Gee V. Sun

Investors often find lenders ' requirements for title seasoning an obstacle to selling their properties. Holding costs and declining market value can eat into profits. Leaving a house vacant can make it a target for vandalism. So... What is title seasoning? This refers to the length of time a person 's name has been on the title document recorded on a piece of real estate. Lenders ' underwriting guidelines vary as to how long a person 's name must be on title for a purchaser to buy an investor 's home or for the investor to refinance the property and cover his costs to rehab it. Why did lenders institute the title seasoning requirement? Can we say mortgage fraud? The scenario goes like this: Crook #1 buys a house for $100,000 in Week 1 and sells it to Crook #2 for $150,000 in Week #3. Crook #2 has his sister, brother-in-law, cousin Marvin appraise the property for $200,000 in Week #5 and in Week #6 sells it to Clueless Buyer who is so afraid of being priced out of a rapidly escalating housing market that she pays him a $25,000 premium over his asking price just to stay out of a bidding war. Problem is, Clueless Buyer is often a figment of some hot shot creative loan broker 's imagination trying to score a commission, points on the loan or the yield spread premium from the lender. After a few hundred of these scenarios, lenders wised up and wanted to believe they could stop property flipping (which is not illegal). Hey, it worked great - right up until about 2003. This is

2) Repair Theory – Damages should put things in the state that they were specified in the contract (IE fix the land as per the contract)

But the law has evolved to where the seller has to disclose material, latent defects that they are aware of pertaining to the home that is being sold. Failure to disclose defects is a part of the evolution of the law. Under failure to disclose, if the seller is found o have known about a material defect, not disclosed the defect, and the buyer relies on the seller’s word to their detriment, the seller is found to be liable to failure to disclose. For example, in Johnson v. Davis, 480 So. 2d. 625, the Johnson’s know of the leaky roof in the home that they were selling to the Davises, but the represented the home as if there were no defects. The Courts rules in the Davises favor because the Johnsons had a duty to disclose defects that are material so that the buyer will not rely detrimentally on them. The same rule applies in the Powell v. Knox case. The current case distinguishes from the Johnson v. Davis case because Mr. Knox testified that he had no knowledge of the contaminated soil in the backyard, because he and his late wife never attempted to plant veggie only flowers. He also testified that his hearing is not that best, which prohibited him from hearing the parties across the street. The jury found that Mr. Knox was not had liable for failure to disclose due to Mr. Knox not having prior knowledge of the defects and the Powells willingness to overlook the issue for the chandelier in Mr. Knox’s

They never realized that they were using their home as collateral or that the documents were applications to secure equity loans, line of credits, and modifications. It was proven that many could not read or write. Nevertheless, the banks were able to move forward with the foreclosures and the victims lost their home to either the bank or the contractors. Despite the clear demonstration of criminal activity, no arrests were made and very few consequences directed toward those licensed to uphold the highest standards and to protect the consumer. The fraud and abuse was so widespread throughout the entire real estate industry. Mortgage and real estate brokers, roofers, contractors, surveyors, inspectors, and bankers; there was definitely enough blame to go around.

The Truth in Lending Act (hereafter “TILA”) has engendered many conflicting opinions regarding two distinct issues: first, what actions constitute the act of rescission under 15 U.S.C. § 1635 (hereafter § 1635); and second, how courts should apply the Act’s statute of limitations under § 1635(f) to acts of rescission under § 1635(a). The issue of a mortgagor’s act of rescission has been widely debated since the Consumer Leasing Act of 1976 amended TILA to include the provisions at issue, and the courts cannot agree on what is actually required to effect a rescission, while the Supreme Court has definitively resolved the issue of temporality when a mortgagor attempts to rescind their mortgage in the case Beach v. Ocwen, decided in

Opening a new business, remodeling a house, and buying land could all be exciting opportunities; it creates a chance for an owner to make something their own. It takes time and dedication, trial and error, money and divergent thinking, but in the end of all the sacrifice and dedication, that land, or house becomes everything the owner could have ever wanted and more, because it is their dream and they created it. However, dreams can falter, that owner with the new business believes full heartedly in having a future and a successful business, but over time things change and unfortunately that business that was once strong, now becomes repossessed. That new home has been foreclosed, and that pure land, rich in soil is now sold to a high-end

Although there were public meetings held on the issue, there was no personal notice to either the owner or the purchaser and depending on how notice was made of the meetings, both the owner and the purchaser may have valid arguments, but their rights were usurped in violation of procedural due process. However, here again, as the county is acting under its power to promote public welfare, it will survive any challenge made by Ms. Owner or Mr. Purchaser that there were violations of due

The contractor, upon the breach of his obligations, he caused some damages to the owner and he should be exposed to forfeiture.

