Articles – Real Estate Deeds Made Easy Since 1997
A co-op is different—and maybe it’s perfect for you. But if you opt to live in a co-op, will you hold the title to your home? Here’s how it works.
Continue reading “Owning a Co-Op: Different From Traditional Real Estate”
When you buy a home, you receive the deed. And you hold title. The deed and title are interrelated yet distinct concepts.
Title refers to ownership, including the legal right to possess and use a parcel, the right to exclude others from using it, and the right to transfer your interest to others.
If you do transfer your property to another person, the deed is the vehicle that moves your legal interest in the property to the other party.
Continue reading “Property Title? Deed? What’s the Difference?”
You own real estate. If you’re asked, how do you show proof of your ownership?
Essentially, the proof is in your property’s title history. This means:
Of course, when you bought your home, the title company researched the chain of title to ensure previous owner had the right to convey to property to you. How do you check the chain of title now? The county keeps records. Many county websites make the information accessible online, so you can look up mortgages, other liens, and deeds that pertain to your property.
Continue reading “How to Prove Ownership of Real Estate”
A new owner of real estate receives a real estate deed. But what about a real estate deed warranty? What are the common deeds, and what assurances do different deeds make? Here’s what’s at stake for a new owner, depending on the deed involved in the real estate sale.
Continue reading “You Have the Deed and Keys to Your New Home. What About a Guarantee?”
When someone who owns real property dies, the property goes into probate or it automatically passes, by operation of law, to surviving co-owners. Often, surviving co-owners do nothing with the title for as long as they own the property. Yet the best practice is to remove the deceased owner’s name from the title.
Here, we review some common scenarios, and reasons to update a home’s title after an owner’s death.
Continue reading “Should You Remove a Deceased Owner from a Real Estate Title?”
Your home is your castle. But language in your deed just might keep you from installing a pool, constructing a basement apartment and renting it out, or using a non-neutral shade of paint on your exterior walls. Here is a brief explanation of deed restrictions and how they impact individual homeowners — and entire communities.
Continue reading “Deed Restrictions: How They Impact Homeowners and Communities”
In states using deeds of trust, a trustee is a third party who holds legal title to a property until the homebuyer or commercial developer pays off a loan associated with the parcel—or until the borrower defaults.
When a state’s law allows for deeds of trust as instruments to hold legal title to a property:
The main thrust is to lower risk for lenders. Perhaps it’s no wonder that deed of trust states rarely go to bat for a borrower fighting foreclosure.
In this analysis, we’ll look at the trustee’s narrow liability under the deed of trust (not to be confused with a living trust, in which a trustee must comport with exacting fiduciary duties.)
We’ll also review a recent case in point, involving a commercial borrower in California.
Finally, we’ll look at the exception that proves the rule: North Carolina.
Continue reading “You Have One Job: The Narrow Duty of a Trustee Under a Deed of Trust”
Many people have liens on their real estate. Consider your mortgage—a lien that leverages the home as collateral for your mortgage loan. Other liens, too, can show up in a title search. Homeowners should know what kind of liens might attach to a home they already own, or a home they’d like to buy. Here, we review the basics of home liens: types of liens, how they impact the home’s title, how they can lead to foreclosure, and how to remove them.
Continue reading “How a Lien Affects the Real Estate Title”
In estate planning, wills and trusts aren’t everything.
Homeowners who want to be sure the home passes to the desired beneficiary must be sure the property is correctly vested.
Consider a common example. If you co-own property with a right of survivorship, your interest cannot be willed to any other party. The person who survives automatically acquires rights in your interest.
Here, we review this and other consequences of the vesting of real estate.
Continue reading “How’s Your Property Vested? It Matters as Much as Your Will or Trust”
Many people hope to buy homes, but struggle to qualify for loans. And this means millions of first-time buyers are deferring their dreams of homeownership until they are in a stronger position to qualify for a mortgage loan.
Today’s renters are renting longer—often not by choice. Half of renters now in their mid 50s and older don’t anticipate buying a home any time soon, according to a survey carried out by Freddie Mac, and 15% don’t think they’ll ever be able to afford one. About a third of renters aged 40-54 don’t anticipate buying soon, with 12% predicting they, too, will never have the financial resources to buy.
Could at least part of the problem be that the mortgage industry has not adjusted to the way millions of renters work?
Continue reading “Gig Economy: The Impact on Mortgages and Real Estate Ownership”