If you’re buying a home, it’s likely one of the biggest transactions you’ll ever deal with.  When there are hundreds of thousands of dollars at play, you can be sure that scammers and fraudsters find a way to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers.  Even experienced real estate agents can be fooled or hacked. The amount of paperwork – even though it’s mostly digital these days – is overwhelming.  The fact that most documents are signed and money is typically transferred online makes it easier for cybercriminals to get into the middle of transactions.  Let’s look at just a ..read more

If you and your child’s other parent need to formalize child custody arrangements and a parenting plan, you may have heard that you’ll need to seek a resolution that meets the “best interests of the child” standard.  What exactly is this standard?  How can you and your co-parent approach the responsibilities that the standard requires you both to meet?  The answers to these inquiries are relatively straightforward.  The basics of child custody Every family law court in Pennsylvania and throughout the U.S. is required to resolve child custody and parenting plan disputes in t ..read more

For the past two years, the price of homes in the United States has generally gone up.  In some areas, this has just been a small increase.  In many, it has been a dramatic increase, with some homes doubling or even tripling in value. However, new reports from this fall show that the market may be turning at last.  Home prices could have hit their peak and may be starting to fall back down once more.  Of course, it is impossible to know if this trend will continue until more evidence has been gathered, but the signs are there.  The market is beginning to change, and ho ..read more

As the executor of an estate, you have to manage the maintenance of multiple assets and potentially either transfer them to people or sell them as part of the probate process.  The real estate owned by the decedent will probably be the most valuable asset you have to manage, and it can also be one of the biggest challenges in estate administration. For example, perhaps the testator wants to leave the home to one beneficiary, but there is a lien outstanding on the title that financial records seem to imply has been paid in full.  When there are title blemishes that will prevent the tr ..read more

If this is your first time selling a home, or you haven’t sold one in many years, you may be surprised when your real estate agent forwards emails or letters to you from buyers interested in your home. These are known in the real estate business as “love letters.”  They became popular some time ago as a way for home buyers to stand out from the crowd in a competitive market when they found the home of their dreams.  They usually tell the seller about themselves and their family and detail what it is about the home they especially like and why they can see themselves living there.&nbs ..read more

Sellers hoping to close a sale will often misrepresent the value or condition of the item in question.  Buyers have to be careful not to let someone take advantage of them or to make a mistake in how much they pay for a specific asset. The risk of misrepresentation affecting someone’s life is significant when the property in question is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.  There is plenty of motive for a seller to hide information about a property when listing a home for sale, which could easily lead to someone overpaying for a property in need of many expensive repairs. Pennsylv ..read more

The constitution gives the government power to acquire private property for public use, such as roads, schools or public buildings.  This can happen even if the property owner does not intend or wish to sell the property.  However, the government must pay just compensation to take over your property. As a property owner, it is worthwhile to understand how eminent domain works, the limitations and your legal rights as an affected party. The eminent domain procedure The process begins with the approval of a public project or plan by a government organization with the power of eminent d ..read more

Whether you have been in your home for years or just moved into a new place, you have every right to enjoy your property.  Very few people live in completely isolated areas with no neighbors.  This means that you’re going to have to share a part of the road or avenue that you are in. Often, this goes swimmingly, with neighbors saying hello, minding their own business or even becoming friendly.  Sadly, things can go wrong. Your neighbor is making loud noises on a repeated basis and at unsociable times.  Sometimes, it’s blaring music, and other times it’s domestic arguments ..read more

When you got engaged, your significant other gave you an engagement ring.  It’s very expensive and incredibly important to you. During the course of your marriage, you simply thought of this as an asset that you owned together. But now you and your spouse have decided to get a divorce.  Your spouse has told you that they want the engagement ring back. Their reasoning is that they only gave you that ring because they wanted to be married, so they should get it back now that you’re not going to be married any longer.  They would like to sell it to recover the money they spent. Of ..read more

Around this time of year, people are buying their first homes.  Home buying is stressful and many first-time home buyers rush into a purchase without checking off all their boxes. Before you buy a home, you may want to make sure you have everything covered.  Here are five errors you definitely don’t want to make: 1. Skipping an inspection Many first-time home buyers don’t realize they can or should hire a home inspector.  Inspectors can find major flaws in a home that might make or break a purchase.  You may even avoid a “surprise” fixer-upper by hiring a home inspector. 2 ..read more