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Asset Protection with Bonnie Galam
In this episode of the Short Term Show, Avery interviews Bonnie Galam, a real estate attorney and educator. Bonnie shares her journey into the real estate investing world and becoming a real estate attorney, while discussing the common mistakes investors make, particularly regarding asset protection and LLCs.
Avery: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Short Term Show. We have not had an attorney on yet, and I know you guys have a lot of questions about different things that go on in the real estate investing world and in the real estate transaction world, so I always have to say, “Hey, I’m not an attorney, you should consult one.” But now I have one on that I’m going to ask a lot of your questions that I see all the time. I think this is going to be a really helpful episode for you guys. I think you’re going to learn a lot.
So, I’ll go ahead and introduce my guest. I’ve got Bonnie Galam, a real estate attorney, educator, and she has a program called the Landlord Law School that helps educate you on these types of things. Bonnie, thank you so much for coming on. Why don’t you just tell us a little bit about yourself real quick and how you ended up in the real estate investing world?
Bonnie: Sure, thank you so much for having me, Avery. I got involved in real estate because my boyfriend was in real estate. I met my now-husband when I was in law school. I did not go to law school to become a real estate attorney, or a real estate investor. I wanted to be a criminal prosecutor, and I actually did criminal and civil litigation for several years out of law school. But during that time, my husband was already a real estate investor when I met him, and we were just kind of quietly growing our portfolio in the background for years. It got to the point where I got more involved in the business—it wasn’t just his anymore. I was buying properties, getting in on these deals, and I knew enough to be dangerous at that point, to realize, you know, where the red flags were. I wasn’t a real estate attorney yet, but I was involved enough in the business and having my own legal brain to be able to start connecting these dots.
I also started realizing that I didn’t love the way I was working with our existing attorneys, so I eventually put one hat on and took the other off. I stepped full-time into the role as a real estate attorney for our portfolio, and for hundreds of other real estate investors, to help them with protection strategy, transactions, and just general consulting on the business of being a real estate investor.
Avery: Okay, so I have so many questions! That’s a lot of stuff. I think it’s definitely a hole in the market. I think there are a few people stepping into that space now, but it’s definitely been a hole for a while. One of the biggest things that real estate investors, especially in the space, get hung up on is they get either bad advice somewhere or just see, you know, a lot of different answers from people who are not attorneys, and sometimes even from attorneys. One of the biggest topics is asset protection and LLCs. I know it’s going to be dependent on each person’s situation, but one question that people ask a lot is, “Do I need a separate LLC for each property?” What would be your answer to that, generally speaking?