If I Purchase Property And Put My Childs Name On It Will It Count As Gifted?
Video Summary
If I purchase a house or property and put my child’s name on it, will this be counted as a gift?
Well, the answer is yes, you’re gifting them an interest in property. So when do you need to worry about gifting property to your children is if you would decide to apply for Medicaid. That may disqualify you for the amount of the gift if it happens within five years that you apply for Medicaid. Sometimes, people call me or want to do this in order to avoid probate, and they want to add their child’s name to a deed as joint tenants with right of survivorship. I did not suggest doing this. There’s life estate deeds or ladybird deeds that can take care of avoiding probate whenever you hold title jointly with your children. The problem is, they now own a half-interest in the property, subject to any creditors’ claims that your children may have. So it’s somewhat problematic, even worse if your children are minors. Then you won’t be able to sell it unless you have a guardianship, possibly. So it’s not a particularly good idea. So, the idea is to say what you’re trying to accomplish. Are you trying to avoid probate by doing this? What is the purpose?
So if you have a question about that before you add your child’s name to a deed or purchase property in their name, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Medicaid Planning, Videos
What Happens If I Own Probate Property But Don’t Have A Will?
Video Summary
What happens if I own probate property but don’t have a will? Well first, as far as owning probate property, that means that, that’s property that is owned in your individual name and does not have a designated beneficiary or is not held jointly with anyone else. So, first we have to define what is probated property.
The next question that you have is, if I die without a will and you own property in your individual name, then you die what they call “in testate.” And the Florida statutes have set forth a will, in their statutes they say who will receives your assets. And it goes something like, if you’re married, your spouse they receive all or a half, depending on whether or not you have any children from another marriage. If you are not survived by a spouse then it will go to your children. If you die without any children and without a spouse well then, what we call, it ascends instead of descends and goes to your parents. And if they’re deceased well then it goes back down the family tree to your brothers and sisters or your siblings and their children.
So first off is, probated property is property, which you own in your individual name at the time of your death. And the Florida statutes had set forth who the beneficiaries are, so it must go through probate. The myth that the state will take the property is simply that, the state will not take your property unless you die with no heirs whatsoever, which is very, very remote. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that happen. So if you got any call, if you have any questions about that, would like to have a will drawn up or do some estate planning, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
Do Proceeds of “Payable On Death” Bank Account Have To Go Through Probate?
Video Summary
If a bank account has an individual [inaudible 00:00:09] as payable on death, do the proceeds of the bank account have to go through the probate prior to being given to the POD? The answer is no and that the bank account will not be probated. The account should be payable to whoever is designated as the POD by the person or the payee, the payable on death recipient, by delivering a death certificate to the particular lending institution. My clients have experienced in the past where the banks sometimes require a 30 day waiting period before they will disperse the money, but it does not have to go through probate. That is controlled by the bank account contract, the contract with the bank that says that they are to pay it to person designated as POD.
If you have any other questions about your assets or your accounts, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
Lunch With A Lawyer – July 11, 2017
Video Summary
Hi, I’m Chip Waller. Welcome to Lunch With A Lawyer. I’m trying to keep track, I think this our 13th addition, so we’ve been doing this for over a year and trying to come up with general topics or topics of interest. However, the biggest thing that we’d like to do is know what questions you have and try and answer those with Lunch With A Lawyer. We realize people tune in and tune out as far as the Lunch With Lawyer’s concern on what are a particular topic.
Again, my phone number if you want to talk to me. I can’t do that while I’m talking now, but later on if you have any questions about anything, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288. By the way it does need to do with Florida law if you happen to be out of state, I can’t answer questions about any matters out of the state. The name of our firm is Waller & Mitchell. My phone number is 727-847-2288.
I’d really appreciate also if you would like and share, that way we can have a little broader reach with our Lunch With A Lawyer and maybe some of your friends would be able to enjoy or appreciate what we try and put out on the air or if they have any questions. If you would send us your suggestions at video_suggestions@rdwaller.com, and we will certain answer those. If we don’t answer them on this show, well, next month we will go ahead and answer them at that time.
So, today’s topic I thought I’d kick things off and talk about it just a little bit is, what is a quitclaim deed? I get questions all the time about, well, I want to use a quitclaim to do this, I want to do quitclaim for that. And it seems to be an answer to any kind of a legal or title problem, or anything doing with real estate. Well, a quitclaim deed says that, “I convey you whatever interest I have in the property.” That’s not saying that you own any portion of the property or any interest in the property, you’re saying, “Whatever I own, I’m conveying to you or transferring to you.” Quitclaim deeds are usually used to clear up any questions about title or correct any problems that may have appeared in the chain of title, rather than to facilitate or see that property is transferred to another party.
Many people want to see about using a quitclaim deed whenever someone’s passed away to clear up the title of the decedent. Well, a quitclaim deed won’t do that, you have to go through a probate proceeding to clean that up. Or, if there’s any sort of controversy, they’d like to have the person execute a quitclaim deed. As far as that’s concerned, well, you need to be very careful about using those and that you, I would suggest that you possibly use some other kind of deed attorney as far what you’re trying to accomplish rather than, just saying, “Well, I want a quitclaim deed to cure whatever ill they maybe out there.” Some people call them a quick deeds, some of them call them quit deeds. But anyway, quitclaim deeds are basically deeds that are out there that you use and it’s a transfer or a deed, which transfers whatever interest you may have.
