There are many implications of loans that are either “Assumptive,” or “Subject To.” Here is a general overview of some of the definitional differences between the two and how the differences affect the escrow process.
Let’s define Assumption Loans:
The term “assumption” is used when a buyer incurs personal liability for an existing deed of trust. If the buyer were to default on their future mortgage payments, the seller would no longer have any responsibility as the buyer has “assumed” the loan.
When a buyer “assumes” a loan it is with the lender’s knowledge and approval. An assumption agreement is prepared by the existing lender of record and signed by the buyer as part of the escrow process. The seller may also be required to sign the assumption agreement and the terms may release the seller from responsibility. The lender usually requires a credit history from the buyer before approving the assumption and the payment of assumption fee(s). The loan will be brought current (if it is delinquent) and interest will be pro-rated through escrow and charged to the seller.
Let’s define Subject To Loans:
In contrast to an Assumption Loan, the term “taking subject to” is when the buyer incurs no liability to repay the loan. The loan stays in the seller’s name, but the buyer gets the deed and therefore controls the property. Although the buyer makes the mortgage payments, the seller remains responsible for the loan.
When a buyer takes title to property “Subject To” the loan of record, the lender is not notified of the transaction or asked for their approval. The Lender has not approved the transfer of title; therefore the seller is not released from responsibility. In this case, the buyer is simply making the payments instead of the seller. The seller will be asked to provide escrow with their last payment record which will be used to calculate the exact principal balance at close of escrow. The lender may have the right to accelerate their due date or call the loan all due and payable when (and if) they receive notification of a transfer of ownership.
If you have additional questions about assumption vs. subject to loans, please don’t hesitate to one of our knowledgeable escrow officers here at CV Escrow.
Every Tuesday, here at the CV Escrow website will be posting Technology Tips designed to help you, the Realtor, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of Real Estate.
Are you looking for an international buyer for your listing which would make a fabulous second home? Interested in getting your listings exposed to those potential foreign buyers? Although sites like Realtor.com do a great job of reaching a national audience, wouldn’t it be better if your listing was appearing in the currency of the country that it is appearing in? How about having your listing translated into the language of the country you are targeting? Or maybe you just want to make sure your listings are appearing on sites that rank well with Google in foreign countries. Although still fairly new and evolving, a growing area of online real estate marketing is in international listing websites and portals. Some are specific to a country, while others are trying to develop a global listing database. It is still too early to determine who the winner of this latest phase of real estate website positioning is going to be, but here are a few sites to watch, and check out for your current and future listings:
GlobalEdge:
Billing themselves as “The Business Portal for Overseas Properties” this site is based in the UK is “an award-winning trade portal designed to help real estate agents and property developers do business overseas”. In order to participate on this site, you need to create an account. They have several pricing models which range from free to £250/month. For £15/month you can showcase 3 of your best listings. In addition, this site has a property portal section which is an “independent analysis of the best overseas property portals” presented by region and by country. This is an excellent resource if you are trying to target a specific country for your listing.
Enormo:
With the tagline “Every Property, Everywhere”, this site aims to be an international listing portal and translates your listing into approximately 30 languages for a moderate monthly fee. Realtors can list their properties on the website, provided they have a website of their own. Specific details and pricing information is available by filling out their interest/inquiry form here.
Property Showrooms:
Based in Spain and a respected site amongst the European investor community, this site allows agents to post unlimited listings for 75 EURO/month with a 3 month minimum sign up period. Their site describes itself as:
Winner of CNBC Best Portal, frequently mentioned in the worlds press such as The Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, and The South China Morning Post. As a result we appear at the top of Google, Yahoo and the other major search engines providing extensive background information, up to date news and services for both the public and industry alike.
Point2Homes:
A listings syndication service based in Canada, Point2Homes has a free 3 month trial membership where you can upload your listings and choose where they are distributed. After 3 months, the price is $9.95/month. Point2Homes is a great way to exposure your listings to many sources at once, including leading national, and international websites. The process is manual and requires you to create an account and upload your listing data.
All Global Properties:
As of the time of this post, the ability to upload listings in the United States is not possible, but the team behind this site (the REA Group) has a lot of visibility and credibility, so it is one to watch. Currently they feature listings in Australia, Belgium, Dubai, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, and the UK. The site offers consumers advice on buying properties oversees and until they offer US listings, might be a good place for buyers agents to consider advertising their US Services to international buyers (via banner ads, for example).
Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (www.CoachellaValleyEscrow.com) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.
