Real Estate Legal Services

More than land and buildings—Newnam Land protects your property rights from dirt to deed.

When people think “real estate,” they often first picture land, houses, and buildings—tangible, physical property. But real estate is much more than just land; it encompasses everything associated with owning, controlling and using land, including the rights, responsibilities and legal interests that come with it.

Where property power meets smart legal protection

Real estate law deals with ownership, use, and conveyance of property. This includes infrastructure required to use land, such as roads and easements, and items underneath the surface, such as minerals. Land is also affected by rights and restrictions on its use and the improvements that may be constructed, such as local regulations and restrictive covenants.

Real estate law also includes things like leasing, purchasing/selling, title disputes, boundary disputes, conveyancing, financing, liens, and more. Each of these areas of real estate has its own laws and rules, and how these laws and rules apply often depend on your specific circumstances.

Newnam Land can help you navigate these complex issues, working to ensure that your interests are protected. In addition to having years of experience representing clients regarding all kinds of real estate matters, both Robert and Dixie have unique experience that they use for the benefit of their clients.

Robert Land has experience as a licensed real estate agent in Texas and has represented many property owner associations and owners in covenant enforcement matters. Dixie Newnam has over a decade of experience in county government representation, providing her with a depth of knowledge regarding government operations and development regulations.

How we can help you

As with all legal matters, it can be tempting to try the “do-it-yourself” approach—especially in real estate. This often comes up during transfers between family members or friends, or when trying to save money. But without a real estate attorney involved, the right documents are rarely drafted or executed properly.

Even when standard forms are used, mistakes are common—such as using the wrong type of deed, incorrect property descriptions, or missing language that’s essential to protect everyone’s rights. Parties may attempt to draft their own documents, such as a basic easement agreement, but fail to include necessary provisions regarding its management and their rights and obligations.

Similarly, during real estate negotiations or disputes, you may unknowingly give up important rights if you don’t seek legal advice immediately. For instance, signing a document at a neighbor’s request may cloud your title or change your ownership rights. A casually written letter about a boundary line could hurt your position in a future dispute.

The biggest problem? These issues often go undetected for years—or even decades. When they do surface --- and they likely will --- fixing them is far more expensive and time-consuming than if a qualified real estate attorney had handled the transaction from the start.

It’s always better to engage a real estate attorney from the beginning than to go it alone and risk costly consequences. Let the attorneys at Newnam Land help protect your property and your peace of mind.

Real Estate Legal Services

There are times when the purchase or sale of real property requires legal advice and flexibility in document drafting that a real estate agent cannot legally provide. As attorneys, Newnam Land can draft all necessary documents and craft customized terms related to a sale or purchase of property.

An easements is a right to enter onto and use another's real property for a specific purpose in a specific manner. Common easements include access easements (the ability to cross another person’s property to access your own) and utility easements (the rights of utility companies to cross property for the purposes of providing services or transporting things like electricity, water, or natural gas).

Restrictive covenants are restrictions on the use of real property. Most people are familiar with these through their ownership of a residential lot in a neighborhood. In that context, covenants often dictate how the owner may use the lot and what type, size, and style of structure may be constructed on the lot. They also establish assessments and their collection, the homeowner association and its powers, architectural review committees, and other neighborhood management responsibilities.

When a large piece of land is cut into smaller parcels, the developer creates a map (called a “plat”) that depicts the parcels and provides a legal description for each of them. Plats can also establish easements for utilities, access, and walking/horse riding trails.

When the purchase of land is financed, the person or entity loaning money requires that the purchaser sign a note, deed of trust, and various other financing documents. The documents control things like title transfer, payments, and events of default and rights in case of default. Due to the amount of money involved in financing, both the lender and borrower will want to make sure their interests are well protected.

When a party agrees to sell a piece of property to a prospective buyer, he or she will enter into a contract with the buyer that spells out each party’s rights and responsibilities with respect to the sale. This contract sets out many things, including price, length of the buyer’s option period, disclosures, financing, various deadlines, and date of closing. These contracts can be difficult to terminate, and a termination may lead to a loss of earnest money or a forced consummation of the sale. Therefore, it is important that prior to signing, buyers and sellers understand the contract and are comfortable with all of its terms.