- Published in Videos
What Advice Would You Give When Selling A Home?
Video Summary
What advice would you give when selling a home? Well, if you’re thinking about selling your home, I suggest first that you start thinking about where you’re going to go, so that you don’t sell your home, and it may sell quickly in this market, and have no place to go. So, you need to do some planning and think about where you’re going to be going.
The next thing I suggest you do, is that you contact three realtors, and ask each of them to come out and view your home, and provide you with a comparative market analysis. Tell each one of them that you’re presently interviewing realtors as far as deciding on whom to list it with and for how much, and see if they would be interested in coming out and providing you with a CMA, giving you some idea which will provide the marketing … what price they believe they can sell the house at. And also any suggestions they might have as far as what you can do to improve the sale, or the eye appeal, as far as that’s concerned, as far as the home’s concerned.
So once you have interviewed all three of them, you need to have some comfort as to which one you feel the most comfortable with. And the one that necessarily says that they would list it for the highest amount, you want to try and look at that to see if all three CMA’s are realistic, or how broad of a range they are, to come up with some kind of median price. You need to ask them that you would like to have the property sold, say, in two month period, in a 60 day period that you would have a contract.
So you also need to be prepared, particularly if you do have a realtor, to fill out an information sheet about the home, and list any matters that you’ve had done to the house. Particularly if it’s a repaired sinkhole home, be sure you have the engineers report if it’s available. And disclose whatever there may have been any problems, and that that’s an obligation you have as far as a seller.
Once you decide upon the realtor, you need to try and keep your listing agreement down to six months. Also, ask them about if you get unhappy with their services, whether or not you would have a right to terminate the contract, and what you would have to pay them. And take out the provision, or the listing agreement, where they have the discretion of either allowing you in our out of the contract, and don’t sign it for too long of a … six months is usually the time period for a listing agreement. So if things aren’t working out, well then you’re in a position to switch to a different realtor.
Also, you need to look at what their percentage is, whether it’s … usually it runs about 6%, and ask how much they’re going to provide for the selling realtor, since they’re the listing realtor. Whether it’s gonna be a even split, a three and three, or whether they give the [inaudible 00:03:48] percentage, and just how they go about that. You also need to ask each one of them whether or not they’re gonna charge you a transaction fee, as far as your realtor’s concerned.
So that’s, also how they’re gonna go about marketing, whether they’re gonna put it in multiple listing, what kind of advertisements they’re gonna do. So these are all questions that you might wanna write down so you have each realtor be ready to address these, or when you ask them to come out whether they’d be agreeable to giving you answers to these questions. And then, once you review all of that, and your comfort level, well then select your realtor so that you could then go about putting your house on the market, and hopefully having it sold within about a 60 day period. Also having decided, you know where you’re gonna be going, whether or not you’re moving out of state, or whether you already have a place, or just what you need to do.
Whenever you do receive a contract for the sale of the property, tell your realtor that you’d like to have my office handle the title insurance. We charge pretty much the same amount as what any other title company would do, and we would be at the closing table for you. One of the things, and if you would like for me to review the contract, well I would do that. If you wanna engage my services to look at the contract and comment on it prior to your signing it, the attorney fees on that run about $250 to $500.
One of the things that you will see in most contracts, which I don’t know that there’s much you can do about it is, usually there’s a very small deposit. So, the buyer puts down a $1,000 deposit, or $2,000 or $3,000, even it’s a cash deal. So whenever the closing comes about, and let’s say the buyer just decides they don’t wanna to go through with the deal, the downside of this is that they can walk away and the most that you’re gonna be able to get is the amount of the deposit. So if it’s merely a $1,000, particularly if you have moved out or whatever you’ve done, then you’ve got a real problem, in that you have … the transaction’s gone through.
If possible, try and negotiate a little higher purchase price, or if you are concerned, let’s say it’s a 100% financing, or 97% financing, I suggest that you put in the contract that the buyer will request the lender to order an appraisal right away, to see if the property will appraise so that they can get their financing, and so it doesn’t fall through at the last minute, and they get their deposit back and you still own your home. But make arrangements to possibly remain in the property for a short period of time after closing, so that you haven’t moved out, and then the deal falls through at the last minute. Unfortunately it’s very difficult to know that you’ve got a deal until it actually closes and you put the money in the bank, so there’s just a few things that you can look at to do.
So, those are just a few things to think about whenever you’re getting ready to sell the house, and [inaudible 00:07:36] you’d like some advice, or like for me to represent you, I’ll be pleased to. If you sell the property on your own, I can prepare the contract and take care of the closing. I am a title agent, and I’ll write the title insurance and close the transaction. So if you have any questions about selling your home, give me a call, it’s 727-847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate – Selling, Videos