Category: Real Estate
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Pop Quiz: Will Your Final Mortgage Payoff Trigger a Defeasance Clause?
In some states, you take title at closing. In other areas, you aren’t the legal title holder before your final mortgage payment. It all depends on the mortgage law in your state. What’s the difference between the states? A defeasance clause. In some states, mortgage contracts have clauses that say the title will be transferred…
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AI Roundup: House-Fishing, Enhanced Documents, and AI-Drafted Deeds
Has artificial intelligence begun to make a mockery of a home seller’s duty to disclose? If so, we’d better be aware. And perhaps it’s time for the law to step in. Here’s the latest.
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Home Equity Sharing Agreements: Should They Be Regulated Like Mortgages?
Now and then at Deeds.com, we alert our readers to the vital importance of guarding a home’s equity. There are risks involved with any agreement that would place a lien on a deed. One way to leverage home equity we’ve talked about is the home equity investment, a.k.a. HEI or home equity sharing. Companies offering…
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Leaving the House to the Kids (Plural)? Take Care to Leave Clear Instructions.
It’s very common for an older deed holder to want to leave what they own to future generations. But can we get specific? Who, exactly, will possess the home? Because leaving a home to more than one person can get legally murky. Recently, the problem of unclear deed inheritances came up for discussion in the…
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Sharing the Deed: What Concurrent Ownership Means
When more than one person holds a deed to the same property at the same time, they hold concurrent ownership. There’s another legal term for what they have. That’s “unity” in the ownership. In law school, students learn how people may own the same property at the same time in various ways: Unity of title.…
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What Is a Rider to a Home Purchase and Sale Agreement?
What is a rider in real estate? It’s language that expands on or clarifies the contents of a written contract. In this case, a purchase and sale (“P&S”) agreement. Contract riders address specific concerns of a buyer or seller. They customize a contract’s terms and conditions. Riders can be useful for averting misunderstandings that could…
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Buying a Pre-Foreclosure Home: What’s It Like?
Foreclosure is a mortgage lender’s legal repossession of a home in order to sell it and get back the balance of the unpaid home loan. Pre-foreclosure, as you might guess, is that window of time when a homeowner has fallen behind on their monthly payments, but the mortgage lender has not yet repossessed the home.…
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Roadmap: Is It Time to Transfer Your Deed to a Living Trust?
With a revocable trust (a.k.a. living trust), a deed holder may keep full control and use of a home for life. The creator (grantor) makes the trust for a beneficiary. A named trustee — and a named successor trustee to follow — will handle the assets owned by the trust on behalf of the beneficiary.…
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My Parent Will Move Into Our In-Law Cottage. What Are Her Rights If My Spouse and I Divorce?
These days, more local governments are making way for deed holders to build in-law cottages, formally known as accessory dwelling units, as additions to the home or separate structures on the same lot as the main house. Many of these deed holders will consider this an opportunity to add value to their homes and…
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It’s the Perfect Home. Should I Include an Escalator in My Purchase Offer?
When you make an offer on that dream home, your agent might suggest using an escalator, also known as an escalation clause. When your written purchase offer has an escalation clause, it raises your purchase price by a certain amount above competing offers, until the offer reaches the highest you’re willing to pay. Through the…
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My Home Has Unpermitted Upgrades. Can I Transfer the Deed?
It’s a common situation. You did some DIY renovating. You didn’t realize you needed permits. Turns out, you did. Or perhaps the person who sold you the home was a DIY buff and did substantial upgrades without permission. What now? How might unpermitted renovation work affect the title to the home? And will unpermitted work…
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Want to Buy a Bank-Owned Home? Behind the Scenes in an REO Deed Transfer
Real estate owned (REO) homes are properties that were taken back by mortgage lenders. A bank-owned home can be a good deal. These properties tend to be sold for below market value, as lenders don’t like to be stuck with houses. Buyers might finance REO purchases using loans backed by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae,…
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Deed Holder Rights: What to Do If a Neighbor Damages or Destroys Your Tree
Trees are some of the most beautiful, valuable, and cherished features a home could have. That said, trees can also become points of contention between deed holders. Especially if a tree is near the property’s boundary line, misunderstandings can easily arise. At that point, deed holders wonder about their rights and obligations concerning the tree.
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Deed Holders’ Rights and the Rise of Flock Cameras
Flock cameras have become a controversial addition to neighborhoods across the country. They’ve been purchased by police, private and commercial property owners, campuses, and homeowners’ associations (HOAs). The Flock Safety corporation has been under increasing scrutiny over concerns about invasions of privacy. Deed holders have a range of opinions and feelings about these cameras. But…
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This Week’s Big News for Deed Seekers: Fannie and Freddie Shift to VantageScore® in Loan Decisions
The price of stock in Fair Isaac, a.k.a. FICO®, just tanked. It happened after the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director announced a change in the way Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will consider an applicant’s credit scores. (The FHFA oversees Fannie and Freddie.) Fair Isaac stock plummeted more than 25% on the last Tuesday…
