Category: Real Estate
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Playing Dirty With Deeds: Listing Scammers Swarm Social Media
Agents from coast to coast are sending out warnings about a scheme on TikTok. Bogus listings are attracting hopeful renters and buyers, then taking off with fees and deposits. The advertisements on TikTok, Facebook Marketplace, Instagram, and other popular platforms show attractive prices—but they’re designed to pick the pockets of innocent people. At the same…
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Home Buyers See Prices Rise Yet Again. Can a Federal Law Turn the Tide?
In case you missed it, the median price for existing homes hit another record this summer: $440,600. Home prices have pressed higher for three years running, says the National Association of REALTORS®. And they’ve risen in four out of five major housing markets in the second quarter of 2026. The latest increase is especially pronounced…
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Unlimited Marital Deduction: Tax-Free Spouse Asset Transfers
Where there’s a deed, there must be an estate plan. Every deed holder must decide where that ownership interest will go when they’re no longer around. Good planning takes into account how a property transfer will be taxed upon death. For spouses, there are tax advantages to know about. A key example? The unlimited marital…
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Checklist for Closing Day: What Do I Bring to Settlement?
Settlement is a big deal for your deed. It involves the signing and filing of all documents needed for the purchase of your new home—the deed, loan documents, and settlement statement. Settlement is the first step in closing, which is the full legal process of transferring homeownership. The final step is filing the new deed…
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Can They Do That? Bay Area Landlord’s $200 Monthly Work-From-Home Fee
A one-bedroom rental listing in Walnut Creek’s upscale Northgate neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area was deleted after it caused an international flurry of online outrage. (It’s not known if the pushback led the owner to take the listing down from Rent.com, where it was published.) People took to the message boards, expressing strong…
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Got Wealth? Deed Holding Beats Renting at Every Age, Federal Reserve Finds
Buying a home is expensive. But the investment in a deed can pay off as equity increases. Holding a deed is a pillar for household wealth-building, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. It’s not surprising that the Fed has confirmed this. Yet it’s interesting to see how the U.S. central bank lays…
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Housing Affordability Matters in Every State—And Now There’s a Federal Template
This month, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law. It happened quietly, automatically, ten days after congressional approval, in the absence of a presidential veto. The massive new law includes: The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is careful not to commandeer local zoning processes. Instead, it brings an array of incentives such…
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Title Companies: Obsolete in the Digital/AI Age, or Defenders of Critical Infrastructure?
“AI alone cannot meet the industry’s standards for accuracy, consistency and reliability.” — The First American Financial Corporation The First American Financial Corporation, which offers title insurance for deed transactions through First American Title™, has published a new white paper report, How Title Insurance Protects the Critical Infrastructure Supporting the U.S. Real Estate Economy and the…
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AI Can Sell Your Home. Genius Move? Or Colossal Blunder Waiting to Happen?
Did you catch that New York Times tech reporter’s article? Yes, the one detailing his attempt—successful, he assures us—to sell a home with a chatbot instead of an agent. Human real estate agents, we can imagine, are not exactly thrilled. Home sales, agents quickly point out, are high-risk transactions. There’s a lot of money at…
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Boomtowns Become “Buyer’s Markets”—but Don’t Let the Phrase Fool You
The U.S. housing market is now “firmly in favor of buyers,” Redfin says, citing the large number of sellers agreeing to offer concessions to buyers this year. Redfin, the real estate brokerage owned by Rocket Companies, defines a buyer’s market as a city or town where sellers outnumber buyers by at least 10%. Redfin points…
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Compass vs. Zillow: Who Will Reign Over Real Estate?
Compass and Zillow Group are in it to win it – but which company will prevail? Just about everyone has used or heard of Zillow’s real estate website, and most people are also familiar with Redfin. In another major industry consolidation, Rocket Companies – the Detroit-based homeownership platform and parent of Rocket Mortgage – completed…
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Insiders Explain: How Some Home Buyers Get Out of These 4 Common Closing Costs
Title agents say home buyers sometimes pay more than they need to at closing. Why? For one thing, picking all the fees apart usually won’t be a priority during the stressful days leading up to a final loan approval. And who wants to get picky at closing? That’s when a buyer is tired and itching…
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Here It Comes: San Francisco’s AI Deed Rush
San Francisco, California, now has the priciest housing market anywhere in the United States. Plenty of San Francisco homes now fetch $2 million—and higher. (The national median is about $450K.) Sale prices in San Francisco are up 14% in just one year. Condos are up 27% year-over-year, with the typical unit going for well over…
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Could Your Home Equity Help Your Adult Child Get a Deed?
Hard to believe 30-year, fixed mortgage rates were under 3% six years ago. Today’s rates are well over 6%. And, according to new Census figures, home prices are averaging above a half-million dollars as we go to press. So if your adult child is struggling to save for a home, well… no wonder. Meanwhile, perhaps…
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The Nest Egg Protection Act and Other Capital Gains Tax News
This month, U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from New York introduced H.R. 9064, the Nest Egg Protection Act, to the United States Congress. It’s a capital gains tax relief proposal. It would double the current exclusion for eligible older deed holders who sell their homes for a profit. The concept? People who acquired…