The term REO stands for Real Estate Owned properties. These are properties that are owned by a bank or lender and are for sale to the public. These properties were reverted back to the bank after the homeowner was foreclosed upon. If the home fails to sell at auction, the bank will put up the property up for sale through a Realtor much in the same way a homeowner lists their property for sale with a Realtor when selling their home. The key difference with REO listings is that the bank (or lender) is the seller verses the homeowner as the seller in a traditional listing.
REO properties are a hot commodity right now as roughly half of the foreclosures going to auction are reverting to REOs. More and more people are seeing that they can get a great price on an REO property and still enjoy a buying process that is very similar to buying a home in the traditional fashion. However, because the property is owned by the bank or lender, in an REO purchase transaction, there are a few differences in the escrow process from a traditional home purchase transaction.
REO listings offer viewings and inspections just like traditional home buying; the big difference is really in the often rock bottom price and the closing procedures. This is because banks are not in the business of owning Real Estate; their interest is to resell the property as quickly as possible to avoid further risk exposure. As a result, REOs come with a very strict and tight escrow timeline. Most REOs have a 30 day closing, in some states it can be 45 days, and either way banks are not willing to be flexible.
There are a lot of REO properties available right now so if you’re ready to buy and looking for a deal, now is a great time to consider an REO purchase. Your Realtor can advise you on the opportunities and your CV Escrow officer can walk you through a detailed explanation of the REO escrow process. To learn more about the REO buying process and its Escrow implications check out, Bargain Shopping at the Bank-An REO Purchase Overview.
Every Tuesday, here at the CV Escrow website will be posting Technology Tips designed to help you, the Realtor, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of Real Estate.
What is a Blog?
You aren’t the only one asking. As I talk with Realtors about social media, this is one of the most common questions I get. Blog is a contraction of web log. In its simplest of descriptions, it is a type of website. It is a type of website that allows for entries to be posted (like journal entries, or articles) that are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order (By the way, you are reading a blog right now). Blogs are a type of social media – this is because blogs allow for interaction with readers because they can post comments on articles which creates the opportunity for interaction with your blog audience.
Blog Terminology Basics:
Blog (noun):
A type of website that allows for entries to be posted (like journal entries, or articles) that are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. For example, this article you are now reading is part of the CV Escrow Blog. Blog entries remain indefinitely on the site and are always available to readers. Often, blogs allow for the current article to be distributed to its readers via email in addition to always being available on the site.
Blog/Blogging (verb):
To maintain or add content to a blog. Example: I “blog” by writing the weekly technology tip series of articles that you are reading on the CV Escrow Blog. Or, Stacey is blogging this week about the topic of Social Networking for Realtors.
Blogger (noun):
The person who generates the content for the site. I, Stacey Harmon, am a blogger because I am writing this post. Also, the escrow officers at CV Escrow are bloggers because they are generating posts about escrow topics like The Opening Package From Escrow – Why it Matters.
Post (noun):
This is the term most often used for a particular entry, or article that appears on the blog. Posts typically will have a headline, an author, and the article. For example, right now you are reading a post titled “What is a Blog & How Does it Relate to Real Estate?”, authored by me. The most recent post appears at the top of the blog. The post is also classified part of a particular category (in our case, some of our categories are “Escrow”, “Technology Tuesday Tips”, and “Events”). These categories make it easy for you to find a post on a particular topic after some time has passed and the post is no longer at the top of the page.
Subscribe (verb):
One of the great features of blogs is that readers can subscribe to the site. Many of you are reading this post in your email – that is because you are subscribed to our blog, meaning you don’t have to go to the CV Escrow blog to read the new posts. Instead, they come straight to your inbox. As you find other blogs on the web, they will also have the ability for you to put in your email address and have their posts come directly to you – keep an eye out for this. It makes staying updated very convenient! (Sometimes the subscribe functionality is presented as “RSS” – this is an alternative way to subscribe to the site, and wording to look out for if you don’t see the word “subscribe” on the site)
Who Blogs?
These days it seems that everyone is blogging: The Administration, Martha Stewart, Mark Cubin, The Desert Sun, and CV Escrow. Blogging has grown exponentially over the past few years. According to the New Media Lab 2008 Social Media White Paper, there are 184 million people worldwide that have started a blog, 346 million people read blogs, and 95% of the top 100 U.S. newspapers have reporter blogs. In addition, there are roughly 1 million blog posts every day.
So, How Does Blogging Fit with Real Estate?
