you, if you are buying, selling or refinancing real estate you should always at least explore the possibility of hiring an attorney. I’m not saying that you are going to need an attorney every single time you buy or sell real estate, although I could make that argument, persuasively I think, but you should at least explore the possibility of having an attorney advise you and guide you through the process.

You will consistently find, maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn, that in most instances not only is it affordable to hire a real estate attorney, more affordable than you might imagine, but I would say considerably more affordable than most people expect. It’s typically hundreds of dollars, and not thousands of dollars. However, it’s very difficult for me to throw out exact numbers because every case really stands on its own, and like snowflakes no two real estate transactions are exactly alike. It’s always a different body of work, there are always different challenges, there are different levels of attorney involvement, and if the body of work expands, and the challenges multiply, and the level of attorney involvement increases, then inevitably the cost of legal services goes up.

So it would be irresponsible for me to simply throw out general, all-purpose pricing, like you might expect to find on a menu in a restaurant. Unfortunately it’s just not that simple. I can tell you that people watching this video may not know what it would cost them, or could cost them, and that fear and uncertainty might just drive them away and prevent them from even finding out about the cost in the first place. To avoid this, I would say, take a chance, pick up the phone, call my office and take advantage of that free consultation which we offer. Find out what the cost of my involvement will be, that process will cost you absolutely nothing, so there’s one important tip that I can offer.

I would say to sellers of real estate, get your attorney lined up before you even put the property on the market. You will – as a seller of real estate – you will face legal issue upon legal issue upon legal issue. And when I say “legal issues” that does not mean legal problems, I don’t want to scare anyone, but the very first thing you’ll be given to sign is a listing agreement with a real estate agent, that’s a real estate contract. You may want an attorney to review it.

Then a buyer will come along and they’ll do a home inspection and there will be an avalanche of contracts and offers and legal documents that will be presented to you – as the seller – for signature. You can have your attorney review all of those legal documents as well.

Then you have the pre-closing process and the closing itself. Legal documents are prepared and exchanged. Attorneys are obviously quite valuable throughout this process. So there’s a valuable tip that I can offer sellers.

A little bit about myself personally, some things that I think perhaps distinguish me from some of the other attorneys who are competing with me in this field. I have built my real estate practice over a twenty year span. I don’t want to say that I built my practice “on my own” because I did not build it on my own. In getting where I am today, I had the support of a cast of thousands. But nonetheless I consider myself to be self-made, which gives me a great appreciation for people who are coming from a middle class background, which is where I come from. So this is not a law practice that was handed to me, it was not a readymade practice that I simply glided into. With the help of key individuals I built this practice and I am proud to have done that, and in doing so I built something not just for myself but for my clients – and that’s what guided and propelled me throughout this process. The notion that I was not building this law firm just for me, but in fact I was building it for my clients, a firm where people could come to get quality legal services at a reasonable, affordable cost, that notion has been my inspiration.

I consider myself to be someone with of a lot of personal integrity, and a big heart, and kindness and understanding, so I feel as though I have a lot of qualities which enable me to empathize with other people, and to empathize with clients, which I view as important components of this process and my profession.

My work ethic is – as far as I am concerned – second to none. I am actively involved on a daily basis in the process of running this firm to the very best of my ability. I haven’t taken a lot of time off. I don’t “check out” or “duck out” of the office early. Most nights I’m here working late, working on behalf of my clients – tirelessly – so I’m not an attorney who is out of the office pursuing personal interests while my surrogates are back at the firm trying to hold things together. Nearly every day I am right here in my office catering to the needs of my clients, with the help of a friendly, experienced and knowledgeable staff who share my personal and professional values.

Experience – I think experience is critically important and I have a ton of it, given how hard I work and the way I’ve run my firm – over the course of my career, I have handled literally thousands of real estate transactions. That’s because we do so many of them, not only monthly but yearly and year upon year upon year, so when you walk into my office and speak to me about a real estate transaction you’re not speaking to an attorney who’s detached from his or her practice, who’s handled some real estate here and there, who handles real estate transactions to help with cash flow in the office, or an attorney whose real passion lies in estate planning, or handling car accidents or divorce cases or whatever the case may be.

When you come into my office, you are speaking with an experienced real estate attorney who handles real estate matters almost entirely, and a ton of them at that. You will be consulting with an attorney who has handled a large multitude of real estate transactions, who has seen a lot of different fact patterns, who has seen variations on the fact patterns, and who has the experience to counsel you appropriately under your precise circumstances, and who can help you tackle the challenges presented by your situation.

So this is just a little bit of biographical information about me. I hope it doesn’t sound come across as boasting, it’s not intended to come across that way, as people who know me can attest to I’m actually a very centered individual, quite humble, and really just very grateful to have the life that I have and to be in the position that I am in. Mainly I’m just grateful for everything, so again I hope that I don’t come off as though I’m grandstanding. However, I want to assure those watching this video that they can have confidence not just in this firm but in me as the President and Managing Attorney of this firm.

So, these are my early morning remarks as I sit in my office on December 3rd 2014. It’s the holidays and I hope everybody has a wonderful holiday season.

In closing, my name is Leonard Foy, again, everyone calls me Len Foy, I am the President and Managing Attorney of Foy Law Office, PLLC, my office is located at 76 Northeastern Boulevard in Nashua, New Hampshire, our offices are located in Suite 26B. My phone number is 603-598-4030, we are on the world wide web and our web address is www.foylawoffice.com. My email address is lfoy@foylawoffice.com. If you would like to send me a fax you can send me a fax at 603-598-4020. Again, I hope to hear from you.

For all of your real estate needs, whether it’s a real estate closing, preparing a deed, or just taking an experienced look at anything related to real estate, maybe it’s a real estate problem that you are having, a boundary issue, a dispute of some kind, a desire to add someone to the title of a property, or conversely to remove someone from a property, to help you buy a property, or help you sell a property, or assist in dividing a property, mortgaging a property, in any of these representative cases give my office a call we’ll do our best to help you and always at an affordable price.

Thank you very much for watching this video.

Have a wonderful day.

Len Foy