ADVOCATE

If you’re regularly involved with the buying, selling or construction of property then you’ll probably know exactly how useful a property solicitor can be, and the advantages of learning a bit about property law. However, if you’ve never bought or sold a house before, or want to know more about rights of way, then you’ll need a property solicitor to help you.

1. A property law solicitor can help you with the purchase of your home, and make sure that all the necessary checks and surveys are carried out satisfactorily and in a timely manner. Buying a house is a stressful time, so you’ll want to make this as quick and easy as possible.

2. If you want to sell your home, then you’ll need to make sure that you carry out all the surveys, and checks that sellers need to do, so that you are in a position to be able to sell your home, an that things can move quickly, especially if you’re buying a home too.

3. Perhaps you’re looking at buying or selling agricultural property, and want to know more about the processes involved and whether you have the same sort of rights and obligations.

4. You might be interested in commercial property, either for your business, or as landlord or land owner. An experienced property solicitor will be able to tell you everything you need to know.

5. If you’re company is thinking of expanding, then you’ll need to know about the relevant planning laws and regulations, so that you can go ahead with your plans. A solicitor that specialises in property will be able to give you the best advice, so that you don’t make a costly mistake.

The status of the real estate today requires that every buyer puts some caution before investing huge money on a home purchase. While some people buy a home for actual use, some people actually buy new homes and turn it around as an investment – either by reselling or renting them out.

For whatever reason it may be, it is important that you, as the consumer, conduct your form of informal appraisal of the property before actually buying it. It is just like before hiring any new employee, you do a background check. It is just like before buying the latest gadget, you read reviews. This should be the similar attitude when buying a new home – check the public records on home sales – before any purchase.

There are many ways to do this. One is to check with the local government’s tax records to on the property you are considering. Otherwise, the realtor offering you the property or any realtor-friend (better as this serves as a third-party, honest opinion) should have the access to an MLS. This Multiple Listing Services is the most famous source for public records on home sales. MLS lists all information regarding property value, buyers information, sellers information, and other related details relevant to the property. Be on guard though on the accuracy of some details because some are hyped up to facilitate sales. It is still best to check on the county records since it is less biased and should be more accurate. An MLS can be accurate though and you would know that if you more or less have real estate basic knowledge. For instance, you may know that California property rates change like temperature and they hardly go back to its original price. Or you may know that the market value of downtown Chicago, Illinois properties are way higher than property rates in Minooka, Illinois. If you know basic knowledge and common sense on these properties, then you can assess the veracity of details presented on MLS.

A Real estate contract basically means the title transfer and transfer of ownership from one individual to the other. The two parties involved need to fulfil certain conditions so as to make it a completely legal document. The purchaser of the property needs to present bank verification notes to the seller of the property. The contract is entered and the transaction is closed then and there, if all the legal formalities are fulfilled.

Reading and understanding the Real Estate Contract is the initial step towards understanding the terms and conditions. Many of the individuals just go through the agreement without understanding the legal jargon and this form of carelessness could lead to many problems at a latter date. Before signing the contract, read between the lines and understand the deeper meaning of the contract.

It is of essence that you understand what goes into the making of a Real Estate Contract. A Real Estate Contract is a legal document. You need not be an authority on legal matters for understanding the contract agreement. With a little care and caution, you could go ahead and sign the agreement with self belief and confidence.

1) The Real Estate Contract should clearly state the names and addresses of both the parties involved that is the purchaser as well as the seller. The individuals should have completed eighteen years of age and should be mentally fit. This is absolutely important as otherwise the contract would not be approved legally.

2) A real estate contract can be executed only with mutual consent. It means the purchaser of the property is ready to buy the property at the price specified by the seller and is fully agreeable to the terms and conditions of the agreement

The real estate market in the United States of America is regulated by certain federal and state laws. The Truth in Lending Act is an important part of these laws. The three-day cancellation rule is a provision described in this act. As per this rule, you get the right to cancel a loan contract where you are using your primary residence as collateral. You have three business days to do this. However, in order to take advantage of this specific rule, there are several things that you need to know. You will find the following information very helpful in this regard.

The Three Conditions

The 3-day cancellation rule in the real estate market is applicable only if you meet these three conditions.

