Outside Counsel for Realtors, Brokers & Homebuilders

MJK Law Corp. provides business and regulatory counsel to real estate brokers, brokerage companies, homebuilders, developers, and other businesses involved in residential real estate. Our firm advises on contracts, RESPA compliance, referral and marketing relationships, settlement service arrangements, vendor agreements, business disputes, transactions, and ongoing legal matters. We can assist with a specific issue or serve as fractional general counsel for businesses that need regular legal support.

Real Estate Relationships Create Legal Questions Fast

Your business depends on relationships. You work with buyers and sellers, lenders, title companies, settlement providers, contractors, vendors, marketing partners, and other professionals involved in moving a transaction from contract to the closing.

Most of those relationships come with contracts, money changing hands, regulatory requirements, or all three.

A proposed marketing partnership may raise a RESPA question. A referral relationship needs to be structured correctly. A vendor agreement may shift more risk than expected. A dispute can develop in the middle of an active project. A growing brokerage or homebuilding company may simply reach the point where legal questions come up too often to handle them one at a time.

MJK Law Corp. works with real estate businesses on those issues. Our firm combines broad business counsel with decades of experience in the title, settlement, mortgage, and residential real estate industries. That industry perspective gives us useful context from the start.

Legal Support for the Business Side of Real Estate

Realtors, brokers, and homebuilders deal with much more than individual real estate transactions. You are running a business, managing relationships, signing agreements, dealing with vendors, and making decisions that can carry legal and regulatory consequences.

We can help with the following: 

Contracts and Business Agreements

Real estate businesses rely on agreements with vendors, contractors, service providers, marketing companies, technology platforms, business partners, and other organizations.

We draft, review, and negotiate commercial agreements with an eye toward what the terms mean in practice.

That may include payment obligations, termination rights, indemnification, exclusivity, service requirements, ownership of work product, or provisions that become much more important when a relationship stops going according to plan.

Getting those issues clear at the beginning can save considerable trouble later.

RESPA Compliance and Settlement Service Relationships

Realtors, brokers, homebuilders, lenders, title companies, and settlement service providers regularly interact with one another. Those relationships can create regulatory questions under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and related anti-kickback requirements.

MJK Law Corp. advises on RESPA compliance involving referral relationships, compensation structures, marketing arrangements, settlement services, and affiliated business arrangements.

If you are considering a new relationship or promotional structure involving another participant in the residential real estate transaction, our firm can help evaluate it before it goes into effect.

Joint Marketing and Referral Arrangements

A joint marketing idea can look straightforward on a conference room whiteboard.

But who is paying? What is each party receiving? How is compensation determined? Are referrals involved? Is a settlement service provider participating? Does the arrangement create regulatory concerns?

We can review joint marketing agreements, co-marketing relationships, referral arrangements, and similar business structures to help real estate companies understand the legal implications before committing resources or putting the relationship into practice.

Vendor and Contractor Relationships

Homebuilders and real estate businesses often depend on a wide network of outside companies.

A poorly structured agreement with a contractor, technology provider, marketing company, consultant, or other vendor can turn an operational issue into a legal one quickly.

Our firm can assist with vendor agreements, service contracts, contract negotiations, performance disputes, payment issues, and the legal questions that develop when an important commercial relationship starts breaking down.

Business Disputes and Collections

We help businesses assess contract disputes, payment issues, collections matters, vendor conflicts, and disagreements with commercial partners. The first question is usually practical: what outcome does the business need, and what is the most efficient way to get there?

When litigation becomes necessary, MJK Law Corp. can help manage outside litigation counsel and keep the strategy connected to the broader interests of the company.

Growth, Transactions and Corporate Matters

A brokerage adding locations, a homebuilder expanding into another market, or a real estate company bringing in a new owner can create legal needs well beyond the underlying property transactions.

Our firm assists with corporate governance, ownership matters, financing documents, commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, and other legal work related to business growth.

For companies expanding across markets or building more complex business relationships, we can also help identify where additional regulatory or specialized counsel may be needed.

Counsel That Understands the Other Side of the Closing Table

A broker may need to understand how a proposed arrangement affects a title company. A builder may be working with lenders, settlement providers, and sales professionals at the same time. A marketing strategy may involve several parties subject to different rules.

Our experience across the title insurance, settlement services, mortgage, and residential real estate industries helps us see those connections.

MJK Law Corp. understands the relationships among the businesses involved in a real estate transaction and the regulatory framework surrounding them. That can be particularly valuable when the issue involves RESPA, referral arrangements, settlement services, or a business structure involving several industry participants.

We also bring broader corporate and general counsel experience to the relationship. Your company may operate in real estate, but your legal needs still include contracts, disputes, governance, transactions, vendors, and the everyday decisions that come with running a business.

We can help with those too. Reach out to MJK Law Corp. today to get started.