To help consumers more easily understand settlement costs and prevent big price discrepancies between the preliminary Good Faith Estimate and the HUD-1 settlement statement, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has created stricter Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) regulations are scheduled...
The typical real estate escrow requires the buyer to sign 70 - 120 pages of documents, several of which require notarization. The seller also will have to notarize, at the minimum, the grant deed. Notarization, or the act of an uninvolved witness (the...
What is the Statement of Information? Upon the opening of escrow, Buyers and Sellers receive their initial escrow package - the Statement of Information (also known as the Statement of Identity) is included in this package for completion and return to the escrow holder. The statement of...
How would you react if you had a limited amount of funds in the bank to pay for closing costs and then were hit with hundreds of dollars in extra "unexpected" closing costs? This is a problem that the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA)...
Do you have a foreign investor or buyer looking to purchase a home in California? Our experience has been that if the client writes a personal check drawn on a foreign bank, it may take several weeks to be able to verify that the check...
Concurrent closings are a common escrow situation where a client is conducting two real estate deals, and wants them both to close on the same day. It sounds like a simple, straightforward matter of timing; in reality, the request for a concurrent close can be...
Wishing you Seasons Greetings and good wishes. Thank you for your continued readership of our blog. May your holidays and New Year be filled with Hope, Joy, and Peace!...
There are many implications of loans that are either "Assumptive," or "Subject To." Here is a general overview of some of the definitional differences between the two and how the differences affect the escrow process. Assumption Loans: The term "assumption" is used when a buyer incurs personal...
Whether you are a REALTOR considering getting into the niche business of dealing with REO’s, a buyer looking to find a deal on a home by seeking a foreclosed property or a seller looking for information on what happens when a foreclosure proceeding is started,...
What day should you negotiate to close escrow in order to meet the needs of the buyer and seller? When negotiating a contract, the actual day of the week that the close is on is not often considered. More typically, contracts call for 30 or...
