Deeds.com

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, 2023April 19, 2024

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.

May 19, 2023May 19, 2023

Light at the End of the Tunnel? New Credit Score Models Are Coming

For every 15 people banks approve for mortgage loans, one applicant gets turned away. That one person is likely to be a member of a minority group. And the barrier could be a credit score.

But at least some good news is on the horizon: a credit scoring system designed to recognize the real-life financial activities of regular people.

May 17, 2023

New York’s Attorney General Gets Tougher on Deed Thieves

New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced a new package of legislation to create the specific crime of “deed theft.”

Deed theft occurs when someone conveys a property deed to another party without the informed consent of the rightful owner. The new law against it is meant to bolster the remedies available under New York’s real estate deed protection measures, and to make prosecution easier whenever New York state residents fall victim to shady deed shifting.

May 16, 2023May 15, 2023

Coinbase Plans to Enable Bitcoin Real Estate Buys. Will It Succeed?

In April 2023, in a U.S. first for cryptocurrency, Coinbase enabled bitcoin purchases of Texas real estate.

In June 2023, real estate in other “select states” will be available.

The company behind the integration is a startup named MyEListing. Based in Cedar Park near Austin, Texas, it’s a free-to-use marketplace for investors. MyEListing displays both listings and data, along the lines of the Zillow or Redfin websites.

Both residential and commercial properties are listed on its website, and its new tool on the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will enable people to buy real estate with bitcoin.