Auburn Investment Properties Podcast with Chris Kearns

Episode 041: An Interview with Auburn Real Estate Attorney Russell Balch (2 of 2)

• Chris Kearns, Russell Balch • Episode 41

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In this Episode, you'll hear the second of two parts of an interview I did with my long-time Real Estate Attorney, Russell Balch of the law firm Akridge & Balch in Auburn.  Besides being my attorney, Russell has also been my office landlord for a few years too.  I met Russell through my first post-college employer (Fred & Miles of the Charter Companies) in the late 1990's, and when I started my mobile home sales business way back in 2000, Russell was my guy!  

Eventually, I moved on to single condos, and then started buying apartment buildings to turn around, or renovate and cut into condos.  Later on, Russell helped me acquire a 50+ unit portfolio with a multi-million dollar "Lease-Option" type of contract.  Well, that huge acquisition completely burned me out and I needed a break for a while, so I decided to sell all of my properties, and Russell helped me with that, too.  He's started 8 or 9 LLC's for me, either as solo businesses or with partners, and I always felt prepared for what happened next, even when one of the partners in a 3 man group actually died and the other filed bankruptcy!  The bottom line is this: a good Real Estate attorney is one of the most valuable members of your team, and Russell is a damn good one.

Listen in as Russell and I talk about: (items in bold are in this episode, the rest were discussed in the previous episode)

  • Various types of closings
  • The differences between Residential and Commercial Deals
  • The finer points of contracts and how they can affect negotiations
  • Contract and the review process for complicated deals
  • Options, Due Diligence periods, and Hard Money clauses
  • LLC's and how they are designed to be firm but flexible, and can be modified on the fly to fit your evolving projects
  • Three types of dispute resolution (Mediation, Arbitration, and Litigation)
  • Parting thoughts and words of wisdom


Links from this episode:​​