My New Blog

I have a closing scheduled for this Friday August 24th.  I was just contacted by the closing attorney/lender and informed that a 48,000 state tax lien is attached to this property (that the current owners have no knowledge of).  The current owners purchased this home in 7/06 and the title came back clear from an out of town attorney that is not familiar with doing title searches in our area. 

While the current sellers purchased this (as buyers) in a 'for sale by owner' transaction in 06, the lien was filed in 04.  The closing attorney missed the tax lien and therefore it has been attached to the subject property and conveyed to my sellers when they purchased it in 06 without their knowledge and without it being paid out of the previous (and responsible party's) proceeds when they closed in 06.

So, here we are 3 days before closing and have been dealt a hand of "deal breaker" information.  The closing attorney from the 06 closing is diligently working to resolve this matter.  Even though my current sellers have title insurance, the title insurance is saying it was the attorneys responsibility to discover this and they dont want to pay.  My sellers have been told they will need to sue title company to get the money which could take more than a year to unfold in its entirety.

Anyway, since blogs are supposed to be used for conveying any sort of information the person deems interesting, this was information I decided others may want to know.  It may help them decide to use a local and reputable attorney for their next title search and they may realize the importance of getting title insurance (or unimportance) for each purchase even if they are paying cash and are not required to obtain title insurance.  It may also help them decide not to pursue "discount attorney services" but rather spend the extra 200-300$ for a full service real estate attorney to close the deal.

This is my real estate lesson for today :)  Have a great day and Ill let you know what happens!

A Realtor I know (no name to protect the innocently guilty) took an offer on a commercial property listed by our company.  The seller brought the deed to the Realtor when she listed it and told her this was the property she wanted to sell.

When the offer was made it was for the purchase of the entire deed book and page that the seller told her listing Realtor she wanted to sell.  There were 5 tracts of land on that one deed.  There were several small parcels that added up together to comprise this listing in its entirety.

The Buyers Agent typed the contract to show that the purchase was for the conveyance of ALL of the deed book and page mentioned in mls (as expected).

A real estate attorney handled the closing and the seller even visited her own separate attorney to make sure she wasn't missing any beats along the way.  After closing, the seller calls and says there was a tract on the deed  conveyed that had a parcel NOT connected to this commercial property and was NOT supposed to be sold to the buyer (did you catch that this is AFTER closing......meaning its too late??).

The attorney referenced the offer to purchase as the "culprit" since it mentioned conveying ALL of the deed.  Since the seller signed it, her attorney didn't catch it, her Realtor didn't catch it AND the seller herself didn't catch it, it was erroneously conveyed to the buyer.  This 'wrongly conveyed' property has a tax value of 200,000.

The closing attorney and the Realtor visited the buyer (who is now the owner) and explained that a parcel located on the other side of town was conveyed to him by mistake and he needed to sign it back over to the previous owner.

Would you believe this buyer (new owner) is currently undergoing foreclosure with his principal residence?  Would you believe he wont sign it back over?

Yup, you need to read the deed indeed!!!

It seems that the market this year has had its ups and downs!  When it starts to pick up and gain speed, it seems to sputter and dwindle down again.  Its almost like a car that has faulty fuel within........it sputters and stalls and jumps and will run for a few miles only to sputter again when you start to gain speed.....

The great thing about the mountains is that they arent going anywhere for a long time.........its not the same as a coporation pulling out of a town leaving its residents in despair with housing prices.  The mountains are a constant driving source that bring people to our area.

With the phone ringing again this week Im hoping that this is the start of another smooth sail beginning........as long as it doesnt end in another sputter I think we might just make it up that hill.........I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.......