Did you know that in Texas, until about 25 years ago, you could not access the equity you had in your home?  Until then there were only 3 methods of creating valid lien against homestead. Those 3 ways were: You could borrow to buy; You could borrow to build; Or you could borrow to pay certain taxes; (wasn’t that nice of them to allow that?)   In the days of Reconstruction, Texas created homeowner protections which stood until about 25 years ago when the legislature made new laws that allowed Texans some access to their home equity.    The new methods are called Home ..read more

Title Underwriting is part of the title insurance process and is performed by the title insurance company that will issue the title insurance policy for the transaction. You are likely dealing with a title insurance agent who is an authorized policy issuing agent for several underwriters. For example, Wise County Title Company is a policy-issuing agent for six nationwide title insurance companies.   The local agent abstracts and examines the title to the property to identify the chain of title and examine documents to look for any issues within the chain. When problems are found, the ..read more

Good credit is an indicator of your credit worthiness. A high score can be an indicator of financial stability or at least sound financial management previously. Your credit worthyness can be a tool to manage cash flow and financing for specific projects, so establishing and maintaining a good credit score is vital and can even save you money when purchasing certain goods and services. Without a good credit score, things like loans and mortgages can be difficult or unaffordable to get.  A lot of factors can affect your credit score, to name a few:   Payment history; Length of C ..read more

Real estate laws vary from State to State.  Put simply, a property lien is evidence of a debt, secured by the property.  There are voluntary and involuntary liens, but for today’s discussion, we will only be discussing voluntary liens created for the purpose of purchasing property.   Texas is a Lien Theory state meaning title goes into buyer’s name, but owner grants a voluntary lien against the property to the Lender.  The voluntary lien is in the form of a Deed of Trust.  The Deed of Trust identifies the borrower, the lender and the Trustee and provides details ..read more

Title fraud is usually perpetuated by 1 of 2 simple methods.  Simple forgery or more commonly, identity theft.   While forgery has been around for ages, identity theft has increased exponentially.  Cyber crimes will continue to rise in this digital era because of the easy access to real property records on line.  Many people unfortunately find themselves victims of this. Today we’ll go over what to expect and how best to avoid this outcome. In this digital era, phishing emails are a common methods of obtaining the information necessary to commit cyber crime.  Always d ..read more

In Texas, you can declare a property as your homestead and receive a reduction in your property taxes because a portion of the property value is removed from the valuation.  All Texas homeowners may apply for this exemption of $25,000.00 of the property value from taxation. To qualify for the exemption, you must:   1)      Own the home, and it must be your principal residence on January 1st of the year for which you are applying; 2)     Apply between January 1st and April 30th of the year the exemption is granted. 3)     Complete and submit the ..read more

When people have money they want to invest, they often choose real estate. Real estate is traditionally one of the most profitable ways to make your money work for you, hence the the old saying, “Don’t Wait to Buy Real Estate, Buy Real Estate and Wait.”  If this is something you’re interested in, do your homework first and here are a few tips to think about. Before settling on a property, take the time to review the local market prices. Real estate pricing is dependent on many factors but most often by the value of the surrounding land.  Location, location, location.  That is a ..read more

Real estate sales have soared over the past 30 months or so and some buyers, trying to remain offer-competitive, have waived surveys.  However, doing so presents real, post-closing risks to buyers.  Encroachments or protrusions of permanent improvements; fences not on property lines or boundary lines not being properly identified are but a few examples of potential problems.   If you make a decision to waive a survey, don’t do so thinking that the title policy will help you if there is a problem.  The title policy will contain an exception in Schedule B, item 2 which reads ..read more

Buying a new home without selling your current one is an option - but not practical for most people.  Most people need to sell one property before they can buy the 2nd property.  Let's explore some of the advantages and disadvantages of this strategy, assess what you might experience if you go this route, and help you decide if it's the right step for you.  The most obvious disadvantage of this approach is that you’ll be without a place to sleep for some time. You’ll need to make arrangements whether it’s with a friend or at a hotel. This will of course be exacerbated if you ha ..read more

Cybercriminals are targeting the real estate industry with scams designed to intercept wire transfers to divert money to a bank account controlled by the criminal. Wire fraud is one of the most common forms of financial crime in the United States. In 2016, 3.2 million victims lost over 1.9 billion dollars to wire fraud scams. How does this relate to you? Most commonly, this form of fraud is with phishing emails. Scammers will pose as your real estate agent/lender/title company and try to get you to send them sensitive information. Other scams involve last minute changes to wiring information w ..read more