What is a Lease Option?

 

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What is a lease option?  Well, I like to rephrase that clause, and I’ll explain later that saying.  It should be a lease with an option to purchase.  It’s utilized whenever you want someone to purchase some property; however, they don’t have a lot of money to put down on the property, and they’re not able to obtain financing to purchase property for cash, yet they want to move into the property.  So what you do is you enter into a lease to lease them the property for a certain period of time, and then you attach to that an option to purchase.  Well, what does the option do?

 

It sets the price of a certain dollar amount so during the option period, which usually coincides with the lease term, the tenant is in a position to purchase the property for that amount.  So you have someone that is recovering from a foreclosure that needs some additional time to get their credit back up so they can go get a bank loan is one circumstance.  Other circumstances would be if they’re looking for the down payment to come as a result of a lawsuit settlement, or there are any number of scenarios wherein the parties do not have a sufficient down payment to be able to purchase the property.  And if you have a mortgage on the property, you’re not in a position to take back a mortgage, or if you did, it would be a wraparound mortgage.

 

Now one of the advantages over a lease with the option to purchase versus a sale of the property under an agreement per deed or a deed in mortgage is that the foreclosure process takes about a year to accomplish, and is very expensive.  It will probably cost in the neighborhood of $3,500.00 to $5,000.00 to foreclose.  Whereas with a lease with an option to purchase, you’re looking at an eviction action, which would take approximately 30 to 45 days in which to get rid of the tenant if they failed to make the payments.

 

Now the term “lease option” is a problem if you combine the lease payments with the option payments.  Then it can be considered an agreement for deed, and you can be required to foreclose those.  So it’s very important that if you’re going to enter into a lease with an option to purchase that you specify or keep the option separate from the lease.  Although it would be contained in the lease, it needs to be very clear that they are two separate rights: one is tenancy, and the other is the option to purchase.

 

So if you’re interested in selling your property under a lease with an option to purchase, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.  If you’re going to enter into a lease with an option to purchase, and you’re concerned about the landlord, I suggest you give me a call, and it might do well to do a title search to make sure that the property isn’t in foreclosure; that the mortgage on the property does not exceed the purchase price.  So that once you’re in a position to purchase the property, you know that the seller will be in a position to sell it to you.

 

So if you have questions, give me a call at 847-2288.

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

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If I am Married, Do All My Deceased Spouses Assets Pass to Me?

 

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If I am married, do all of my deceased spouse’s assets pass to me?  Well, if he left a will leaving everything to you, the answer is yes, but the myth is that this happens automatically, and that is not true. You may have to go through a probate proceeding in order to obtain the assets. Depending on who his heirs are, as to whether or not the spouse will receive all of the assets or not. So if he has a will, the will, will control who will receive what assets.

 

We also have to consider homestead, and that if you’re survived, and the homestead property is just in the decedent’s name, well, then, he can only leave it to the spouse if he wants to do that as far as his will is concerned.  If he doesn’t leave it to the spouse, it is controlled by the Florida Constitution, the laws of the State of Florida, which gives the spouse a life estate or can elect to take a half interest in the property.

 

As far as the other assets are concerned, the state of Florida sets forth a will for you, or says who receives all the assets.  If the decedent is only survived by a spouse and there are no minor children, any children of the decedent, well, then, all the assets will pass to the surviving spouse. However, a probate proceeding will be necessary.

 

I don’t have time to go through all the various scenarios as far as if there are children of a prior marriage or children of that marriage as to how much the spouse receives and how much the children will receive, but the myth that it happens automatically is merely that – a myth – and if you lose your spouse, and they have assets in their name other than motor vehicles, please give me a call at 727-847-2288 so we can discuss what would be necessary and who will receive the assets.

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

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What is FSBO and Does it Save Me Any Money?

