Real Estate Law

What does the firm's real estate practice cover?

Kelley, Grant & Tanis is a Florida real estate law firm. Real estate is the firm's core focus, integrated with related practices in title insurance, evictions, association law, estate planning, and probate. Our work covers four buckets:

Residential transactions. Single-family, condo, townhome, and waterfront property purchases and sales. Contract review, drafting, addendums, title work, escrow management, and closing.

Commercial transactions. Office, retail, multifamily, industrial, and mixed-use property. ALTA forms, environmental review, estoppel certificates, lease assignments, UCC fixture filings, and zoning verification.

Investment property. LLC formation for liability separation, operating agreements, lease drafting, security deposit transfers, short-term rental compliance, and the integrated eviction practice when tenant issues arise.

Real estate litigation. Escrow disputes, specific performance, failure to disclose, easement and boundary disputes, quiet title actions, partnership and investment disputes, and contested foreclosures. Led by Cory Carano, of counsel to the firm.

Florida real estate law service areas

The firm serves clients throughout South Florida from our West Palm Beach and Boca Raton offices.

When does a Florida real estate transaction actually need an attorney?

Florida is one of the few states where real estate transactions can legally close without an attorney. Title companies handle the bulk of straightforward residential closings. The question isn't whether you're required to hire an attorney; you're not. The question is whether you should.

Situations where attorney involvement is meaningfully worth the fee:

• Higher-value transactions where the cost of a missed contract issue exceeds attorney fees by an order of magnitude
• Cash purchases where there's no lender quality-controlling the title work
• Out-of-state buyers unfamiliar with Florida custom and procedure
• Investment property involving LLC formation, lease assignments, and security deposit transfers
• Inherited property requiring probate cleanup before sale
• Distressed sales where contract terms favor one party and need pushing back
• Properties with title defects identified during the search
• Commercial transactions involving environmental review, ALTA forms, UCC fixtures, or lease assignments
• Any transaction where the parties don't trust each other: divorcing spouses, family-to-family transfers, partnership dissolutions

Attorney vs. title company: what's the practical difference?

Florida-specific issues that catch buyers and sellers

Documentary stamp tax. Florida charges $0.70 per $100 of sale price on the deed. On a $500,000 sale, that's $3,500. By South Florida custom, the seller pays. Out-of-state buyers and sellers frequently miss this cost.

The "as-is" contract. The Florida Realtors / Florida Bar standard form is misleadingly named. It's not actually "as-is" in the sense buyers think; it includes a 10 to 15 day inspection period during which the buyer can terminate for any reason and recover the earnest money. Negotiation about repairs happens within that window.

Short-term rental restrictions. Most South Florida residential zoning prohibits rentals shorter than six months. Local code enforcement actively monitors Airbnb and VRBO listings. Fines start at $250 per day. Verify zoning before purchasing investment property.

Homestead and Save Our Homes. Florida's constitutional homestead protection caps annual property tax increases at 3% (or CPI, whichever is lower) for primary residences. A change in ownership triggers reassessment. Transferring property into an LLC after purchase can wipe out the cap. We cover the trap in our piece on transferring property into an LLC or corp.

Code enforcement liens. These don't appear in standard title searches because they're filed at the city level, not the County Clerk. A separate municipal lien search catches them. We coordinate the municipal lien search on every Palm Beach and Broward closing.

Condo non-warrantable status. Since the Surfside collapse, a growing number of South Florida condo buildings have been added to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage non-warrantable lists, dramatically affecting financing and resale. Our piece on South Florida's mortgage blacklist covers the implications.

Why work with Kelley, Grant & Tanis, P.A.

The firm's real estate practice is led by Jerron Kelley, who handles transactions, closings, and general real estate representation for homeowners, realtors, property managers, and investors throughout Florida. Complex real estate litigation (escrow disputes, partnership disputes, commercial evictions, foreclosure) is led by Cory Carano, of counsel.

The firm is an agent for The Fund (Attorneys' Title Fund Services) and Westcor Land Title Insurance Company. Direct title underwriting in-house, with no separate title company in the closing chain. All firm attorneys are members in good standing of the Florida Bar. Full attorney bios on our attorneys page.

Pricing. Routine real estate work is handled on a flat-fee basis with cost certainty disclosed up front. Complex matters may require alternative billing.

The firm has two offices in South Florida:

• West Palm Beach Office: 1645 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd, Suite #1200-3, West Palm Beach, FL 33401
• Boca Raton Office: 370 Camino Gardens Blvd., Suite #301, Boca Raton, FL 33432

Real estate integrates with the firm's title insurance, eviction, association law, estate planning, and probate practices.

Frequently Asked Questions