Get Title Insurance – Things can go wrong!

Forgery

Ever sign your spouse’s name to a check?  Ever had a friend sign your name to something  just because it was easier?  Well, when you’re buying a home, forgery is not a pretty word, and some of the ugliest stories have happened between family members.  Title insurance professionals will tell you that forged deeds, loan documents and other claims against a property happen all the time.  A little anger, mixed with the thought that their crime will get “lost in the paperwork” make for hundreds of stories about relatives and friends who forge a document, and in so doing, create a situation where the ownership of the property is in question.  Those questions bring lawyers and lawsuits, and if they can’t be resolved, then the person riding to the rescue on the white horse is your Title Insurance Company.

Liens

Homeowners get work done on their homes.  Happens on a daily basis, and most of the time the work gets done, paid for, and all is well and good.  But you may know that sometimes work gets down, usually by a General Contractor, and when the contractor does not get paid, that contractor will file a lien against the property for the amount of the bill.  That lien is a recorded document (that means that the document is “recorded” by an official of the governmental body in the location of the property, and it is done so that an official record of the claim or transaction can be referred to later on).  It can happen, however, that the current homeowner does not disclose the lien, and that means that a subsequent buyer will still be responsible for payment to the contractor.  It is also quite common for the mechanic’s lien to never be filed properly at all by the contractor.  Enter Title Insurance to the rescue.  A title search will usually turn up these recorded claims, and they can be dealt with before the sale.  Again, buyer saved from a potential crisis down the road.

Competency

 If you’ve ever had an elderly parent, or suffered through an incapacitating injury to a loved one, then you will know that mental capacity can be diminished or destroyed, cutting that person off from being able to perform the usual tasks we take for granted.  So, let’s say that grandpa, who has been forgetting things and making multiple mistakes in the daily tasks he had once found easy, signs over the home to a neighbor “because they asked him to.”  This may not get recorded, and if it does, is it really a legally binding contract due to the fact that grandpa was of diminished capacity?  The answer is……..don’t know, but you’re going to have legal problems, and again, title insurance will insure against a negative outcome. 

More about title insurance…..

 Contact me if you want to find out specific answers to your questions. My team at California Title Company have all the answers, a willingness to help, and a desire to see that you don’t fall prey to any of the situations above.

Business Networking in San Diego Just Got Easy

Wanted to repost this important news event. We participated in the Showcase this past March, and what we thought we would experience turned out to be just a fraction of the good business karma that abounded at the show. The new San Diego Business Showcase for 2011 will take place in just 358 days, on April 7, 2011. This is a tentative date, but will allow the show exhibitors and attendees to experience an extra hour of daylight, and additional hours to peruse the show.

 Nothing makes more sense to a small business than a great networking event that truly brings in the smartest business people from the area. On March 11, 2010, at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the San Diego Business Showcase and Expo will take place between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. There will be thousands of visitors, and over 200 exhibitors at this year’s event.
What’s more, if you haven’t had the chance to see what the Oceanside Chamber is doing in conjunction with FOURTEEN OTHER SAN DIEGO AREA CHAMBERS, you need to set your networking sites on attending this event.

Will Your Business Work Smarter This Next Year?

The San Diego Daily Transcript is a major sponsor of this year’s event, heralding the importance of business networking for San Diego businesses.  They know that keeping in face to face contact with your clients and competitors, studying new business marketing concepts, and staying abreast of the best and brightest San Diego area busineses will not only make you money, but will position you and your company to work smarter this next year, gain or keep the market share you have, and set the stage for growth.

Don Reedy/Prudential California Realty

We’ll be there as well, of course, as we have for many years.  We can talk about the importance of managing your real estate expectations, getting the front seat for financial input on the market, and taking advantage of many of the loan and tax credits that are currently available for San Diego residents will be a treat for you.  We just love talking, and business networking is all about taking the information we provide on homes to a higher level by meeting and talking face to face with our lenders and agents to see how you can benefit.

Okay, it’s the San Diego Business Showcase on March 11, 2010 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Be a better small business. Experience business networking like it’s meant to be.

Hey folks…..remember, the new and improved San Diego Business Showcase is tentatively scheduled to take place on April 7, 2011, so contact your Chamber of Commerce now to see how to sign up early to exhibit.

Unlocking the secrets of title insurance

What is Title Insurance?

I was talking to Jill Green of California Title Company yesterday. She came in to talk to a couple of the agents at our Prudential California Real Estate La Costa office. Usually seeing a title rep would be of little interest to you……….unless you’re buying or selling a home. Then, these title insurance representatives really earn their way, and help you in ways I think most of you are unaware of.

Title Insurance is Insurance

When you buy a home, you take ownership through a deed, grant or what is commonly called a title.  This document is at the very heart of your ownership in the property.  Is the property actually yours to sell?  Has the property been encumbered?  When you purchase the property, can you rest assured that no one will come calling to say “this property belongs to me…so move out!”

Title Insurance is just what it says.  It is insurance you purchase, both when selling and buying, that assures you and the other party that the home or land that you are negiotating are in fact free and clear, able to be sold or bought, and that you can sleep at night if someone claims future ownership or liens against the property.

