One of an escrow officer’s simpler jobs is calculating the amount of property tax that is payable by the buyer and the seller on any given real estate transaction. One of the agent’s tougher jobs can be explaining to the buyer why they may get an official property tax adjustment bill months after the sale [...]

Real estate transactions, and the escrow processes that make then happen, sometimes have a level of industry jargon that can be confusing or intimidating to buyers and sellers who aren’t familiar with the meaning behind the words.
This is the first in a series of definitional posts designed to better inform buyers and sellers about the [...]

Closing fees are a prickly part of any real estate deal. This is where everybody involved in the sale and transfer – lenders, lawyers, government agencies, and the escrow company – add their numbers to the bottom line. Perhaps the worst thing about closing fees is that they often seem to come as a surprise. [...]

The typical real estate escrow requires the buyer to sign 70 – 120 pages of documents, several of which require notarization.  The seller also will have to notarize, at the minimum, the grant deed.  Notarization, or the act of an uninvolved witness (the Notary) verifying that the signor (the buyer or seller) is indeed who [...]

A probate sale is defined as the sale of a property where the owner is deceased and the sale is being conduced by the deceased estate.  An Administrator or Executor signs on behalf of the deceased person with either full or limited authority. Sometimes the deceased has a will. Sometimes they don’t.  Although the escrow [...]

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 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 [...]

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 [...]

Within 48 hours of receiving a contract, CV Escrow mails out an opening package to both the buyer and seller. These packages contain “homework”, i.e. paperwork that escrow needs back promptly in order to move forward and ensure that a transaction closes on schedule. It is integral to all deals that the buyers and sellers [...]

According to Merriam-Webster, escrow is defined as: a deed, a bond, money, or a piece of property held in trust by a third party to be turned over to the grantee only upon fulfillment of a condition.
Whether it is the buying and selling of a home, or the transfer of a business, the amount of [...]