That Time of Year I don’t profess to know where the housing market is headed in the short run (Psst! Neither does anyone else). However, if you sold a house through me last year, and just left me a message, I’ve got a pretty good guess what it’s about. That would be the HUD-1, or closing...Read More
Legal Minutiae It’s not unusual in the course of a real estate deal for numerous terms to change — and others to be added. What’s the best way to document that evolution? My personal preference is a one page Counter-Offer Addendum that effectively rides on top of all the preceding documents. Not only does that cleanly...Read More
Anyone closing on the sale of their home today may be puzzled why the pay-off amount in their HUD-1 (closing statement) exceeds their current (online) mortgage balance. The explanation? Banks assume that they won’t receive the proceeds from closing until the next business day — and therefore keep the “interest meter” running. Ordinarily, that would...Read More
Statute of Limitations for Deals How long do you need to retain your files for closed deals? Barring fraud, the statute of limitations for raising a complaint following a transaction is two years. So, it’s (well past) time to chuck paperwork and notes for those 2004 sales I’ve been hanging on to. The one exception...Read More
