Scammers are taking advantage of the active real estate market. Recently, I was contacted by a client who received a call from a lawyer in another state to verify a signature on a deed for the client’s lot being sold; however, my client was not selling the lot.

The American Land Title Association on Thursday warned that Fannie Mae’s new guidance allowing for the limited use of attorney opinion letters opens the door for problems that might leave mortgaged properties with a clouded title.

Fannie Mae’s rule changes apply to condo and co-op loans purchased on or after Jan. 1, 2022. Freddie Mac’s rule changes are effective for mortgages with settlement dates on or after February 28, 2022. The changes are just now beginning to be broadly felt across the condo market. Combined, Fannie and Freddie purchase or guarantee about 70% of all mortgages created in the United States. When they make rule changes the remainder of lenders almost all follow their lead.

Hiding proceeds of crime can be a messy business. Your typical wealthy warlord or shady businessperson is likely to rely on an intricate network of shell companies and offshore jurisdictions to manage their cash. But it’s big business. As much as 5% of the global GDP is estimated to be laundered every year. However, governments are increasingly cracking down, narrowing the opportunities for even the most sophisticated criminals.

The National Association of Realtors is fighting a court ruling that says homeowners who post floor plans of their homes on Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com and other websites could be open to copyright lawsuits.

Week Ending February 4, 2022

For more than a century, since Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564 (1908), the Supreme Court has recognized that when the United States establishes a Native reservation, it impliedly reserves sufficient water rights to support that reservation.

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, applying Florida law, has held that a professional liability insurer had no duty to defend a lawsuit alleging that the insured, a closing agent, wrongfully collected closing costs to which it was not entitled.

Undeveloped real estate is subdivided into lots and sold to different buyers. One buyer receives a deed listing the subdivided lots as part of the transfer history of the undeveloped property. The buyer believes they own the entire undeveloped property including the subdivided lots. More than four years pass after the buyer received their deed to the property. Later, construction of a building begins on a lot in the subdivision by another person who claims to hold title.

Yesterday, in an unpublished order, the Supreme Court of Virginia held that a covenant restricting the sale of property on Smith Mountain Lake was unenforceable due to changed circumstances.

The saying that “the beaten road is the safest” is typically associated with advice not to take unnecessary risks and to play things safe. In the law, the notion rings true for courts and their adherence to established precedent and rulings.

The last few years have been a time of dramatic change in real estate markets. Suddenly sellers have been receiving hundreds of offers overnight, and buyers are having to get creative to win bidding wars. One of the most significant changes in real estate is the recent rise of blockchain technology. The number of buyers paying in cryptocurrency is steadily rising, and now, for the first time, a Utah home is available for buyers to purchase as an NFT.

Andhra Pradesh is starting a comprehensive land survey using orthorectified radar imagery captured by drones to resolve decades-old disputes, and create physical and electronic records of land ownership titles that cannot be tampered with.

An elderly Melbourne couple claim they were "shocked" to discover a doctor had been squatting on their family property after they were unable to visit the land for a number of years.

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A Louisville man told WHAS11 News he was in the process of closing on his new home in Jeffersontown when he got an email from someone who appeared to be his closing attorney.

For agents interested in growing their business by expanding into multiple states, we’re here to make the process simple and profitable. We offer you one point of contact to streamline your options and solutions.

In addition to the 2240 people aboard the RMS Titanic when it struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, there were roughly a dozen pets. The ship’s dogs—only three of which made it off the sinking ship—have become an interesting footnote in the tragic tale. Less is known about the cat that was aboard the vessel in its final weeks. Like so many aspects of the Titanic saga, the story of Jenny the cat is shrouded in legend.

The Anglin’s Fishing Pier, in the small oceanfront town of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea way up in the northern reaches of Broward County, is the only ocean fishing pier in South Florida that anybody can own. It’s 900 feet long, super rare, and totally one-of-a-kind because every single other pier like it in South Florida is off-limits to, well, being owned.

Render air fresheners redundant by mercilessly assaulting your guests’ other senses.

In 1974, a geneticist named Marsha Jean Falco devised an ingenious research tool to help determine whether epilepsy in dogs was an inherited trait. She drew a series of symbols on index cards, where each card represented a dog and each symbol represented a DNA sequence, to create her own coding system. But as she shuffled and reshuffled the index cards over time, she began seeing the deck in terms of pure abstract patterns and combinations.

The chess tables in Washington Square Park’s southwest corner have been occupied by a revolving cast of hustlers for more than 80 years. When a CAFÉ ANNE reader suggested I interview these fellows for a feature, I asked what she wanted to know.

Read More [Contributed by Bill Collins, Frontier Abstract]