When Family Law And Real Estate Meet

Today's podcast episode features Modern Divorce host Billie Tarascio talking with our featured guest, Shane Ross, the latest addition to the talented team of attorneys at Modern Law. Shane arrives with an impressive track record in commercial real estate, which is proving to be an invaluable background for those who are divorcing.

Understanding real estate is crucial in the realm of family law as it often involves determining who retains ownership of various assets and how these assets are divided. Shane's expertise makes him an invaluable resource for anyone finding themselves in such complicated situations, especially when it pertains to residential properties.

In addition to his professional credentials, Shane also enjoys acquiring land in his personal life, furthering his understanding of real estate dynamics. In this podcast, he shares his personal journey into this and other areas today.

Transcript

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Billie Tarascio: Hi, this is Billie Tarascio with the Modern Divorce Podcast.

Welcome back to another episode. I am your host and the owner of Modern Law and Women Without Law School. Today I am joined by attorney Shane Ross, who is with Modern Law and has a really unique and interesting background. So we're gonna talk about his background, the vacant lamp. [00:01:00] And, and all things Shane.

Shane, welcome to the show. 

Shane Ross: Thanks for having me. Glad to be here. 

Billie Tarascio: Welcome. So, Shane, tell people a little bit about your background. 

Shane Ross: So I am a Arizona attorney. I've been practicing law since 2018. I am pretty new to the practice of family law, but I have a wide variety of background in real estate law, business law, and have a commercial real estate background.

So I. I had to talk about a lot of different topics. 

Billie Tarascio: Well, those are all really great things to add to family law because the thing about family law is it touches everything. You know, our clients have commercial real estate, they have business issues, many of them have businesses, and you have this special niche in vacant land, which is super interesting.

Tell us a little bit about that. 

Shane Ross: Absolutely. So when I was in law school, I started a side business buying and selling rural land. [00:02:00] So I would identify an area that was. Pretty far away from a major city, maybe two or three hours out in the middle of nowhere. And I purchased a few vacant lots and resold them and turned it into a little side business while I was in law school and have been kind of creating more value for my clients and helping them basically buy and sell land.

And I, I do so myself and help others. So it's become a little bit of a specialty and That's been fun. 

Billie Tarascio: That's awesome. A lot of people who are going through Divorce might have a piece of vacant land as part of their kind of community that needs to be valued and divided, and sometimes people really struggle to value that property.

How would you recommend they do that? 

Shane Ross: Yeah, so vacant land is really tough to value because there's so many different factors that go into it. You could have a, a very rural lot that's away from a [00:03:00] major metropolitan area that has no utilities whatsoever. It may not even have good road access, and it's almost impossible to find.

Those are a little bit harder to value. I can get into some recommendations I have for that. And then there's also, you know, a, a, an infill lot or a lot that's basically surrounded by other developments that might be in a metropolitan area or a small town that has good driveway access. It has utilities, but it has never, it has never been built on.

And that might be a little bit easier to value, but there's so many different factors that go into how you would start that process. Yeah. 

Billie Tarascio: Well, and what is going on, in your opinion with commercial real estate these days? Is it hot? Is it cool? 

Shane Ross: Man, that's a great question. There's so many. So I'll take a step back.

You know, the market overall is so specific on where you live. Mm-hmm. Overall, like from the trend we've seen with office [00:04:00] is it's struggling a little bit because. Since the pandemic, people are not going into an office as frequently. So there's some large commercial real estate spaces that are still remaining vacant these days in a lot of the major metros.

And so office is still a little bit of a challenge, but there's also some opportunities there as well, depending on how you look at it. Industrial real estate is actually pretty strong right now across the board. With logistics companies and drop shipping companies and things like that, people are are opening and looking to even downgrade into, instead of a traditional office space into more of like an industrial flex space where you have a warehouse pull in with an office in the back contractor yards maintenance, things like that.

So those kind of spaces are Creative spaces seem to be doing well. So that's probably my take on office and industrial, but it's so case specific on, on the market. 

Billie Tarascio: Yeah, it's a good point. Like I think we're undergoing a really rapid [00:05:00] cultural shift with regards to work. Like really kind of, and I know that this started during the pandemic, but I am seeing that it's not stopping.

