real estate Archives - Page 2 of 5

February 7, 2024April 25, 2024

Behind the Scenes of a Home Purchase: What’s Your Title Company Doing?

You joyfully pick up the keys on closing day, and leave the office triumphant, a thick folder from the title company under your arm.

The title company played a starring role in your day. At least it did if a mortgage is involved! Cash buyers need not hire experts to run a search on the home title, because there’s no lender to protect. But even where buyers pay cash, most people don’t have the time to handle their own title searches.

Thus, most purchases typically involve title companies. A title company provides security and confidence. No new homeowner wants to worry about potential issues or discrepancies in the property’s ownership history.

February 1, 2024April 25, 2024

Blockchain for Real Estate: It’s Coming.

If you’ve ever bought a house, condo, or co-op, you’ll know it’s a major process. Many joyful buys took a good deal of trudging through weeks of stressful communication challenges. The journey was loaded with people, paperwork, and fees. Why do we put ourselves through it? Because getting into the market is a key wealth-building method.

But could there be a better way?

Tokenization seems ready-made to simplify real estate deals. To say an asset is tokenized means it’s represented by a token on a blockchain.

January 17, 2024April 26, 2024

You Can Quitclaim Your Home to a Loved One to Skip Probate Costs. Is It Worth It?

A quitclaim deed easily, quickly transfers your home’s title. You can use a quitclaim to give a home to someone else, with no expectation of a payment from the recipient. Some people use quitclaims to pass homes to their family members.

So, is this a good way to carry out your wishes yourself — a sort of early estate planning? Who needs their home going under a probate court’s supervision after they die, right? And who wants to pay huge fees to the county for the trouble?

Fair questions. But…

January 15, 2024April 25, 2024

Capital Gains: Were Profits on Your 2023 Home Sale EXEMPT? Head Form 1099-S Off at the Pass.

People who sold their homes in 2023, after living in them for a while and enjoying their low mortgage rates, have seen big gains in their property values. Fortunately, most of these gains won’t be taxed.

If you sold a home in 2023, your lender or broker may give you Form 1099-S. Federal law requires the party responsible for closing your deal (this could be an escrow agent or title company) to send these forms out, filled in with the closing date and proceeds of the sale.

Form 1099-S only needs to be sent to sellers who have taxable gains to report on their 2023 returns. Read on to find out why most home sellers won’t have to report their home sale to the IRS! (You still may choose to report the sale on your return, even if not required.)

January 11, 2024April 25, 2024

Washington State’s Path to Fair Housing: The 2024 Recording Fee Increase and Covenant Homeownership Program

Beginning January 1, 2024, Washington State implemented a substantial revision to its recording fees, significantly affecting the real estate sector. This modification entailed a $100 increase in the recording fee for each document, aligning with the Covenant Homeownership Program assessment as outlined in RCW 36.22.185. This hike is applicable to a broad array of documents, including standard recorded documents, Deeds of Trust, and all surveys and map-related documents.

December 30, 2023April 25, 2024

Owning a Home Just Got More Useful. AI Speeds Up HELOC Lending

At the year’s end, it’s fun to pick out the best innovations to appear during the past 12 months. What about the role of artificial intelligence in home lending?

More people might take out home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) to put their home equity to work — if only it weren’t such a drawn-out process. The typical HELOC setup takes five weeks. What if the HELOC application process could be completed in just five days? What if getting approved could be as fast as signing up for a credit card?

In 2023, two companies pooled their resources and proved it possible.

December 29, 2023April 25, 2024

Added to a Deed: What Are the Tax Consequences?

It’s a common question. You’re going to be added onto someone’s deed. Will you have to declare your new homeownership to the IRS?

An acquisition of real estate is not considered income. But being named on a deed could still implicate taxes. Let’s explore why.

December 13, 2023April 25, 2024

Fannie Mae Was Going to Save Mortgage Borrowers Thousands by Dropping Its Title Insurance Requirement. Never Mind.

The Biden administration was working with loan backers to delete title insurance charges from closing costs. The move would have saved quite a few home buyers hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Noting that the plan had been silently scuttled, the Wall Street Journal said pressure against it came from “an obscure industry.”

The obscure industry is the real estate title insurance sector. It’s hardly obscure in our book. But the Wall Street Journal pointed to the industry’s small population. Only some 155,000 people reportedly work in the title and settlement sector.

In 2023, Fannie Mae was getting ready to test its planned phase-out of the title insurance requirement for mortgage borrowers. Evidently, the aforementioned industry wanted to save itself from further obscurity!

The title insurers pushed back. And Fannie Mae abandoned its test run.

November 22, 2023April 25, 2024

Home Buying Today, for Millennials

Millennials now range in age from their late 20s to early 40s. Most of the ones who can buy homes are getting to the older edge of that range.

They need more money than buyers of the past. Maybe that’s why they’re waiting until later in life to buy. In short, this generation’s home buying challenges really are unique.

November 12, 2023April 25, 2024

Blockchain for Good: Can Smart Contracts Play a Community-Building Role?

Holding the deed to real estate is long associated with stability and financial security. What if some of that security could be shared by — and build up— communities?

This article is a thought experiment. Let’s imagine how things could play out if local residents could invest small amounts in a building. How would this unfold? Could blockchain make community-based real estate investments happen?