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 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
What is a Lifetime Personal Services Contract?
Video Summary
Good afternoon. My name is Tom Mitchell. I’m a partner with the law firm of Waller & Mitchell. We’re located at 5332 Main Street in Downtown New Port Richey, Florida. I’m an elder law attorney, which means that I do wills, trusts, estates, powers of attorney, living wills, healthcare surrogates, will and trust administration, public benefits qualifications, asset protection, guardianship work. All of those things pertain to the elder law area.
It frequently comes up in my practice that we have a family that has a senior member who has to go to a nursing home. Either they’re in the nursing home now, or they’re going to be going in the next few weeks, and the family wants to try and get the individual qualified for public assistance.
There are several federal and state programs that will pay for the nursing home care of an individual who is indigent. Now, indigency is defined somewhat differently under these federal regulations than you and I might think.
Basically, a single individual can have up to $2,000.00 in assets and get $2,025 a month in income. For a married couple, the person who’s living at home, who we call the “community spouse,” can have $115,000.00 in cash assets, plus the house and the car. And the institutionalized spouse, the person in the nursing home, can only have $2,000.00.
So the problem is: what do we do if the individual is a single person, and they’re only entitled to have $2,000.00, but they have $100,000.00? Or maybe it’s a married couple, and they’re entitled to have $115,000.00, and they have $200,000.00. What do we do about that extra money, to try and get the person qualified for the Medicaid Institutional Care Program benefit, yet still get as much money as possible down to the junior generation?
Well, there’s a technique that we call a Lifetime Personal Services Contract. This comes about because even though it’s your parent, and you might provide care for them and provide management of their medical and personal needs for nothing, that isn’t the law. You’re not required to do that. And so the only thing, under the Medicaid regulations, you can’t do is give money away.
So you can’t give the money away. So what do we do? We sign a contract with one of our children that they will manage our affairs for the rest of our life, and we’re going to transfer money to them now in satisfaction of that obligation. The next question is: “Well, how much money can we transfer?”
And in doing that, we have a calculation that has worked with the Medicaid authorities for many years. Basically, what you do is – you compute the person’s life expectancy. There are tables to do that. You figure out how many hours per month you think that you’re going to be providing these services. You figure out the rate that you’re going to charge.
And currently, in this area, we use the rate that the courts allow for family member guardians. And doing that, you can come up with a number. And that number is the amount of money that can be transferred from the senior generation to the junior generation now, and not disqualify the individual for Medicaid purposes for having made a gift.
So if you’d like to investigate this, please give me a call. This is Tom Mitchell. I’m at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Medicaid Planning, Videos
What is a Special Needs Trust?
Video Summary
Good afternoon. My name is Tom Mitchell. I’m a partner in the law firm of Waller & Mitchell, and we’re located at 5332 Main Street in Downtown New Port Richey, Florida.
Did you know that ten percent of the families in America have a family member who is disabled, as defined by federal regulations? This could be a minor child who suffered malpractice at birth. It could be an adult who has been injured in a traffic accident or an industrial accident. It could be a senior citizen who has suffered neglect in a nursing home and incurred serious injuries.
If this describes anyone in your family, we at Waller & Mitchell can help you. There are federal and state programs designed to assist individuals who have these kinds of injuries and require special assistance. These programs are all means-tested. That means that you cannot have more than a certain amount of money and be qualified for these programs.
When these types of injuries happen to someone, typically there is a lawsuit filed on behalf of the injured party. And this lawsuit can result in hundreds of thousands or, in some cases, even millions of dollars that are to be made available to that person. The problem is twofold.
First, that money has to last for the entire lifetime of the individual. And, second of all, if they receive that money in their individual names, they will be disqualified from public assistance benefits because of the means testing that I mentioned earlier.
There is, however, a special kind of trust authorized under federal law that’s called a Special Needs Trust. In a Special Needs Trust, the money from the lawsuit settlement can be deposited to the trust account, and a trustee can be named, and the trustee can then pay for the special needs of the individual. The public benefits are still qualified for the individual, and they will pick up the basic nursing home and medical care.
What this allows for is that the special needs of the individual can be met – such things as advanced medical care, special caregiver services, education, entertainment. Any of those things would qualify.
In addition, with a Special Needs Trust, you can have a trust that’s set up by a third party. For example, a grandparent who has a disabled grandchild. In that circumstance, the grandparent sets up the trust, puts the money in the trust, and then the trustee administers the trust for the benefit of the injured party.
The injured party continues to receive their public benefits, so we don’t have any problem with the money being diverted or expended unnecessarily. And the good thing about the third public trust is that after the death of the beneficiary, the disabled child, the original person who set up the trust can put in the trust where that money is to go if there’s anything left.
So if you’re interested in any of these concepts, give me a call. I’m Tom Mitchell. My number is 727-847-2288.
What is a Caregiver Trust?
Video Summary
Good afternoon. My name is Tom Mitchell. I’m a partner at the law firm of Waller & Mitchell. We’re located at 5332 Main Street in Downtown New Port Richey, Florida. I specialize in elder law. That is: I deal with wills and trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare surrogates, living wills, will and trust administration, public benefits qualifications, guardianship, and asset protection for seniors.
Hey there, 50 and 60-year-olds. How are your 70 to 90-year-old parents doing? Are you concerned that they’ll have enough money to live to the end of their lifetime and have quality of life? Are they concerned that they’ll have enough money to live to the end of their life and have something left to give to their children and grandchildren? If so, you need to consult with Waller & Mitchell. We can help you with this.
The average cost for a nursing home in the State of Florida, in the West Pasco area, is about $6,500.00 a month. If one of your family members – your parent, mother or father – is looking at the prospect of going into a nursing home in the near future, there are several things that we can do to help them get qualified at an earlier time, and to help preserve funds for the senior generation to pass to the junior generation.
One of the techniques that we use in this circumstance is called a “caregiver trust.” It’s specifically referred to in the Florida statutes, and it allows the spouse who is living at home – the well spouse, as we refer to it – to set up a trust for the benefit of the spouse who’s living in the nursing home, which we call the “institutionalized spouse.”
If that trust that’s set up by the well spouse contains at least 30 percent of the assets that are owned by the husband and wife team, then the money can be in the trust, and the nursing home spouse is not disqualified from receiving public benefits.
So if you’d like to look into something like this, please contact Waller & Mitchell at 727-847-2288, and I can help you.