Title Tip
By Lydia Blair Special Contributor When signing documents for a home sale or purchase, the numbers are figured to the penny and the signatures are scrutinized to the letter. Quite a volume and variety of paperwork is involved. Signatures and initials are required on deeds, disclosures, waivers, affidavits, notes, supplementary lender and title company documents,…
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By Lydia Blair Special Contributor When putting a contract on a property, a buyer can usually expect to write two checks to accompany their contract — an option fee check and an earnest money check. There is no strict rule about how much each of these checks must be. The amount of this up-front money…
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By Lydia Blair Special Contributor A CandysDirt.com reader writes “My title company is now requiring a MERP certificate from the state any time a deal involves a deceased seller, and it’s slowing closing down BIG TIME. Does anybody else have the same process with their title company, or am I on my own here? How…
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By Lydia Blair Special Contributor There are lots of kinds of insurance. There’s homeowner insurance, auto insurance, health insurance, life insurance, liability insurance … You can insure just about anything of value. “We focus mostly on property and casualty insurance,” says insurance agent Amanda Campbell of Smith Allen Insurance. But she and other insurance companies…
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By Lydia Blair Special Contributor Your home might be made of bricks and stones, but your property rights are more like a bundle of sticks. It might be a big bundle or a little bundle. Some sticks are larger than others. But each stick represents a right to your real estate. In the beginning of…
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