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The Short-Term Shop

Asset Protection with Bonnie Galam

Asset Protection with Bonnie Galam

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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?

Avery Carl

Avery Carl

Avery Carl was named one of Wall Street Journal’s Top 100 and Newsweek’s Top 500 agents in 2020. She and her team at The Short Term Shop focus exclusively on Vacation Rental and Short Term Rental Clients, having closed well over 1 billion dollars in real estate sales. Avery has sold over $300 million in Short Term/Vacation Rentals since 2017. An investor herself, with a portfolio of over 100 Doors, Avery specializes in connecting investors with short term rentals with the highest ROI potential, and then training them to manage their short term rental from their smart phone from anywhere in the world.

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