The New Year is here, you are ready to purchase a new home, what’s new?? The biggest and most significant industry change in years, maybe even decades, has come from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD has revised the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and the HUD-1 Settlement Statement to try and [...]

What is the Statement of Information?
Upon the opening of escrow, Buyers and Sellers receive their initial escrow package – the Statement of Information (also known as the Statement of Identity) is included in this package for completion and return to the escrow holder.
The statement of information is a one page document which requests the party’s [...]

The escrow process can be a complicated and often technical necessity of buying and selling real estate.  The escrow company and its officer have many duties to juggle on behalf of the Realtor, Seller, and Buyer during the real estate transaction.  Understanding the various duties and functions of the escrow can assist all parties in [...]

Do you have a foreign investor or buyer looking to purchase a home in California? Our experience has been that if the client writes a personal check drawn on a foreign bank, it may take several weeks to be able to verify that the check has actually cleared. On the other hand, deposit checks we [...]

To help consumers more easily understand settlement costs and prevent big price discrepancies between the preliminary Good Faith Estimate and the HUD-1 settlement statement, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has created stricter Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) regulations are scheduled to take effect by April, 2010. (The regulations originally were [...]

How would you react if you had a limited amount of funds in the bank to pay for closing costs and then were hit with hundreds of dollars in extra “unexpected” closing costs? This is a problem that the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) was enacted to eliminate. The goal of RESPA is stop [...]

When purchasing real property in California you may discover that the property is subject to Mello-Roos. Mello-Roos is the common verbiage used to describe a tax that is imposed upon real property that falls within a Mello-Roos District. This tax or fee, which is a form of financing, can be used by cities, counties, and [...]

To help homeowners over the age of 55 be able to afford to move to a different home in California or purchase a “move down” home and not suffer an increase in property taxes, Propositions 60 and 90 were passed.  The Propositions, also known as the Reappraisal Exclusion Program, provide a one-time property tax relief [...]

What is a title binder? No, it’s not the binder you take to keep your notes in concerning your title and escrow proceedings. It IS something that you should know about to save money if plan on selling your home within 2 years after its purchase.
A title binder, also known as an interim binder, is [...]

Did you know that in several counties in California, Propositions 58 and 193  can save homeowners money in the transfer of property between parents and children and even grandchildren? These propositions are geared towards keeping property “in the family” and both propositions help avoid a forced sale if the home is reappraised and the taxes [...]