Seller’s Title Insurance

The seller of a property will have to obtain title insurance to assure the buyer, and the buyer’s lender, that there are no liens, encumbrances, claims, taxes, defaults or other proceedings against the property that leave it anything but free and clear.  It is possible that at some time there were loans taken out against the property that may not have been recorded.  It is possible that old defaults may have slipped through the cracks of the County Recorder.   (Any of you ever have a governmental agency “goof?” )  If there are errors, even if you did not know about them, you may not actually have full ownership of the property you are going to sell.  So, in order to make sure you do have all those rights, you buy insurance, title insurance, to make sure you can sell.

Buyer’s Title Insurance

When you buy a piece of land or a home, the lender will want you to purchase title insurance.  This insurance will guarantee the lender specifically that the loan they are about to give you is a loan for a home that is not encumbered.  The bank is making you buy insurance, title insurance, to protect them, the bank.  Sorry, no getting around this. 

Title Insurance Costs

During a typical transaction the buyers and sellers will each purchase an insurance policy (title insurance).  The seller will buy title insurance, and pay for it, to prove to the buyer that the home is free of any claims.  The buyer will buy title insurance, and pay for it, to prove to the lender that the home is free from any claims.  The costs for title insurance are fairly similar across title insurance companies.  You can browse rates and comparisons at www.clta.org and of course on www.Caltitle.com.  Remember when pricing that if you have refinanced, sold or purchased within the past five years, you may qualify for a short term rate for title insurance, and that may save you a lot of money depending on the value of your home or land.

Title Insurance – A Summary

Title insurance is insurance both the seller and buyer provide at any real estate transaction.  The title insurance protects all the parties to the transaction, seller, buyer and lender.  Don’t think for one minute that buying title insurance is not important.  It’s the glue that holds together the chain of title to, and the ownership of, the home or land you are about to sell or buy.

Good Wine - Bad Realtors

Working with the dregs

There’s an old Frank Sinatra song that has a wonderful line “…from the brim to the dregs. It poured sweet and clear. It was a very good year….”With great wine, tasting from the brim, or first portion, is a sweet affair. The flavors that arise aren’t an accident. They arise because the wine maker’s experience, education and love of the art and science of winemaking are at stake. In a word, the artisan’s work is on display, and at first taste, it’s either great or not so.

The dregs are what remain at the bottom of the barrel. Not much to taste from. Not much to brag about. In fact, in the Bible Jesus’s first miracle is the changing of the water into wine. The miracle does not go unnoticed by the members of the party, and they remark that usually the host will serve good wine first, and then (after inebriation sets in) offer up wine of lesser quality later. Jesus actually serves the best wine later. But I digress.

I’m writing to you today because the business of real estate too often causes one to drink from the dregs, and not from the brim. This is so often the case because unlike the experience and education of the wine maker, real estate agents don’t often seem to have or place the care for their own knowledge at a level as high as the wine maker. In short, poor preparation, poor education, and lack of experience make many real estate agents poor wine makers.

In the world of Home Equity as it relates to homeowners, and Equity Sharing as it relates to home buyers, and even more broadly in the world of real estate finance that stretches the comfort zone of many real estate agents and lenders, I’m coming quickly to see that the lack of education about using home equity intelligently is leaving clients poorly represented. After all, if you COULD buy the property, but your real estate agent only knows one of the many paths that open up that possibility, then you are severely at a disadvantage. Sure, every one talks fixed rates, adjustable loans, option ARMS, etc., but how many real estate agents know lease options, owner carry back, Equity Sharing, Tenant-in-Common, along with HOW and WHY these doors should be opened?  And how many current homeowners are laboring under the conception that the equity in their home is something to be protected, not utilized?  How many homeowners are afraid to sell their home because they don’t have enough information about what the market is probably going to do, and how that impacts the financial value of their home investment?

I asked a listing agent on behalf of my buyer if she would ask the seller to entertain a lease with an option to buy. I explained why my buyer needed this, and how I thought it could benefit both parties. On the other end of the phone, this response: “I don’t know anything about lease options, and my client (the seller) wouldn’t be interested.”

Did you hear me put down the keyboard and scream? Assuming you’ve got a seller who wants to sell, a buyer who wants to buy, a listing agent that wants to sell, a selling agent that wants to buy, then this conversation just put all four parties deep down into the barrel of failure. It’s working with the dregs, and these kind of experiences are leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Perhaps with participation by professionals and Realtors who care about wine making. Perhaps with participation by thinking men and women who care about the clients they serve. Perhaps with the willingness to share some thoughts across the lines of the “box”; well, perhaps this blog and its ideas will age well and taste fine.

Cape and Trade Exposed

Have you heard the news?  Cap and Trade, the cliche for the bill that would clean up the environment, establish long-term energy goals and regulations, is actually HR 2454.  This bill, which has not yet been acted on by the Senate, has been the subject of numerous articles, blogs and emails indicating that if passed it would require all homeowners who wish to sell their home to undergo audits, make repairs, and spend potentially thousands of dollars….just for permission to sell the home.

Here’s the straight scoop, direct from NAR.