Julie's Escrow Blog

The President of ALTA Discusses the Importance of Title Insurance Anne Anastasi, then President of the American Land Title Association spoke at the Conference in Texas  on the issue of Robo Signings and ownership.Who pays for the title coverage?  The seller pays for the title coverage that insure...

What happens when Contractors who have Mechanics Liens, file for Foreclosure? I recently had a property in escrow that had a number of Labor and/or Material Liens filed on title.  The seller was working with the contractors to negotiate the payoffs, but I noticed that one of the contractors filed...

After the creation of the 2010 HUD Settlement Statement, it became clear that Owners Title Insurance Policies are not provided by sellers in many places in this country, but in Washington State, they are. The NWMLS Purchase & Sale Agreement includes a provision that sellers will provide owners ti...

When Obtaining Written Authorizations on Short Sales, Don't Forget Escrow Yesterday I was working on getting my final HUD approved by GMAC on a sale scheduled to record today.  The "final" HUD was faxed over for their review 4 days ago, but they will not talk with escrow without the customers wri...

Returning Earnest Money Deposits Held In Escrow When escrow is holding the earnest money deposit from the buyer, we hold it as a neutral third party.  Please understand that escrow cannot release the funds without both buyers and sellers signing an agreement that the funds can be released.Every o...

Are you about to sell an investment property with one or more tenants?If so you may want to waive the payment of utilities by the closing agent at closing.Read through the rental agreements, many tenants have agreed to pay the utilities (yes even lienable utilities) to the landlord.  Automaticall...

This transaction has all the usual suspects for this day & age.  The seller is now on the 3rd buyer for this property and the buyers new financing is just about in line.  The short sale lender (BofA) has approved the short sales and have patiently postponed the Trustees sale for months now.  In f...

It feels like I could shoot to the moon easier than I can get reconveyances out of some companies. The transaction in question closed last August and it was a Short Sale with a 1st and 2nd with the same company.  I track my own reconveyances at no fee to the customer and when I still didn't have ...

Alright, I think I have my Facebook Fan Page ready for viewing.  It was a bit of a challenge, but I found some great tricks or tips from this great article off Google and got to work.  Mind you, I have been working on it for days and was very surprised when I had fans before I could even knew how...

M.A.R.S. is in Effect.  Does it Affect you? By now we have all heard about this new Rule by the Federal Trade Commission and everyone has different takes on it.  I have talked with Agents that are not concerned - I have talked with Agents that are very concerned.  Richard Zaretsky, a Florida Real...