The federal law offering protection for tenants in foreclosed rentals has been extended. The “Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act” (PTFA) was originally scheduled to expire on December 31, 2012, but the Dodd-Frank Act has extended it to December 31, 2014. That's good news for renters. Read the rest of this entry »

Who is in what position? A loan or lien is considered to be in first lien position when it is recorded prior to any other loans or liens. Loan priority is established by chronological order of recording, not by the date of the document. Financial institutions require that their purchase money or refinance loan is in first lien position in order for a transaction to close, since being in first lien position gives them the first right to reclaim the property in the event that the borrower defaults on the loan. But what happens if there is another loan, recorded later, that will not be paid off at closing? Read the rest of this entry »

The Seller Disclosure is usually ready to be downloaded by any broker from the MLS where it is part of the property listing. This gives the buyer's agent the chance for review prior to making an offer. If the buyer goes ahead and makes an offer, page 5 of the Seller Disclosure Statement can be included with the buyer(s) acknowledging on line 263 that they've received the offer. Also, while the broker/agent is not allowed to answer any questions posed on the Statement, both seller and buyer brokers are liable for inaccurate information if they know the information to be inaccurate. Read the rest of this entry »

Pages 2 through 4 of the Seller Disclosure deal with every kind of aspect of an improved property, i.e. the home and the land. The first category is Water, beginning on line 60 (page 1). Looking at these questions and others I wish there was a fourth column of check marks labeled "NOT APPLICABLE". Question 4 "...has the [water] source provided an adequate year-round supply of potable water?" often prompts the question "what's potable water?" Read the rest of this entry »

99 seller disclosure questions: as a real estate broker I'm not permitted to advise a seller on how to answer any of them. But I can explain Form 17 by example. For example, how to deal with the Asterisk versus the "Don't Know" - The Asterisk statement says that if you check "YES" on any question marked with an asterisk (*) you'd better explain. Read the rest of this entry »