For Realtors, having a blog offers the opportunity to express and establish their expertise out on the internet (where we all know buyers are looking, and sellers are wanting their listings to be), rank well with Google (blogging is by definition VERY search engine friendly), reach a geographically wide audience, and/or target specific niches, all in a very financially affordable way. Compared to print marketing, blogging is cheap (it can even be free!). But, keep in mind that blogging takes time. And, you should have an average, or above average, ability to write. If you are not developing content that people want to read, you are not going to have an effective blog. So, blogging may or may not be the right decision for your business. However, even if you decide that a blog isn’t going to be a part of your current business plan, understanding what a blog is, and reading blogs, can be a very helpful in your education process and real estate career. There are some outstanding blogs focused on the real estate industry. I highlighted one last week. And, for the curious, here are a few more.
Real Estate Blogs to Check Out:
Realtors:
- Miamism: Maimi real estate blog by Enrique Garcia & Ines Hegedus-Garcia
- Phoenix Real Estate Guy: Jay Thompson’s blog on all things Phoenix Real Estate
- First Time LA Home Buyer: Great niche marketing blog by Los Angeles Realtor Nick Segal
- Active Rain: Over 130,000 Realtors and affiliates belong to this site and blog about all things real estate. This site is a great way to get started blogging (it is free, and easy - just sign up for an account). Update > Active Rain changed their policy this week…blogging at their site is still easy, but now there is a moderate monthly fee for new accounts if you want the public to see it. I still think that it is an excellent way for Realtors to start blogging however.
Industry News:
Another Perspective – Blogs In Plain English:
Also, Common Craft has done a great video illustrating the concept of blogs. It isn’t real estate specific, but does a great job of showing how blogs came to be and the value that blogs provide. It is well worth the 3 minute watch:
If you think that blogging might be for you, stay tuned. Future posts will discuss great ways to get started with blogging as well as vendors who can help you execute a full blogging strategy.
Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (www.CoachellaValleyEscrow.com) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.
Demystifying the escrow process for buyers is part of our goal here at CV Escrow. One of the ways we accomplish this is by providing buyer’s a detailed opening package. This package contains a particular form called a Vesting Form that is integral to the escrow process and to the buyer’s future interest in the property. Simply put, it requires the buyer to outline how they will hold title to their new property.
The vesting of a title should be given special consideration because it specifies who is responsible for the costs, benefits, and transferability of a property. The value of real property is significant and with a little forethought, conflict can be avoided down the road with partners, creditors, spouses and/or heirs, as well as the Internal Revenue Service.
The most common forms of holding title include:
-
Sole Ownership
- As a single man or woman
- As a Married man or woman
- As a registered domestic partner, man or woman.
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Co-ownership
- Community property, which is the presumed form for married couples. This entitles each party to equal parts of the property.
- Community property with rights of survivorship, which automatically transfers the property to the survivor in the face of a death.
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Joint Tenancy
- This includes equal interests with rights of survivorship, but where the partners aren’t necessarily married.
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Tenancy in Common
- In this form, the parties’ interests are broken up, and the costs and benefits are then divided as such.
It’s important to remember that the form of title that you choose has inheritance and/or tax implications. Your escrow officer at CV Escrow is more than happy to explain the differences between the various manners in which title can be held. However, it is beyond our scope to actually recommend what would be best for a buyer. For that, the buyer should consult an attorney, CPA or estate planner who is more familiar with the buyer’s specific situation. Research and clear communication with one of these resources will help make the transaction a smooth success.
Every Tuesday, here at the CV Escrow website will be posting Technology Tips designed to help you, the Realtor, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of Real Estate.
If you are a Realtor that wants a leg up on the competition, you are off to a good start. By reading this weekly technology tip series, you will be introduced to an array of tools that will help you be informed and stay a step ahead. And, one of my goals with this series is to introduce you to other great websites that will help you continue your education about the industry and allow you to evolve with it.
This week, I’m bringing to your attention to AgentGenius.com – a online real estate industry magazine that discusses “what’s hot in technology, new and inventive real estate business models, the nature of the real estate industry, hot topics that impact consumers and so much more…”
The site has great contributors including a host of agents who are actually making money by applying social media techniques to their real estate business. You will also find content related to real estate coaching, ethics, marketing, tech & new media, mortgage, and more. The days of the Realtor magazine delivered via snail mail have evolved. You can now get up to the minute articles and discussions about what is happening in the industry right now. It is a great site!
