Video Summary

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.

Video Summary

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.

Video Summary

Hi, I’m Chip Waller.  What should I look for when I review a real estate contract?  Well, what I would suggest you do is read the whole thing.  Don’t just read the blanks; it’s amazing what you’ll learn when you read it. Most people only look at the price, the name, the closing date, and some of the terms.  But there’s an awful lot of stuff in those contracts, particularly if the contract goes south and you’re unable to get your financing or you change your mind or find something wrong with the property.

So my biggest suggestion to you is to read the contract, not just what’s put in the blanks.  Or have someone, other than a real estate lawyer, tell you what it says.  Because most people just look at the blanks and they don’t pay any attention to the printed portion, assuming it’s a standard contract.  Now, you don’t know what a standard contract is or the terms, so that’s my biggest admonition to you is to read the whole contract.  Read all those six or seven or eight pages they have; it’s not too difficult to read.  There’s many times there’s options involved that you can select, such as your closing agent or title agent.

Some of the practical things as far as contracts are concerned is if you’re buying a house, such as utility insurance, have inspections, things such as that.  So, whenever you look at contract, read it.  It’s amazing what you’ll learn and then you should start asking questions of the realtor or whomever.  And then if you have any other questions, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288 and I’ll be glad to discuss it with you.  Thank you.

Video Summary

How can I decide what mortgage is right for me?  Well, the first thing you have to do is decide how long you want the mortgage for, and for what purpose.  If you simply want a short-term mortgage and you just need it for a short period of time until you sell some other property, you may consider obtaining what they call a home equity loan, which can be closed fairly quickly and without a whole lot of paperwork or closing costs.  They’re offered at right now a very low interest rate.  Usually, it’s an adjustable interest rate, and so you can borrow money and use that for a short period of time and then pay it off with minimal closing costs.

If you’re buying a home and you anticipate staying in the home for some time, then you would look for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and find out what the payments are.  If you would like to get out of debt quicker, well, then you can ask them what is the interest rate on a shorter-term loan, such as a 15-year fixed rate loan.  If you want to try and keep your payments low for the initial period of time of, say, two years, you can talk to the lenders about an adjustable rate loan.

In fact, over the course of time, I think adjustable rate loans have proved to be less expensive than fixed rate.  But most people like to have the peace of mind knowing that their mortgage interest rate will not go through the roof so that they will be priced out of their home.  So a lot depends on your financial wherewithal, what your income is, and what you can afford to pay, and how quickly you would get out of debt, and for what period of time you would like it.  If you’re dealing with investment property, usually you want to try and get the low interest rate for as long a period as you can, and with the right to prepay your loan, which you usually can negotiate or that’s usually a factor that is included in most notes and mortgages.

I will say presently, the underwriting requirements for mortgages has gone up substantially, so it is very, very time consuming, tedious, to obtain a mortgage from an institutional lender, no matter who you pick.  And it takes a lot of paperwork and a lot of patience.  And usually, it takes you probably about 45 days to obtain a loan, even if you have good credit and the property appraises for the amount that you’re purchasing it for or what you’re attempting to refinance.  Usually, you can obtain a mortgage at 80 percent loan to value and not have to have any mortgage insurance.

However, if you have a small down payment, well then you might want to explore getting an FHA loan or a BA loan, which will require up to three percent down payment.  However, built in both of those loans will be some mortgage insurance.  Or if you just get a conventional mortgage with mortgage insurance, you can get a high interest rate, high percentage loan to value loan.  But it is gonna take some time and patience.  So if you have any questions, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

What role does an attorney play in a real estate transaction?  Well, the attorney gives you peace of mind that you have someone looking out for your interests.  We usually start with the contract.  That’s probably the most important time where you can get input from the attorney because he can provide safeguards for you in purchasing the property and put certain contingencies in the contract so that if the property fails an inspection or you don’t get your financing, then you don’t have to go through with the transaction and you can get your deposit back.

The real estate attorney will also educate you as to what certain matters mean such as husband and wife, the legal context, the meaning of tenancy by the entireties, and what does that mean to a married couple?  There’s any number of practical matters that the attorney can talk to you about such as the getting insurance and whether or not it’s in a flood zone, windstorm, sinkhole coverage.  Also home inspections to see if a property has previously been repaired as a sinkhole.  Just any number of matters that are probably more of a practical nature than a legal nature.

And of course reviewing to make sure that the title you receive is a clear title, meaning that there are no liens or second mortgages against the property.  And looking at the title commitment and advising you of code assessments and things such as that or road assessments on the property and making sure you’re not responsible for those when you close.  Also another aspect is utility bills, unpaid utility bills.  Are you responsible for them?  Most of the closing documents you see say that the title company is not responsible for any unpaid water bills.  So the role of the attorney is to protect you, give you peace of mind that you have someone that’s working for you and knows what they’re doing.  They’ve been there before and looked at, in my case, thousands of real estate transactions.

So if you have any questions or you’re buying a house or real property, well give me a call and I’ll be glad to review your contract for you and represent you in a real estate transaction.  Please call me at (727) 847-2288.