According to industry sources : “https://www.housingwire.com/articles/mortgage-delinquency-rate-reaches-prepandemic-levels/ there are “one-half million more loans in serious delinquency in October than at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.” If you think about that for a minute, you have to wonder: (1) How effective were all the forbearance measures set up in DC at the start of…
The big news in the last few years has been that many 20 and 30 somethings have a different priority and value system when it comes to home ownership than their parents had. Low and Behold, home ownership has moved up the Millennial priority list! There is a shift of attitude happening statistically and the…
As a law student I was blessed to get a part time summer job shadowing the old law clerks who helped manage the dockets of the judges and document the outcome of cases being tried. Most of my Clerk Mentors (tormenters?) were retired military and were probably hired as backups to the armed bailiffs to…
Long gone are the venerable days when you hired an attorney for $1,000 and he actually visited the courthouse to search title to the property you were buying. The closing industry has become so competitive that most settlement fees are 1/3rd to 1/2 what they were 50 years ago! Attorneys had a monopoly in Virginia…
So you need to sell but you don’t have the equity to cover a 6% real estate commission, or you WON’T pay a commission. For many home owners, the choice may be Short Sale with an agent or FSBO. In any event keep in mind a few important nuances of selling without an agent, “FSBO”,…
Ever since the knee jerk reaction to the crash of Oh Eight, self-employed borrowers have often been intimidated away from the mortgage application process. Despite self-employed (the “gig economy”) vocations growing as a market segment, Fear and trepidation have caused a significant 10 year drop off of self-employed applications for home loans. Dodd-Frank, the 900…
What good is it if a lender claims to have the “highest customer satisfaction ratings” if the customer service surveys they use are all obtained immediately after closing? Sure, it was so simple to close with X, Y, Z lender, so few documents! they even sent a notary to my house to show me where…
Many experienced home buyers, sellers and investors are still surprised to learn of the new closing requirements concerning funding. For years, the gold standard at closings was to bring funds by a “certified check”, “cashier’s check”, or other paper draft of a bank account. Unfortunately, while these legitimate real estate moguls have been out there…
A potential client writes to our firm: Dear Anderson & Pittman: Good Morning. I have been discussing a deed transfer with my mother. Perhaps you can tell us if we even need to do a transfer of deed. I live in a home my mother owns and have paid the mortgage on the home from…
