ATTEMPTED FRAUD!!!! A good agent calls us to advise that he is working on a 100 acre vacant land property in Ventura County, California that has no loan on it and the Seller is in a rush to sell.  Vacant land and no existing loans? Hmmm. Here are the first few questions we posed to … Read more

YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, WE HAVE ANSWERS! VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT (Real questions sent to us – verbatim!) Last month I talked about a transaction in which a property owned since the 1950s by the same family was transferred willy nilly between family members, leaving us scratching our heads to figure out who actually … Read more

YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, WE HAVE ANSWERS! VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT (Real questions sent to us – verbatim!) This month, I want to address the unintended consequences of adding or removing people on your property ownership without proper background knowledge, thought and/or consideration. I know I have talked about this numerous times through the … Read more

YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, WE HAVE ANSWERS! VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT (Real questions sent to us – verbatim!) QUESTION: Is my transaction finished? When can I go out of town? ANSWER: Well, that was not an actual question posed to us; you might say this is a question that frustrated escrow officers hope to … Read more

YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, WE HAVE ANSWERS! VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT (Real questions sent to us – verbatim!) QUESTION: Even though I am the only seller, the property used to belong to my mother and there is an agreement that the proceeds from the sale are to be divided equally between 4 brothers and … Read more

GOOD NEWS! The FinCEN AML Real Estate Reporting Rule is (temporarily?) on hold. A District Judge in Texas vacated the rule and FinCEN has agreed. No filing of information on reportable transactions required at this time. Check with your Escrow Officer for their procedure at this time. See the FinCEN two-line Alert on https://www.fincen.gov/rre And … Read more

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR –It’s the YEAR OF THE HORSE! YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, WE HAVE ANSWERS!VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT(Real questions sent to us – verbatim!) QUESTION: I am a Buyer and there is a charge of $1,350 on my estimated closing statement for a “private transfer fee” that I do not remember agreeing … Read more

IMPORTANT REAL ESTATE RULING COMING UP! THE FINCEN ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING RULING FOR RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS  This month, in lieu of my standard escrow related questions and answers, it is important to bring my readers up to date on a defining government ruling that is bringing anxiety to our real estate and escrow industry. The … Read more

YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, WE HAVE ANSWERS!VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT(Real questions sent to us – verbatim!) QUESTION: I am supposed to put 5% for down payment, but the escrow wants me to bring in so much more that it looks like I have to come up with over 10% to pay the down payment … Read more

YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, WE HAVE ANSWERS! VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT (Real questions sent to us – verbatim!) QUESTION: I would like to add my kids to the ownership of the property. Can you help me with that? ANSWER: My answer is two-fold. First, I regret that we do not do transfer of ownership … Read more