Would that life were so simple that one DEED would fit all such transactions!!!! But if no one has told you today, please be assured that drafting a correct and appropriate deed to pass down real estate titles between generations is anything but simple! It is certainly not a job for a person not licensed…
This week I had a client ask me if I’d had much experience with internet lenders. A visit to a website, an email exchange, and a voice on the phone and my client had a quote on his interest rate that fell into the category of “too good to be true”. “Can I trust…
For the past several quarters, many of our closings for home buyers in the starter home or first move-up category have revealed a loss of FHA market share. It seems that the traditional market for FHA appeal was the 1st or 2nd home market with buyers lacking a substantial down payment. FHA loans can allow…
As 2016 comes to a close and I reflect on the reasons for various real estate transactions going into an adversarial mode, a couple of trends stand out: Real Estate Closings, despite centuries of experience and practice, can be complex monsters. . . and Dodd Frank and all previous attempts at consumer protection consistently…
This year’s (11-8-16!!) ballot has the potential to be a little more complex than usual. In my city there is a referendum on Light Rail, a question on exempting widows of First Responders killed in the line of duty from real estate taxes, and a constitutional amendment on keeping Virginia a “Right to Work”…
For most divorces, a driving objective is closure. One or both of the parties has generally reached the state of being “over it”. Child custody, division of assets, and support issues are challenging. But there is another issue which can rain frustration on a divorce like a monsoon, and that is the disposition of real…
Kudos to one of our legal network affiliates of Attorney Short Sale Negotiators who answered this question as succinctly and accurately as you could ever ask: Should real estate agents negotiate short sales? No. Absolutely not. It is replete with legal issues, risks, deficiency issues (amounting to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of…
Newsflash! HUD (the Department of Housing and Urban Development) has declared June as National Home Ownership Month! Some believe the hype is a way of trying to generate better economic figures and arguments for the incumbent party to convince voters that the incumbent party deserves another four years in the White House. According to DS…
On occasion we lose great employees, lawyers, staff, and friends of the firm as they go on to new callings or perhaps to meet their Maker. Thankfully, this edition’s ‘WHERE ARE THEY NOW” is about the former. Matt Pittman, former law firm digital maintenance expert, network and computer guru, file scanning department leader and firm…