 

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What is FSBO and does it save me any money? Well, FSBO stands for “For Sale by Owner”, affectionately called in the industry a “Fizbo”. This is how people sell their own homes, whatever money they save would be in the form of a real estate commission. Whether or not the realtor can market the property for more than what their commission would be, since they have the ability to market online, they have the ability to put it in multiple listings, a realtor may actually net you more money. Their usual real estate commissions run about 6 to 7 percent.

 

 

However, if you are going to sell the house yourself, you do not need a realtor and you can do your own marketing. The old-fashioned time was to put a For Sale sign out in your yard that says, “For Sale by Owner” and put your phone number on it. Then you have the ability to sell the house yourself.

 

Once you have a buyer well then that would be a good time to contact my office and we would be please to prepare the contract between the buyer and the seller and take care of the closing. Customarily the seller pays for the title insurance and the documentary stamps on the deed. We’re seeing more and more seller financing, so if you’re trying to sell your property, and in these times it’s hard to get a bank loan, well we can certainly assist you as far as preparing the note and mortgage or holding the financing.  But FSBO stands for “For Sale by Owner” and it’s known in the industry as a “Fizbo”.

 

So if you want to sell your property on your own, give me a call at 727-847-2288 and I’ll be glad to tell you what you need to do when you have a prospect that wants to purchase your property.

 

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Can I Buy a Homestead Property Free of Judgements Against the Owner?

 

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Can I buy a person’s homestead property free of any judgments that may be against the owner of the property?

 

The answer is yes, depending on what kind of judgments there are against him. The Florida Constitution provides that your homestead cannot be attached by creditors.  So if someone sues you and obtains a judgment against you, they cannot take your home away from you.  There is a specific provision in the statutes that allow you to sign an affidavit, send it to your creditor and they have 45 days in which to object as to the homestead status. After which time you can then sell the property and the seller can sell the property and does not have to pay the judgment creditor.

 

As far as a buyer is concerned, they usually need to rely upon obtaining title insurance to be insured against these judgment liens attaching. If the seller does have a judgment, well then I would strongly suggest a buyer not rely upon this video or anything else, but require that he receive title insurance insuring that the judgment lien does not attach.

 

The seller, if they would like to contact my office to follow up on how they can sell the property without having to pay a judgment creditor, well, give me a call.

 

Now there are certain judgments that do attach, such as child support, that’s one. Also any federal tax liens that may come in, the federal taxes preempt state law and the Florida constitution.  So most judgment liens do not attach to homestead, however, there are some exceptions.  So, if you are a buyer, be sure to get title insurance; if you are a seller call me and we can go over it to determine whether or not you have to pay these judgment liens in order to sell your property free and clear of the judgment.

 

Give me a call at 727-847-2288.  Thank you.

 

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How Does a Lady Bird Deed Help My Heirs Avoid Probate?

 

Video Summary

 

 

 

How does a lady bird deed help my heirs avoid probate?

 

Well first let’s define what a lady bird deed is.  That is a name that an author of a treatise gave to a life estate deed.  A life estate deed means that you convey your property to your children or to anyone. However, you reserve to yourself a life estate, meaning that you own the property, or you get to use the property during your lifetime.

 

Now what is known as a lady bird deed has additional powers besides being able to use the property during your lifetime. Those powers include, which are reserved to you with your life estate is the ability to sell the property without the joinder of these remaindermen.  So that is the definition of a lady bird deed when we’re talking about it.

 

So how does it avoid any kind of probate when a person passes away?  Well, you signed the deed and you conveyed it to whomever, your children or your heirs and reserved a life estate.  And you have certain rights to convey or transfer the property during your lifetime.  But if you do not sell or convey it during your lifetime upon your death all they need is a death certificate and they will own the property, “they” being whomever you have conveyed the property to.  And the deed, they will own it, and all they need to do is record the death certificate and they will automatically own the property.

 

So that’s how your heirs will avoid any probate proceeding if you sign a lady bird deed conveying the property to them during your lifetime.

 

If you would like to discuss this further well give me a call at 727-847-2288.  Thank you.

 

 

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