It's not stopping. So the way that we are, I. Working the way that we view ourselves in relationship to our jobs is changing. People really want to have a life that doesn't revolve around wor work and a life that they can, you know, I guess dial up and dial back, work as their life needs it to, which I think is great.

I think it gets totally doable. 

Shane Ross: Sure. Yeah, I agree with that. And it's good to stay flexible and, and things are always changing, right? You, you know, it's, the world is changing more frequently with, there's statistic about how it's exponential change with technology. Mm-hmm. And so every year it's successively more and more quickly the way things change.

And you kind have. The new changes and just adapt. 

Billie Tarascio: Yeah. So resilience and adaptation is [00:06:00] the name of the game. What do you do for fun? 

Shane Ross: I. Oh man. So my wife and I have two dogs, so we love walking our, our dogs around our, our neighborhood here in Scottsdale. I love to play golf. I love hiking. I love everything outdoors, really.

I'm a huge kayaker when I can, when I have some time and find some some water in Arizona. I, I love to, to paddleboard and kayak. Fishing and really just exploring. And when I'm in my, working in my real estate business, buying and selling land, I frequently travel to these properties and walk the sites, explore the area, spend some time on the ground, and really get a sense of the area.

And I really love that part of my, of what I do. 

Billie Tarascio: That's fun. That's fun. So you, you might be, you know, struggling to find this specific piece of property because there's no roads, no infrastructure. So do you like get out your compass? 

Shane Ross: I, I have before. I, I mean I use my Google Maps as far as it'll take me, but a lot [00:07:00] of times there's no service.

So yeah, I've used a compass. I've used kind of just old plaid maps and tried to find roads and got my four-wheel drive vehicle and. Just make it work. 

Billie Tarascio: That's fun. That's super fun and such a different thing from lawyering, which I also think is great. Like, I think people are seeking kind of balance and how to use different parts of their brain.

So since you started family law, what are you finding you like about it? 

Shane Ross: You know, I, I really just have always found that. If I can try to help and add some value in somebody's life, I'm, I, it really connects with me and I, I just really want to give back and, and try to add some value to somebody's situation.

So I have found that there's so many people that I. That need help and have a lot of questions. The legal process when you look at it is not super easy to understand when you're trying to do this yourself. And so just helping provide some framework and guidance with people [00:08:00] when they're getting started has been really refreshing.

And I'm talking to some fantastic people from all walks of life and You know, it's, it's been really great seeing a different side of law, but also seeing how interrelated it is to other facets of law and just in life in general. Yeah. 

Billie Tarascio: Yeah, I agree. It's awesome and it's interesting, and you get to meet people and you get to know people, and you get to know people really intimately in family law.

So they're not just coming to you to tell you about their business problem or their, you know, their breach of contract issue or whatever. Their landlord tenant issue. It's, you really get to know their whole life. Which is kind of a, I think, a real privilege that we have. And then we have to figure out how to help them.

Shane Ross: Totally. 

Billie Tarascio: So let's see, what else would you like the listeners to know about you before we wrap up today? 

Shane Ross: I think I would just love to introduce myself to them and, and let 'em know [00:09:00] that you know, I'm here to help. We're here to help. And you know, it's, a lot of people have this misconception about attorneys that, you know, we're all about fighting and trying to have the client spend as much money as possible.

And, and really that's not what we're here to do. We're, we're trying to help and we're trying to solve problems at the end of the day. And you know, I'm, I'm a problem solver by nature. I, I want to be, you know, help somebody get to a solution as quickly and easily as possible. And, we're, I'm approachable.

We're approachable here, and I just, I think it's, it's worth spending some time speaking with somebody at our firm, I would love to talk to you if you are, are dealing with a situation that you feeling you're at a breaking point or you just need a little bit of help, some advice. Love to connect with you and see how we can help.

Billie Tarascio: Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today, and if you have enjoyed this episode of the Modern Divorce Podcast, make sure to like it, download it, leave a review, send it to your friends. If you [00:10:00] know other guests who would be an excellent guest on the Modern Divorce Podcast, send them over. Thank you so much for your time today, Shane.

Shane Ross: Thanks Billie. Appreciate it. 

Billie Tarascio: We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Modern Divorce Podcast, brought to you by Modern Law. Now a word from our sponsor. 

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