There has been discussion about a national driver’s license, a national license to practice law, a national database for IRS liens, a national database for all real property liens, and a national registry for all real property records. The Federal Reserve, in its proposal for a national lien registry, says its idea would make locally recorded information [...]
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As real estate professionals, opinions coming out of our mouths may be heard as facts going into our customers’ ears. When people lose money or their expectations are not met, they may blame the people who “told” them they would succeed. There is a great recent case that demonstrates this issue (okay, [...] ATTENTION! ATTENTION! There is a proposed New(er) HUD-1! Actually, there are two proposed HUD-1s and YOU get to choose! Or at least you get to vote on which version you like and why. You may have heard that federal agencies were working to combine the Truth In Lending and Good Faith [...] Florida requires a transfer tax (documentary stamp tax) on deeds transferring a real property interest. It is not uncommon for sellers and/or buyers to try to pay less tax than might be owed, arguing various legal theories to the Department of Revenue. But I had never heard of people trying to pay MORE tax than what is [...] What do you all think about this question that came in from a reader? Can you please tell me if rebates, such as offered by a “Groupon” are legal for real estate agents in the state of Florida to offer their clients?
From BPB: PLEASE, instead of replying [...] Once a year I try to review new state laws that may impact real estate transactions. Before I could get to this task, the Florida Land Title Association sent out several bulletins describing important law changes, doing my job for me! I will summarize a few of these laws, here, but you really need to see [...] I have a bunch of things I have been collecting to send to you – like condo estoppel letter complaints, and sinkhole report issues, and insuring buyers of foreclosed property – but I just had to send you this first. The camera I bought online arrived. I opened the package and took [...] If there is a theft from your escrow or trust account, is your law firm, title agency, real estate brokerage, or mortgage company covered under your insurance or bonds? Most professionals have a Professional Liability policy (title agencies’ policies are often called an Errors and Omissions policy). These policies cover claims involving the activities [...] Unlawful Inducements, according to Florida’s Department of Financial Services, are what exactly? DFS’ Proposed Rule includes the traditional “printing mailing labels for real estate brokers” and “paying for referror advertising,” but it also includes “charitable contributions on behalf of purchasers” and “entering into an affiliated business arrangement in an attempt to provide a kickback.” Hmm. I [...] Everyone knows that the fraud industry never seems to crash, it just morphs into different appearances. The traditional mortgage fraud, with loan applications containing false employment, income, and other information, and the artificially inflated appraisals fraud, were going strong for several years. Now that lenders are more cautious, and many potential buyers have poor credit, the latest fraud is on the individual. Not only [...] You protect your clients’ and customers’ personal nonpublic information. You train your staff to keep all information confidential. You shred, delete, and use sophisticated computer systems to prevent identity theft. Yet you still may be letting information out of your office. If you have not seen the CBS report about copy machines containing [...] While researching real property bills filed by the Florida legislature this year, one of the bills the computer found was titled Pain Management! HAH! Was this the legislature being sympathetic to real estate folks? Or was it meant for everyone who is dealing with the new HUD-1 form? Too bad it didn’t pass. You [...] |
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