How Should I Prepare To Buy Or Sell A Property?
If you are the seller, you want to be able to provide the prospective buyer as broad, full, and complete disclosure as possible. That should include all of the deeds that you have, what you are aware of as far as the use of the property, conflict with the neighbors, and property lines. If you have surveys, those should be provided. If you are aware of defects in the survey or competing surveys that are different than your survey, those should be disclosed. It is a good idea for the seller to hire a licensed contractor to go through the house and identify all the defects that are in the house and give that report to the prospective buyer after they have entered into the transaction and made their deposit to escrow.
If you are a buyer, collect all of the information available regarding the property and the seller. Hire a licensed contractor to inspect the house. Your contractor should get up on the roof, if the house is on a foundation, the contractor should go under the crawl space, and look at the house from top to bottom to identify through a report what is wrong with the house. Also, if it is a house is on a parcel that has not been recorded under the Sub-Division map act, you should have a surveyor come out to identify where the corners of the property are and identify any encroachments. Even if the house is on a parcel created under the Subdivision Map Act, the corner markers should be identified to verify that there are no encroachments.
There are title insurance policy products that will incorporate a recorded survey and insure the property that is described under that survey. To make certain that you actually are going to enjoy the property that you spent your money on, you need to go into the transaction planning on identifying exactly what it is that you have purchased and then getting insurance on it. One commoner issue for buyers is that real estate agents want to select who the title insurance company is going to be. The buyer, who is going to be living in the property and dealing with the future title insurance problems, should be the one who selects who is going to insure their property.
What Are Common Issues That Affect Title That Can Hold Up A Real Estate Transaction?
Mechanic’s liens, HOA assessments, tax liens, or matters that will appear on a preliminary title report will prevent a clear transfer of title. If there are sufficient proceeds that are generated through the sale, escrow will typically pay those off at the time of transfer.
Holding up a real estate transaction is not necessarily a bad thing, particularly if there are problems that justify canceling the entire transaction. The buyer should never be rushed through it. They need to meet the deadlines that are set forth in their contract to make their disclosures or to review the disclosures and to drop their contingencies or have those extended under the contract, but it should not be a failed transaction. A failed transaction, from the buyer’s perspective, is not something to be feared and they should not allow themselves to be rushed, particularly in the inspection and the investigation periods. Likewise, during the escrow process and the final signing of papers, one should be careful about the documents that have been tendered. Although it is rare, escrow documents that were previously approved might have been swapped. Financing documents should be verified for the agreed upon interest rate.
For more information on Preparing For A Real Estate Transaction, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (619) 464-1500 today.
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