Video Summary

Does Florida have land contracts like they do in Michigan? And the answer is no. Whenever you sell property in an installment basis, you must file a judicial mortgage foreclosure action. And in order to eliminate the interest of the purchaser’s, interest in the property, that’s whether you called it a land contract agreement for deed, or no mortgage. The Florida Supreme court has a rule that even unrecorded agreements, and when they’re on an installment, sales basis, , with real property, you have to file the poor closure action. Florida is one of, I believe, seven States that has a judicial foreclosure proceeding versus a nonjudicial proceeding, which allows you to foreclose or take back your property without going through court. I received this question, periodically from people who are in the Midwest and Michigan, which are nonjudicial foreclosure States. But, in Florida you cannot have a land contract. If you do, it still has to be foreclosed, which is, I understand the primary purpose and using a land contract. So if you have any questions on how to sell your property on installment basis, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

Can real estate be sold without a seller’s disclosure? Yes, it can be. So the law is as far as residential real estate is concerned, the seller must disclose to the buyer any matters that may materially affect the value of the property that are not readily observable. That does not require the disclosure form that the realtors use. Although that is certainly a good way to make the full disclosure of the property. It applies only to residential real estate and does not apply to commercial real estate. Although a contract, if the wrong contract is used on a commercial real estate transaction, it may require this disclosure. Just because you put as is in the contract does not relieve a seller from this closing any matters that may material, they affect the value of their property, which are commonly known as latent defects. Some of the big concerns are as whether or not the property has ever had a sinkhole, as a repaired sinkhole house or a claim has been filed. All of these matters must be disclosed. There’s any number of other matters, such as leaky roofs and the things such as that, that should be disclosed to a buyer. The seller disclosure form is not required, but the disclosure is required. If you have any questions, give me a call (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

When do you use quit claim deeds? Primarily to clear up any interest someone may have in real estate by them signing the quit claim deed, they say that, “Look, if I have any interest in this property, I’m releasing it, I’m not stating that I do or do not have any interest in the property. But if I do, well I’m releasing it to whoever you’re transferring the property.” They’re used quite a bit to clean up any discrepancy and legal descriptions that are in the, what we call the chain of title, in that someone conveyed their property and there was a misspelling or there was a sentence missed out of the legal description, and it’s clear that they meant to convey the property.

However, as a result of a typographical error or some other problem with the deed, it did not clear up the title. And so the quit claim deed used clear that mistakes up that are made in transferring property, usually from a prior owner. Sometimes the quit claim deeds are used by relatives in the estate situation where has left of four or five children and they say, “Oh, well I want my sister to have this.” Well, they’ll sign a quit claim deed transferring whatever interest they have in the property to a particularly family member whom they would like to own the property.

Another time that quit claim deeds are used is whenever there’s a divorce proceeding, and the judgment should provide for the conveyance of a spouse’s interest in the property. However, if it does not, and directs them to execute a deed, well they would usually use a quit claim deed since they’re not warranting title. So quit claim deed says that, “I’m conveying whatever interest I may have in this property to you.” There’s no warranties that the person who signs the deed, that they have any interest in the property, but as to clear up questions about prior conveyances or court orders. If you have any questions about quit claim deeds and their use, well give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

Can I fire my title company after I have a sales contract with them? Well, are there any reasons to fire your title company? Well, yes there are. If they’re not performing or they tell you that you can’t solve particular problems, so that you do have the ability to do that. The title company is usually controlled by the contract, or whenever you sell your property it says the buyer can select the title agent, or it says the seller can select. In the Tampa Bay/Pasco County/Pinellas Hillsborough area, almost all contracts provide that the seller will select and pay for the title insurance. That gives you the ability to do that.

Many realtors also have a title company which the broker has some interest or they partner with someone, so many times they just simply take care of it for the seller and don’t confer with the seller as to what title company they wish to use, and the title company proceeds with it. You do have a choice as to whom you would like to select. Furthermore, if you’re not pleased with or you’re having problems with them, there’s no problem with discharging them. Usually in the title industry, they don’t try and charge for the work that they have done. Then you can select whatever title company you would like.

If you’re listing your home, you may wish to choose your real estate attorney or someone else to write the title insurance and be your title agent so you have someone available and if so, you simply need to let the realtor know whenever you sign the listing agreement who you’d like to close the transaction. Or, once you signed your contract, you need to tell them that you would like, in the Pasco County area say, “Well, I’d like to have Roland Waller take care of my title insurance, and that I understand that he’s an attorney, sits at the table and closes the deal, and doesn’t charge an additional attorney fee.” That’s something that you can do. You can select, you can discharge your title agent and rehire another one.

The reasons why you would fire or discharge your title agent is because they’re not performing or they are insisting that there’s a title problem, that they want you to pay a lien that you don’t believe that you should or you can pay, so you may need to confer with a different title agent or an attorney title agent such as myself to see if I can solve the problems. If so, then I can serve as the title agent, although if there are title problems, there may be an additional charge for attorney fees to resolve any title issues and you can move the title order.

Whenever you’re refinancing, many times the lender will say, “Well, could I see your title policy that you had whenever you purchased the property?” The reason for that is, is that you can give them the owner’s policy when you purchase the property. You can get what they call a reissue credit or a discount on your title insurance. You can tell whatever lender you select whom you would like to do your title work. If you tell your lender, “Well, I’d like to have Roland Waller be my title agent,” and give them my information, well then, I would be pleased to handle the refinance for you, so you can select that and the lender should use whoever you select, since you will be paying for it. If I’ve closed a deal previously, I can see about finding your prior policy and give you a reissue credit as far as refinancing’s concerned.

If you’re getting ready to sell your house, well, tell you realtor that you’d like to have my office handle the title insurance, and we’ll be glad to quote you the fees, which I think are competitive with any title company, and you get the bonus of having me either at the closing table, or certainly reviewing the matter ahead of time. If you’re with a lender, you can also ask them use my office as far as refinancing the property. If you are refinancing, well, I look forward to hearing from you. My phone number is 727-847-2288.

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.