And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Inman News awarded them an Innovator Award for 2008. So, AgentGenius.com is definitely a site to watch, one to bookmark, and if you are so inclined, one to subscribe to (just like you can or have subscribed to this one – why not have the information come straight to your email?! – if you have no idea how to do this, just send an email to stacey@staceyharmon.com and I’ll be happy to help you).
Happy reading!
Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (CoachellaValleyEscrow.com) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.
Buying an REO (or Real Estate Owned) property is a little different escrow process than your standard home sale. Realtors and buyers need to remember that they are in escrow with a bank/lender (the “seller”) and that the bank/lender has strict procedures in place to follow during the process. Here’s a glimpse into details to look out for if you’re in an REO transaction and CV Escrow is your escrow provider:
- Escrow isn’t officially open until the seller has uploaded the contract into the seller’s online systems, it’s been signed by both the buyer and seller, and it shows as a “task” in the seller’s online system to open escrow.
- Escrow instructions, preliminary title and commission orders will be e-mailed 48 hours from the receipt of the seller’s fully executed contract.
- Loan documents must be received 24 hours before the buyer’s appointment to sign.
- Expect to wait up to 5 days from the buyer’s signing date for escrow to receive the estimated HUD approval from the seller.
- Once approval is obtained, the file is set to record the following business day after the lender’s funds have been received.
- Funds are usually distributed 24-72 hours after recording. This timing is subject to seller’s approval of the final HUD statement.
Also important to keep in mind is that communication with CV Escrow regarding your transaction is generally most efficient via email. Email communication provides a written record and time stamp of the communication and allows your escrow officer to respond in a timely manner.
Understanding these details can help to set the proper expectations with buyers and help ensure that your next REO escrow goes as smooth as possible.
Every Tuesday the CV Escrow blog will be posting Technology Tips designed to help you, the Realtor, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of Real Estate.
A few weeks ago, I had a post that addressed Social Media for Realtors, which introduced Realtors to the concept of social media, and provided a case for why Realtors should care about it.
In today’s post, we are going to address a related concept: Social Networking. Realtors know the importance of networking. It is the basis for many successful real estate careers. And for the Realtor who is looking to evolve their business, or find new networking opportunities, the online world provides ample opportunities. You just need to get started!
As a first step, here is a quick video from Common Craft that explains the concept behind online social networking:
As this video points out, there “are hidden opportunities” out there within your network and social networking sites make these opportunities more visible. Think this just might have some positive implications for a Realtor?
I certainly believe so. There are great social farming opportunities for Realtors today who embrace the popular social networking sites. There is a great white paper on Social Media Statistics available at the New Media Lab which summarizes the explosive growth of social networking sites over the past year. If you are ready to get started and participate in this new wave of networking, I suggest creating an account on two of the most popular social networking sites out there:
1. LinkedIn: This social networking site is probably the most professional and formal of all the sites out there. Once you have an account, you are able to search for people you know based on your current and prior jobs, as well as classmates from your educational past. There are many Realtors on Linked In, and a great way to get started is to connect with others from your brokerage. The New Media Lab white paper reports that LinkedIn has 30.1 million users and site traffic grew 153% in 2008 and 319% since 2007.
2. Facebook: This social network has exploded in popularity, especially in the age ranges that are homebuyers. According to a June 20th, 2008 Strategy Labs article, Facebook is experiencing explosive growth in the 25-34, 35-54 and 55+ age groups. The 35-54 year old segment grew 172.9% in 10 months – the other two mentioned are growing at a rate of 97%+. Facebook is less formal than Linked In and one of the most powerful features is the ability to share photographs with those you are connected to. You are likely to find some of your past clients on Facebook. If you find someone you want to connect with on Facebook, you send them a “friend request” and they will approve or deny the request. If they approve the request, you will then be “Facebook Friends” and you will have access to their profile.
One thing to keep in mind in social networking, a “friend” is not the same definition of a friend in the offline world. Friend is a very loose term in social networking. You may have never met your online friend in person before. But, you may share something in common that makes it worthwhile for you to connect together online. For example, maybe you both are golf fanatics and belong to the same golf club. You might reach out and connect with this person by sending a friend request (in Facebook terms). If accepted, you would be connected to this person and now you are “friends” in the online social networking world. You will need to pick your strategy to decide if you want to friend people who you know or not. For a few perspectives on this and some “online netiquette tips” take a look here, here, and here.
There is no time like the present to get started. Your next client could be just a friend request away!
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