Deeds.com

May 15, 2023April 25, 2024

Legislate Corporate Landlords Out of Town? Nevada Might Just Try.

“I am meeting young people who make $78,000 and they cannot find a home. They cannot bid (against investors). They don’t have the money…Who wants to pay $3,000 a month for their first home? Nobody. It’s unsustainable.”

—Dina Neal, a state senator in Nevada, quoted in the Nevada Current.

We all know the stories of investors elbowing out ordinary home buyers. Corporate buyers really revved up after Covid took hold and real estate prices soared. Especially in Nevada. The nonprofit Stateline, examining statistics from CoreLogic, found that investor-buyers snapped up about one in four Nevada listings by 2021. Only Georgia and Arizona beat out Nevada on the score of how much real estate is going into the portfolios of corporate real estate investors.

Now, it looks like policy makers are ready to push back. State Senator Dina Neal of North Las Vegas is sponsoring Senate Bill 395 to rein in the large, corporate buyers.

May 12, 2023April 25, 2024

At What Age Is It Time to Buy a Home?

It’s legal to buy a house at the age of majority. That special number is 18 years old — with a few exceptions. People reach legal adulthood at 19 in Alabama and Nebraska. And Mississippi residents are late bloomers—they stop being minors at age 21.

Legal majority means you’re old enough to apply for mortgages, sign (or even co-sign) binding contracts, and close real estate deals.

But it usually takes quite a few years after the age of majority to build the credit profile that works for a mortgage.

May 10, 2023April 25, 2024

Zillow and Redfin Just Launched ChatGPT Plugins for the Perfect Search.

Perfectionists are a giant step closer to finding their perfect homes. This month, two internet-savvy real estate giants launched ChatGPT plugins.

It’s an intriguing new development, connecting real estate and the artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI.

And it’s part of a technological milestone: OpenAI only recently linked ChatGPT to the internet.

May 8, 2023April 25, 2024

Will the Cost of Borrowing a 30-Year Mortgage Ever Come Back Down? Are There Better Alternatives?

The red-hot real estate market might have cooled somewhat. But with housing in relatively short supply, affordability is hard to come by. The major hurdles for buyers right now? Down payments, mortgage payments, and interest.

There are no simple hacks to work around these hurdles. But there are a few indicators worth watching closely.

May 5, 2023April 25, 2024

When Owning Real Estate in the Name of an LLC Makes Sense

Is Setting Up a Company for Your Investment Property Worth the Time?

Setting up an LLC for an investment property is simple, and not terribly time-consuming. Doing it well does take research, attention, and professional support. But it may be worthwhile.

Here are some basic considerations to have on your radar if you wonder whether forming an LLC could be a worthwhile goal. This is not legal or financial advice — just a checklist to help guide your own due diligence.

May 4, 2023April 25, 2024

Fidelity Looks Ahead – To the Metaverse

Last year, Fidelity launched its Metaverse exchange-traded fund — the ETF with the ticker symbol FMET.

The Fidelity Metaverse Index tracks the current development of a future internet. According to Fidelity’s website, the metaverse will blend “augmented reality and virtual worlds” and enable many people to be work, play, and invest in these settings, “persistently and in a shared environment.”

It sounds like a projection of our current lives. But in the metaverse, we’ll enjoy experiences remotely, whenever we’re ready. As Andrew Kiguel, CEO of metaverse property investment firm known as Tokens.com, told CNBC: “You can go to a carnival, you can go to a music concert, you can go to a museum.”

Fidelity believes in the metaverse.

May 3, 2023April 25, 2024

“Merging With the Deed”: Are Side Agreements Binding After Closing?

Occasionally, the parties to a home sale make side deals, and do not write them down. This can lead to later questions, regarding just how meaningful a side agreement is.

To know whether a side agreement is binding after closing, it helps to be familiar with the impact a deed transfer has on that agreement.

Let’s take a look and side agreements, and what it means when they either “merge with” or “survive” the deed.

May 1, 2023April 25, 2024

What’s a Green Mortgage? Energy-Efficient Mortgage Lets a Borrower Ask for More

Are you thinking of buying a home that could use some energy upgrades? Maybe the HVAC, water heater, or windows are old and inefficient.

A “green mortgage” — known to lenders as an energy-efficient mortgage, or EEM, — allows buyers to finance energy upgrades through a mortgage that allows a little extra borrowing to cover these features.

Why would a lender approve an EEM borrower for extra money? Two main reasons: Eco-friendly homes are more desirable, making the lender’s collateral more valuable. And the expected energy savings will support the homeowner’s ability to cover housing payments.

April 28, 2023April 25, 2024

Frequently Asked Questions: Recording a Deed

Test your deed awareness! How many of these questions can you answer before reading our thoughts?

April 27, 2023April 25, 2024

Buy Like the Mooch? Home Buyers Can Pay With Bitcoin, But It’s Not Mainstream Yet.

“Incredibly sturdy, bizarrely anti-fragile”: that’s bitcoin, according to Anthony Scaramucci.

Most of our readers likely remember the name. Anthony Scaramucci was a White House communications director for that fleeting, ten-day period back in July 2017. Scaramucci worked at Goldman Sachs quite a bit longer (1989 – 1996), and now runs the hedge fund SkyBridge Capital. “The Mooch” decided to buy a home with bitcoin in New York City, during the 2021 crypto boom.

Crypto hasn’t been all rainbows and roses since then. Scaramucci got burned in the infamous FTX meltdown. Disappointed but undaunted, Scaramucci puts it all down to crypto’s growing pains, and points to the 77 million cryptocurrency holders in the United States as evidence of a solid trend.