Opening Titles & Closing Remarks

The holidays are over, the visiting relatives safely on their way and the Indianapolis Colts . . . well, let's just say I won't be distracted too much by football the next eight months. So, I am back at it. Over the next few days, I'll be posting about recent and expected changes in the real esta...

  This is a final reminder that if you purchased a property in Indiana in 2008, there are only four days left (until December 30th, since most county offices will be closed on the 24th, 26th and the 31st) to file for your Homestead and other credits with your County Auditor. If you are living in ...

The bankruptcy induced fire sale of the LandAmerica title insurance underwriters to Fidelity National is becoming more complicated. Matt Carter at Inman News updated the story Friday. You can read the entire article here. The unsecured creditors of LandAmerica are raising questions about the valu...

It's not unusual for a client who just recently bought or refinanced their property (like even just a month or two ago) to be back in my office for another real estate closing because they're either flipping that property or maybe refinancing their mortgage because rates came down. When we're in ...

No, we're not trying to be the boss of you, but at least 25 percent of our real estate closings involve a question of authority. That is, does each of the parties sitting in my closing room have the authority to complete their part of the transaction? If a party at a closing is an individual with...

Update November 26th: The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that Fidelity will buy Lawyers Title and Commonwealth Title. Also, LandAmerica and its 1031 Exchange Company filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. (thanks to Dave Wirshing) In the short term, ...

I am not surprised that Fidelity called off its acquisition of LandAmerica last Friday. Whether the continued deterioration of the market, undisclosed skeletons in the closet (under reserved claims) or just part of a Bill Foley master plan to permanently weaken a major competitor and cherry pick ...

"Huh?" Deer in the headlights look. "Why would I want to do that?!?" "That's the silliest thing I've ever heard." A slight tilt of the head followed by a slowly uttered and cautious ". . . right." If you've ever tried to sell someone on joining Twitter, you've probably encounter one or more of th...

Did you ever have one of those days where people and systems conspire to provide a really bad customer service experience? One that becomes a black hole of indifference sucking all your enthusiasm into a vortex of helplessness from which nothing escapes. Welcome to my world yesterday.  My journey...

Steve Dalton commented on my last post that sometimes "title companies get in the way" of closing legitimate real estate purchases and refinances. Title companies are at the bottom of the hill that is a real estate transaction. And guess what? It all rolls down hill. Delays, misunderstandings, mi...