Deeds.com

June 9, 2023June 9, 2023

Need to Pull Money Out of Your Home? Which Will Work—Home Equity Loan, or HELOC?

Purchasing a home is one way to have control over your housing. But homeownership is also a wealth-building superpower. Pay off the mortgage, and the loan balance shrinks. Month by month, the home becomes a source of value that can grow with the real estate market.

At some point, you might want to tap into that value, to fund other goals. As a homeowner, you can consider a home equity loan (HEL) or home equity line of credit (HELOC).

June 6, 2023June 6, 2023

Hybrid Appraisals Are New to Real Estate. Are They Good or Bad?

The hybrid appraisal is now allowed for real estate transactions and financing. It’s a form of real estate appraisal that’s completed from the appraiser’s desk, using information from the home that came remotely, from a data collector. This is also known as the “bifurcation” of the appraisal work.

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac consider these bifurcated appraisals legit. Maybe that’s a good thing. Hybrid appraisals relieve appraisers from data collection tasks. Their acceptance can mean new opportunities for real estate professionals to earn money in data collection.

On second thought, maybe it’s not so great to outsource the appraiser’s traditional in-person property visit. Stories are already emerging about data collectors who are vetted just once, and have exploited their temporary access to homes.

So, should hybrid appraisals be welcomed, watched, or challenged? Let’s take a look.

June 5, 2023June 5, 2023

Your Mother Wants to Add You to the House Deed. Good Idea?

Invited to put your name on the deed to a home? It might seem totally natural to just say “thank you.”

But stop and think a moment. If you accept a new deed, perhaps a quitclaim, with your name added on, you’ll put her, and yourself, at a financial disadvantage.

June 2, 2023June 2, 2023

It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s a Super Lien!

Some states give certain liens a special status: super liens! Whoever records a super lien gets their money back first — they jump in front of the prior recorded liens on the property. Sometimes, homeowners’ associations have this super power. If so, they can override the famous “first in time, first in right” rule for liens.

Homeowners usually don’t think too much about lien priority. But mortgage companies do. And people who invest in mortgage notes, considering them first-priority liens, absolutely do. Lien priority is a factor they check before investing in debt in a given state.

Let’s take a look at liens, super liens, and how mortgage companies and mortgage investors react to them.

May 31, 2023May 31, 2023

Holding Low-Interest Loans, Many Homeowners Are Too Comfortable to Move

Home sellers are staying away from the market in droves this year. Millions fewer new listings hit the spring market. Zillow reports that the February 2023 volume of listings is down 23% year over year.

The missing sellers are sending a message to the market. Look how comfortable we are with our current mortgages!

Most would prefer not to sacrifice this comfort to buy another home with a less comfortable loan. Trading up to one of today’s mortgages could easily add hundreds, even $1,000 or more to their monthly mortgage payments.

In case you were wondering, that’s where most homeowners are this season.

May 29, 2023May 29, 2023

How Middle-Income Earners Considering Retirement Housing Get “Trapped in a Gap”

It’s a great time to sell a home at a profit, but…not the easiest time to downsize. Across the United States, attractively priced homes are hard to find.

And opting for a retirement community keeps getting pricier, too. As an article in Forbes recently put it, “There just doesn’t seem to be anything affordable for middle-income seniors.”

How can these older adults navigate their possible futures? Some are downsizing creatively. And some are finding ways to house themselves in mutually beneficial arrangements. Let’s take a look.

May 26, 2023May 26, 2023

St. Paul Steps Up: City Begins Discharging Racial Exclusions From Deeds

A racial covenant is language in a real estate deed that puts homes off-limits to certain buyers. It could say the deed may not be conveyed to particular social groups, such as Black, Asian, or Jewish people.

Recently, St. Paul leadership joined a coalition to remove racial exclusions from Minnesota property deeds. Aptly, it’s called the Just Deeds Coalition.

Let’s look at the news — and its backstory.

May 25, 2023May 25, 2023

Here’s What Citigroup Says About Blockchain for Real Estate

Citigroup is a leading global investment bank. And it says blockchain “could be a good fit” for real estate.

Traditional real estate often lacks transparency, relies on a lot of middle people, and is generally cumbersome to sell, according to Citigroup’s new report Money, Tokens and Games: Blockchain’s Next Billion Users and Trillions in Value.

Citi notes a few ways blockchain could soothe those pain points:

May 24, 2023May 24, 2023

Real Estate Elevated: Utah Scrambles to Meet Buyer Demand

Looking for homes in and around Salt Lake City? In just the past three years, home prices in Weber, Morgan, and Davis counties are up more than 40%. Forbes recently cited data from March 2023, showing the median sale price for a Utah home at nearly $526K. Demand just won’t quit.

More people are coming into the state, attracted by a vibrant job market. So, Utah lawmakers have been working to fill the need for attainably priced housing. Here’s what they’ve come up with so far.

May 22, 2023May 22, 2023

Single Women Buying Homes: A Powerful Force

Single women are a force to be reckoned with in residential real estate.

Most real estate marketing photos show couples and families. Understandably, considering that the National Association of REALTORS® says couples do buy the bulk of homes for sale.

But single women, NAR says, buy 17% of the homes. That’s big. Solo men, in comparison, buy just 9%.

Women, who couldn’t even apply for home loans without male co-signers until 1974, now own about 13% of U.S. homes bought as primary residences. The stats clearly show the high convictions of women in the role of real estate in their overall wellbeing.

Let’s take a look.