Grand Rapids Real Estate Attorneys

Verspoor Waalkes Real Estate LawThe real estate attorneys at Verspoor Waalkes offer creative solutions and aggressive representation for your real estate needs.  Real estate law is a diverse area of practice which ranges from simple residential purchase agreements to multimillion dollar commercial transactions.  Click below to find out more about each of our real estate sub-practice areas – and please contact us if you have any further questions.

Commercial Leasing and Real Estate Acquisition

Whether you need to buy, sell, or lease commercial property, our attorneys have the experience and expertise to facilitate a smooth transaction.  Our experience ranges from small, single-use buildings to multimillion-dollar office and commercial buildings. Commercial real estate purchases and sales involve a variety of complicated issues ranging from ensuring environmental and zoning compliance to securing appropriate financing and investment backing.  We will guide you through the process to ensure that your transaction is handled thoroughly, thoughtfully and professionally

Commercial property also often involves commercial leasing, which can be highly complex.
We provide advice to both tenants and landlords, and will handle your lease from preparing an initial letter of intent to negotiating the final lease terms.  Our experience includes single-tenant leases, shopping center leases, industrial leases, restaurant leases, retail leases, and a variety of other leasing scenarios.
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Residential Real Estate

Residential real estate transactions in Michigan are often handled without the advice of a competent attorney. Unfortunately, this can often lead to a variety of problems down the road.  Our experienced attorneys can review your purchase agreement before it is signed to ensure that it is competently drafted.

If you have already entered into a purchase agreement and problems have arisen, we will aggressively represent your interests while helping you navigate the difficulties. In addition to the initial transaction, we can also help you deal with title issues, easements, adverse possession, boundary disputes, and the host of other issues that residential real estate often involves.
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Joint Ventures and Holding Companies


Purchasing real estate often means entering into an investment partnership which often takes the form of a limited partnership or limited liability company. Real estate holding companies are unique, and carefully structuring the relationship among the owners is of paramount importance.  We represent a variety of real estate investors holding multi-faceted real estate investments.
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Real Estate Development

We have successfully represented clients in multiple development projects.
Our range of experience covers traditional subdivision development, site condominiums, traditional condominiums, and commercial property.  Our integrated real estate development team can handle your development project from preparing the restrictive covenants to negotiating lending agreements and coordinating with your surveyor and other project professionals.
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Condominiums

The Michigan Condominium Act can be a stumbling block both for those who develop “condo projects” and for those who purchase the units in the completed project. We help condo developers to ensure that their condominium documents are competently and professionally drafted, and specifically suited to their project. For an existing condo project, we can help the association or developer review their documents, determine if updates are necessary, and prepare the necessarily updates.
For condo buyers, the documents which range from the “Condominium Association Bylaws” to the “Master Deed” can be confusing. We can review these documents for you and help you to understand what your rights and responsibilities will be as a new condo owner.
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Property Taxes

Property taxes in Michigan by law may not be based on a value which exceeds the market value of a piece of real estate. Property taxes are also supposed to remain “capped” even if the value has increased, and are not supposed to “uncap” unless certain transfers occur. Unfortunately, taxes often are higher than they should be by law, which requires a tax appeal. Inappropriate or accidental “uncappings” are also not uncommon.

Our attorneys are experienced in these and other areas of Michigan real property tax law. We have successfully handled multiple appeals in the Michigan Tax Tribunal for owners of both residential and commercial real property. We have also assisted many families in avoiding the “uncapping” of the real property taxes for a family cottage or vacation spot, resulting in substantial savings to our clients.
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Zoning Compliance

Zoning laws have become increasingly complex, with municipal zoning codes often running to hundreds of pages. Our attorneys are experienced in deciphering zoning codes and determining what is and is not acceptable on a particular piece of property.
In many instances, a zoning appeal may be required. We can assist you in preparing a properly drafted and substantiated zoning appeal, which is often the first step toward ensuring that your project can proceed.
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Other Areas

Our attorneys can also assist you with areas such as real estate financing, real estate litigation, land contracts, farmland tax exemptions, mortgage review and preparation, adverse possession and quiet title, cottage law, riparian rights, survey reviews, and title examination. Our experience in real estate law runs deep. Please contact us for additional information, or to schedule an appointment.
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