Do I Qualify for the Foreclosure Relocation Assistance Program?
Video Summary
Do I qualify for Foreclosure Relocation Assistance Program? The answer to that question is, it depends on the lender. Recently we have not seen a lot of lenders volunteering that information or volunteering those funds. We have been successful in cases that are litigated to offer to the lender a judgment of foreclosure or a deed in lieu of foreclosure called Cash for Keys. And that may be considered relocation money, but it’s basically money if you agree to go nicely and leave the house in good order. So that is available; however, you’re probably going to have to retain an attorney and fight the foreclosure. And in order to try and resolve the case on that basis in the industry or the lawyers call that “Cash for Keys” and could be considered relocation expense money which was a term that was used probably a couple of years ago.
And I believe that the Bank of America was using it, or Wells Fargo, one of the two, and they were doing that even after the foreclosure took place, and they would let the people stay in there and work out something. They’d give them some money to relocate them. But now it’s now just Cash for Keys, and it’s something that has to be negotiated and the lenders are not necessarily offering that without a foreclosure defense. If you need some help with your foreclosure, give us a call at 847-2288. Thank you.
- Published in Real Estate - Foreclosure, Videos
What Happens if an Unwanted Guest, or a Trespasser, is Injured on My Property?
Video Summary
What happens if an unwanted guest or a trespasser is injured on my property? Am I liable? Well before you’re liable to anyone, whether they’re an invited guest or not, they have to show that you were negligent. And so if you maintain your property, I take it this is in the context of an improved residential piece of property, we have to show you were negligent in not maintaining the property which is usually not a particular problem in this area. Usually the problems with property are concerned is like with stairways as far as tenants or invited guests for that matter, or tenants if you’re negligent in maintaining your property.
If you have vacant property, there is some liability if there’s what they call an attractive nuisance in the property. Such as water, large sand piles, things like that where you attract children that may go there. You cannot set up say barbed wire to keep the motorcycles out or whatever, and put it about chin high so when the motorcycle goes through that they may be hurt in that manner. But otherwise if you just have a vacant piece of property, somebody goes out there, and steps in a hole or whatever, you don’t have liability as far as owning the property just because they’re injured. The injured person must show that you were negligent in maintaining your property, and so you don’t have liability just because someone gets hurt.
I don’t do a lot of personal injury cases, but that’s my understanding of the law. If you have any questions about it, well give me a call at 847-2288 and I can refer you to another attorney. You may wish to obtain an umbrella policy on your homeowner’s insurance to protect you against any unwanted lawsuits that may come your way, as a result of owning property. Thank you.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
Can I Short Sell My Home if I Am Not Behind in Mortgage Payments?
Video Summary
Can I short sell my home if I’m not behind in my mortgage payments? The answer to that is if the lender will negotiate with whoever’s negotiating the short sale for you, you can. Our experience has been that many lenders are very, very reluctant to discuss with you the short sale. Now if you want to sell your home and the sales price is less than the full mortgage amount and you want to preserve your credit, you are in a position to pay the difference between the mortgage and what you sell your home. Or work out an arrangement with the lender so you can pay it out over time. But the key to selling it, if you want to be released from liability and not have to pay the deficiency between the amount that you sell the property on and what you owe the lender is getting the lender to go along with it.
And as I’ve indicated, most lenders are very reluctant to enter in to those negotiations. In fact some lenders have told certain borrowers that “Well we’re not gonna talk to you until you quit making your payments for two months. After you quit making your payments for two months, call us back and see about negotiating the sale.” Which bothers some people because then that’s going to affect their credit and they would like to preserve their good credit. So if you have any questions about short sales well give me a call at 727-847-2288. Thank you.
- Published in Real Estate - Foreclosure, Videos
How Can I Force a Co-Owner to Sell?
Video Summary
Well, the answer to that is, try and negotiate it and work it all out. However, if all else fails, you’re going to have to call a lawyer and if you call this lawyer he’ll explain to you that you can file an action called a Partition Action. A Partition is just like a partition wall and it says that you can file a lawsuit suing the co-owner and asking the court to appoint a third party, which is called a Special Magistrate. The Special Magistrate’s appointed to then sell the property for all the owners of the property and then deposit the money in the registry of the court and then the parties can then ask that it be divided. If either party has invested more, paid the taxes, or have what they call special equities, they can assert those against the purchase price and whenever the money is divided equally. The cost involving these type of proceedings usually runs in the neighborhood of $2500.00 to $3500.00. However, if they’re highly contested they can be a whole lot more than that. The time period usually take about nine months and unfortunately it involves usually family members or prior domestic relationship between two parties that may not have been married, but had resided together and purchased a house jointly. So if you need to get some property sold and you need a Partition Action filed, well give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
How Do I Obtain a Power of Attorney?
Video Summary
Well, you don’t obtain a Power of Attorney for someone. Someone must grant you or sign a document called a Power of Attorney appointing you as an agent. So if you have a loved one or a party that is in the hospital that is incompetent, you cannot get a Power of Attorney for them and that they must be competent when they sign the Power of Attorney. The Power of Attorney statute was changed in 2011 which gave various rights which have to be initialed off on, which are called superpowers. And a Durable Power of Attorney survives the incapacity of someone; however the person must be competent whenever they sign the Power of Attorney. So you cannot obtain a Power of Attorney over someone, they must sign it when they’re competent and grant it to you and then you serve as their agent. You cannot use the Power of Attorney or you’re not supposed to use the Power of Attorney to transact business in your behalf, such as transferring assets into your name without consideration, or if you’re dealing or having a business transaction you need to be very cautious and make sure it’s at arms’ length. So if you need to have a Power of Attorney, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos