What Is A Suit To Quiet Title?
Video Summary
What is a suit to quiet title? That’s a strange word, “quiet title.” But what it means is if you have a title to property and there is any question about someone else having an interest in it, you can file an action, and that’s called a suit to quiet title, to clear up any issues. The primary basis for that is under adverse possession. There are two ways to be able to obtain title to property through adverse possession. One is through returning it for taxes, and that’s a special form you file with the tax collector or property appraiser’s office, and then you pay the taxes for seven years, and then you must occupy the enclosure or cultivate the property during those seven years.
At the end of seven years, if you’ve paid the taxes, you can then file what they call a suit to quiet title to eliminate the record title owner’s interest. Another basis for adverse possession is if you have a deed to the property and you have paid the taxes for seven years. However, someone else also has the deed to the property. Well, if you’ve had the property for seven years, paid the taxes and had possession, well, then you file a suit to quiet title to eliminate any of their interest in the property.
Another example of when you file a suit to quiet title is if you buy a property at a tax sale. There’s a special statute which allows you to file a suit to quiet title by giving notice to the former owner or lenders or anyone else who had an interest in the property prior to the tax sale, and that you need to prove in the suit to quiet title they received notice of the tax sale so they had due process. If they didn’t have notice and did not pay the back taxes, well, then the court will enter a judgment saying that you have clear title, and then you’re in a position to convey marketable title to the property with a tax deed, and you don’t have to wait the seven years.
So if you have a title problem and you need to get it cleared up and you – or you need to file a suit to quiet title, give me a call at 727-847-2288. Thank you.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
What Do I Need to Know About Loan Modification?
Video Summary
What do I need to know about loan modifications? Well, you probably need to know a lot. But the biggest thing you need to do is be very, very patient and very, very persistent because they are very, very hard to get. So whenever you get the information from your lender—sometimes they mail it to you to say you can do this to avoid foreclosure, or you can go on their website and have the home retention department or a collector call—get in touch with them and ask them to send you what documents you need to send them in order to try and get a mortgage modification. Whenever you complete the information and try to complete it as full as you can, completely as you can, it’s a real pain in the neck, but once you get it all completed and then you fax it to the lender, be sure you put your loan number on the bottom of every page that you fax to them because I haven’t ever been there, but rumor has it they have a common fax machine and they’ll forever tell you they didn’t get all the documentation.
So after you fax all your paperwork, count four days, and after four days, call them and say did you get everything or is there something that is missing. Be proactive. It takes time and persistence. Now, once you’ve done that, you need to calendar out in about a month. After about a month, you then need to send in new bank statements and paystubs, if you have them. And you fax them to the same number. Be sure you put your loan number on there, updated paystubs, updated bank statements.
Count four days, call them, ask them, “Did you receive everything? Is there anything else you need?” So be proactive. Continue to do this. Probably – hopefully after about six months—they will hopefully have someone actually look at your paperwork and you may have a shot of getting your mortgage modified. But you have to be persistent.
Now, don’t get your expectations up a whole lot about getting a principal reduction on your mortgage. You can ask for it. However, a lot depends on who owns your mortgage, whether it is owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or whether it’s owned by an investor, which is a trust. And it’s been my experience that the only time you get a principal reduction is whenever your loan is owned by an investor. Now, how they pick out who gets the principal reductions, I haven’t figured that out. But you’re not gonna get it necessarily.
Your chances are increased I would think if you go ahead and apply for a mortgage modification. So whenever you go about trying to get it, go ahead and start applying and keep applying, and if they turn you down, well, just turn around and apply again and pretty soon, you’ll be a master at sending the paperwork in and continue to be persistent. And then once you get your modification, well, give us a call. We’ll be glad to review it with you and then we can tell you whether it’s acceptable to you or not – acceptable to you or not acceptable, and then if they wind up filing a foreclosure action while you’re in the middle of this modification program, you have another bite at the apple, which you may be successful with is whenever a foreclosure action’s filed, to then also modify your mortgage.
Now, if you’re current with your mortgage and you want a modification, there are several programs out there for people who are current to be able to modify their mortgage to a lower interest rate, even if the value of your property is below what you owe on it, you still may be qualified and you need to contact your lender about those programs. And you have to have made all your payments for the past 12 months and be current. So if you have any questions about mortgage modifications, give me a call at (727) 847-2288. Thank you.
- Published in Real Estate - Foreclosure, Videos
Do I Need a Lawyer to Sell My House?
Video Summary
Do you need a lawyer to sell your house? Well, that’s sort of a loaded question whenever you ask a lawyer whether you need a lawyer. The big thing with selling a house is that if you’re doing it on your own, well, you probably really do need to come see a lawyer to get things started because it starts with a contract. The contract is a roadmap to the sale of your property, and the lawyer can prepare that for you and if you’re doing it on your own can explain it to you and the terms of it.
Now, if you have a realtor, realtors are authorized to complete simple contracts. There are several forms out there, some of which have been approved by the Florida Bar and the Florida Realtors Association. And so those are usually completed. So why would you need a lawyer? Well, number one is you probably don’t really know anything other than what’s in the blanks, like the purchase price, the closing date. So show-me-the-money type situation.
Well, there’s a lot more in those contracts and so you’d probably want – you may want to confer with an attorney about the what-ifs. What if they don’t close? Well, what if, you know, they don’t get their mortgage? How much of the deposit will I get if they don’t close? Do I have to move out before closing?
So that is why you may want to confer with an attorney, to have him review the contract to discuss with you what you want to do after the closing, whether or not you should make arrangements to move out and acquire another place to live, whether it’s vacant property, and what your rights are under this particular contract. So whether you need a lawyer or not depends on your circumstances and how comfortable you are with it.
Unfortunately, I see a lot of folks that come to see me after they sign the contract and after they have a huge problem, and then we start reading the provisions of the contract as to what, if any, rights they may have.
So if you have a real estate contract and you’d like for me to review it, give me a call at (727) 847-2288. If you’re selling your own house, we’ll handle the transaction from contract to closing. I’m a title agent and can write the title insurance for you.
And so give us a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
What Are Some Common Types of Deeds?
Video Summary
What are some of the most common types of deeds? Well, the deed that I get questioned about the most is what some people call a quick deed when they are really referencing a quit-claim deed. A quit-claim deed is simply a deed that says I transfer to you whatever interest I have on a particular property and that is used whenever there’s uncertainty as to what your ownership may be.
The other most common deed that is used in real estate transactions whenever you’re selling something is a warranty deed, and that’s a statutory warranty deed. As it indicates, there are warranties in that you warrant of something – that you have good title to the property, you have a right to transfer possession, all these warranties go with it. There are seven of them which come through the common law and are adopted in our Florida statutes. I can’t give them all to you, but everybody now pretty much relies upon the title insurance in conjunction with the transfers under a warranty deed since you can sue the seller under the warranties. But if you have title insurance, well, you’ve got a solvent company and you don’t have to go looking for the seller or worry about whether the seller still has any money for you to sue them. So that’s the second or probably the most common deed that is used as far as selling real estate.
Also, what we’re seeing more and more of life estate deeds, and that’s sort of hard to explain, but it’s a deed whereby a person conveys to someone the property, however reserves a life estate. Well, how do you measure a life estate? Well, the person who does the conveying says, “Well, look, I’m gonna keep the property during my lifetime, and so you really don’t have any interest in this property until I die.” And so that is a life estate deed.
You may have heard the word Ladybird deed. That is a name that was affixed to what they call an enhanced life estate deed, and that was put on a publication and the person named the deeds after famous people, and that was named after Ladybird Johnson. Well, what is a Ladybird deed? Well, a Ladybird deed says that I convey to you this property after I pass away. However, I reserve the right to sell the property during my lifetime, mortgage it, or transfer it, change my mind, and I don’t have to give you any of the money if I sell the property. So it’s really considered an enhanced life estate deed because you’re just not retaining a life estate. You’re also reserving certain power. So those are probably the three most common deeds that I deal with on a day-to-day basis.
There are any number of other types of deeds that are used: special warranty deeds, trustees’ deeds, guardianship deeds, the simple deeds.
So the big thing is is if it’s a deed, it has words of conveyancing, which says that I hereby transaction, I hereby convey, I hereby quit-claim. These are all words of conveyancing, and so when they’re contained in the deed, that means they are transferring the title and the property. So if you have any questions about deeds, well, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
2013 Estate Tax Update
Video Summary
What are the estate taxes for 2013? Everyone’s heard a lot about the fiscal cliff. Well, what happened as far as our estate taxes? They were due to be reduced to $1 million, meaning that if your estate exceeded $1 million, there would be Federal estate taxes. Well, in the bill that was passed through Congress, they adopted an exclusion for Federal estate taxes of $5 million, which takes care of most of my clients anyway. And so if you have less than $5 million in assets whenever you pass away, there is no Federal estate tax.
Florida does not have an estate tax. And in fact, the $5 million has been adjusted for inflation, so for the year 2013, you can have up to $5.25 million and have no estate taxes. It even gets better than that if you’re married and you leave all your assets to your spouse. When your spouse passes away, the two of you can leave to your children or whomever you would like up to $10.5 million. That’s called portability, meaning that the unused portion of the estate tax exemption that you did not use, that portion of the $5.25 million, can be transferred to your surviving spouse so that that can be applied to the assets which they leave behind for your children or whoever they leave them to.
So what does this mean to you? If you already have a trust, you need to call and make an appointment and come in and see about us revising your trust because more than likely, it has a provision in there that you provide that your assets are to be held in an irrevocable trust upon your death for your spouse. That was in an effort to avoid estate taxes when it was less than the present dollar amount. And you probably want your spouse to have the use of all those funds and discretion, which they will not have under your current trust provision.
So I urge you to set up an appointment to review your trust documents. So give me a call at (727) 847-2288 and I’ll be glad to check with you about the taxes and also set you up an appointment to review your trust.