Category: Real Estate
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Time to Make Financing a Manufactured Home Easier. Meanwhile, What a Difference Holding the Deed Makes!
Manufactured housing — and this includes mobile homes — make up a key segment of financially accessible housing. Today, 18 million people have roofs overhead thanks to manufactured homes. Most own them. Most are deed holders who took out mortgages from banks or credit unions. But it wasn’t easy for them. Some applied for regular…
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Married, and Not on the Deed. What Are My Rights?
Sometimes, only one spouse is named on the deed. This can be because one person already owned the home before marriage, or because one spouse inherited a deed. Or perhaps there are financial or tax advantages to having only one person on the deed and not the other. Or the sole named deed holder simply…
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Will NAR’s Speech Code Be Shot Down in Texas?
Recently, a notable opinion column ran in Real Estate News. Ryan Weyandt, a real estate consultant, wrote: “There’s no place for hate speech in real estate.” That’s also the view of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), which in 2020 etched this position into its formal Code of Ethics, binding NAR’s agents. Why is this…
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Can AI Empower Home Buyers to Represent Themselves? This Month, Homa Debuts in Florida
A new real estate company, Homa, says it can cut the “red tape, middlemen, and mystery” from the home buyer’s experience. It’s an AI-powered tool that helps customers handle their own purchases, step by step. Homa also claims to cut out the pressure and bias that buyers face in the traditional market.
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Your Home’s Measurements Differ From the Description. Now What?
Maybe your property is smaller than the way it’s presented in the legal description. Maybe it’s bigger. Maybe you don’t own the home yet, but your agent has noted that the lot size, as described, is off by a few yards, or a certain percentage of an acre. The legal description of the property…
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Tip Line Will Bust Lying Mortgage Applicants, Says Trump Administration (Before Going After New York’s AG)
The Trump administration believes mortgage fraud is out of control. So, federal officials now run a tip line, to get people to report suspicious behavior. The administration is so gung-ho about mortgage fraud that it’s even accused New York Attorney General Letitia James of filing improperly completed mortgage applications. That’s bullying, and the charges are…
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We’re Inheriting a Deed Together (And My Co-Owner Has No Job)
Meet Terry, a new deed holder. Terry received the home from his mother. “My mother recently passed away,” as he tells the story. “I inherited the deed, with my sister. My mother was supporting her, but that’s come to an end.” His sister is already living in what used to be their late mother’s home.…
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The Resilient Deed: What Property Buyers Should Know About Climate, Weather, and Insurance
We all live somewhere on Earth. Today, that means we all deal with some measure of climate-related risk. The “new normal” involves highly abnormal weather patterns, stronger storms, hotter heat. Florida, California, and Texas are frequently in the news for this reason. But even “climate havens” now deal with tornadoes and major floods. All this…
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“Government Efficiency”: DOGE Firings Prompt a Wave of Home Selling in D.C.
The art of the deed transfer is going through some bizarre changes these days. We have the question marks over tariffs. And we’re watching all sorts of housing policies become targets of the Trump administration. In the midst of all the turmoil, are residents being pushed out of our key government city — by Elon…
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Hey, Back Off! When an Encroaching Neighbor Wants a Piece of Your Property
So, the folks next door did some landscaping. And you’re pretty sure it crossed your property line. Maybe they built a shed over the boundary. Maybe they’re using a part of your land to park equipment, or to drive over. In some cases, the encroachment isn’t obvious. Then the deed holder wants to build a…
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Paying the Agents: In “Post-Commission” Times, Buyers Finally Have a Say
Last year, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) settled a major lawsuit and agreed to change the way agents get paid. Buyers now know they’re covering their agents’ commissions themselves. Once NAR agreed to new rules, as part of the $418 million lawsuit settlement, some people predicted a new wave of buyer-friendly competition among agents.…
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Buyers (of All Ages) Who Seek Houses, Not Spouses
Kristina Modares is a social media phenomenon. She goes online to inspire other young adults to get their own deeds. She would tell you to get together with a friend or two. Then, co-buy your first home. That’s how she began — before going on to buy several more. As a young adult, Kristina was…
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What’s Going On With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
Many people acquire deeds by applying for conventional loans. When we say conventional, we mean loans supported by our country’s federal housing agency through two powerhouses of the mortgage world: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That’s why we keep current with news on the policy changes happening in that agency. And there’s a lot to…
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The Water Log: A Deed Holder’s Intro to Storm Runoff
Storms aren’t exactly getting milder out there. And did you know that rainstorms can implicate a property owner’s rights? Severe or recurrent storms can create significant challenges for a deed holder. Flooding is the costliest risk for homes. Here, we cover just the basics of stormwater and deeds.
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The Land Equity Loan: When You Hold a Deed to Unbuilt Land
Land without any construction on it (with or without utility infrastructure) has value. That value, minus any secured debt on the land, is called land equity. It’s possible to borrow money from equity. It’s one way to get cash without having to transfer a deed. The cash from equity could fund construction of a home…