Although this statement goes without saying, it 's worth mentioning simply because many of those looking to purchase commercial real estate believe it is standard protocol to rely upon the realtor 's recommendation for hiring an inspector. In reality, this practice poses a conflict of interest that can have dire consequences for the party purchasing the property. Unfortunately, real estate agents who knowingly partake in this practice along with inspectors who continue to burn the candle from both ends know exactly what they 're doing and how to get away with it. While there may be a few exceptions to what I am telling you, I can assure you that the majority of inspectors who rely heavily upon referrals from real estate agents for their business are not going to rock the boat by disclosing

home buyer has so few options against a home seller when it is believed the

Title insurance is a contract and a risk management tool that protects insurance holders against loss resulting due to title defects, survey defects, title fraud encroachments etc. It originated in United States due to shortcomings of the inadequate deed registry system. In 1876 a group of Philadelphia conveyancers founded the very first title insurance company; the company claimed that it would secure the purchaser’s real estate and mortgages against losses from defective title, liens and encumbrances (McAndrews, 2012). Although initial use of title insurance in Canada was to facilitate land transactions involving American interests, since the early 1990s use of title insurance has dramatically increased. Many title insurance providers stress the importance of title insurance during a real estate transaction. In fact some companies go so far as to suggest that title insurance eliminates the need for a comprehensive title search and a Survey Real Property Report (SRPR). As mentioned earlier, title insurance is a risk management tool. For many people, property is the biggest investment of their lifetime. Therefore, buyers need to thoroughly understand what exactly title insurance is, but most importantly they need to be aware of what it is not. Title insurance should be complementary to the SRPR, which shows the buyer the quality and the extent of the title prior to a property transaction. Title insurance by no means can replace a SRPR prepared by a professional land

This paper will seek to provide an overview of the real estate process and its affects on the real estate agent. An agent needs to be knowledgable about the steps required to make a sale, and the risks involved when the sale does not go as planned. Real estate sales require much of the agent, including sacrifices in their personal lives and in their financial stability. Agents must be teachable and willing to seek to see others succeed. A successful real estate sale consists of many steps, sacrifices to personal time, and an agent’s ability to work well with others while remaining incredibly flexible.

Another recent observation is an increase in the number of assets in “pending contract” that fall out because the “buyer” fails to return the purchase agreement. This trend has continued to increase over the past several months. Although Altisource does not provide statistics regarding overall fallout, RMS has seen an increase based on our observations and the weekly calls. We believe this relates to the process by which Altisource sells REO assets (on the HUBZU website), where there is no “economic penalty” to the bidder if they place an offer on a property but fail to deliver an executed purchase agreement (similar to what would happen in a traditional sale transaction). In addition, we believe the lack of “agent to agent” contact and knowledge of whether a buyer visits the property prior to making an offer also play a role in the increased fallout. Altisource reports

If parties enter into a contract that is reflective or derives from a mistake, under common law the contract may be void or voidable. The basis of this decision depends on the type of mistake. Shogun Finance Ltd v Hudson presented a unilateral mistake, in which only one party is mistaken, and in this case, a mistake as to the identity. The difficulty lies when judges must decide whether a contract is void or voidable, which will only protect one of the two arguably innocent parties, the original property owner or the bona fide purchaser. However, the approaches previously taken by the Courts have led to a lack of certainty and coherence in the interests of commercial transactions, and so the Shogun case presented an opportunity for clarification. I am going to raise the argument that the law of mistake is in need of a reform, by following Lord Millett’s proposal to no longer follow the cases Cundy v Lindsay and Ingram v Little. The reasoning within this argument will establish that the cases are inconsistent, lack support for third parties and fail to establish the authority of creditworthiness over identity in commercial contracts. Alternatively, the cases Phillips v Brooks and Lewis v Averay should be used to create a clear established line of case law which can be seen as a fair and practical approach towards mistake and protecting the bona fide purchaser.

Over the past decade, the real estate industry had been significantly affected by foreclosed properties. Due to the market crash, a lot of homeowners were forced to lose their homes to the bank. Not only are the homeowners affected but the negative impact also extends to the tenants.