On August 15, 2014, Governor Brown signed into law a new real estate broker agency bill. Senate Bill 1171, which is effective January 1, 2015, expands the disclosure law that previously applied only to one-to-four unit residential sales and leases. It requires commercial brokers to disclose, in a written statement and at the earliest possible opportunity, their agency relationship with the participants in a commercial …

The Documentary Transfer Tax Act (Revenue and Taxation Code §§11901, et. seq), as originally enacted, allows the amount of documentary transfer tax on a conveyance of commercial real estate to be shown on a separate declaration to prevent the purchase price from being readily ascertainable. It permits a county recorder to attach the declaration to the deed after the permanent record is made and before …

Partners in a partnership (or members in a LLC taxed as a partnership) sometimes have differing views on how to take proceeds from the sale of investment property. Some partners want to cash-out while others want to remain in the partnership and buy new replacement property (i.e., defer taxable gain by having the partnership complete a Section 1031 exchange). If the partnership takes some cash …