• You have received two copies of the Truth in Lending notice. The notice describes your right to cancel the loan in detail.
• You have also received the Truth in Lending Disclosure form, which outlines the payment schedule, amount financed, finance charge, and the annual percentage rate.
• You have signed the loan contract.

Inform Your Lender

If you fulfill the above mentioned three conditions, the first thing that you have to do is to inform your lender about your decision that you want to cancel the loan contract using the3-day cancellation rule of real estate. You have to inform this in writing. So, write a letter and mail the same (you can also fax it) to the lender, making sure that it will reach the lender before midnight on the third day. Oral intimation either face to face or on phone will not be considered in this regard.

During Those Three Business Days

In your everyday life you may need to find out who owns a property. Most of the people check this information while selling or buying a property to make fair dealings. If you are in the business of property and you frequently buy or sell houses then you should find out who owns a property because there is a great importance to verify the owner while finalizing any property agreement. With the advancement of technology, several ways have been introduced by means of which you can find out who owns a property and usually people prefer to go with cost effective and reliable ways.

You can visit county head-clerk office where records about people and properties are kept and maintained. After providing the address of the property you will find out who owns a property in 3-4 business days but since it takes a bit time so people usually avoid going there. Instead of checking records manually they prefer to use online resources as many websites are offering this service of checking the owner of a property.

You need to do some research in order to find a website that provides the facility to of checking public records on people and properties. They usually charge $20 to $50 to provide this service. After finding the owner of a house, you can perform background search to check criminal and fraudulent history. This is an amazing service by means of which you can have what you want within minutes.

Alternatively, you can use search engines for this purpose. Al you need is to type the address of the property in the search box and hit enter. Several results will be shown and you can easily pick reliable websites to find out who owns a property. Besides this you can also approach online directories like yellow or white pages online where after entering the address in the search column, the name, email and phone number of the owner will be appeared. But sometimes their information is outdated and not based on actual facts so people usually avoid this service.

There are two different laws that decide property ownership in the event of death or divorce. They are known as community property and common law. Common law is also known as separate property. The list of community property states only consists of nine states.

The majority of these states are out west. Community property means that anything acquired during the marriage belongs equally to the husband and wife. If the husband and wife get a divorce, they will be required to split their assets they earned while they were together right down the middle.

The states that follow the community property law are Arizona, Nevada, California, New Mexico, Idaho, Washington, Louisiana, Wisconsin and Texas. All of these states agree that everything earned during the marriage should be divided equally at the time of a divorce.

Unless an estate plan is clearly written out and notarized, each state will decide exactly who gets what in the even of a split between the couple. While they follow the same general rule, the courts will decide exactly how their assets will be divided if rules between spouses are not written clearly.

Alaska also falls under the list of community property states but has a little more leniency when it comes to the law. The couple can decide what property they will consider separate and what they will consider community. If someone lives in one of the nine community property states listed above, they have to be careful with any gifts or inheritance they may obtain during the marriage. If the individual decides they want to keep something that is given specifically to them, they need to put it in a separate account that is under their name only.

Today, the level of white-collar crime is on its highest. White-collar crime basically refers to a crime committed by person of high ranking positions in the course of their job. White-collar crime usually comes in the form of a threat, bribery, unfair promotions, deception, unfair practices, frauds and cheating in accounts, documents, stock etc. This is in contrast with the crimes known as blue-collar crimes – rape, murder, and homicide, among others. Of all these types of white-collar crime, nothing is more prevalent today than mortgage fraud.

Because of the cunning that most white-collar criminals have, it is typically hard to nip it in the bud and would usually only go to court when millions of dollars have already been carted away by the criminal or criminals involved. There have also been cases wherein people have committed mortgage fraud without intentionally doing so.

One of the things that you need to keep in mind is that mortgage fraud can come in two forms – as fraud for profit and fraud for housing. The former involves revolving equity and inflating the value of properties. Issuing loans based on fictitious properties is also considered to be a fraud for profit. Fraud for housing or fraud for property, on the other hand, is done in order for the borrower to acquire or maintain ownership of a property. In this case, the borrower usually doctors his income as well as employment history in order to get approval for loan.