April Lunch & Learn with VATC -- Mark Your Webinar Calendar!

DATE: April 14, 2021
TIME:  12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Registration Required*

 
It’s time to test your knowledge against the (supposed) experts, Andy and Liz. This month’s Lunch and Learn will be a multiple choice quiz about “All Things Real Estate.” Are you ready for the challenge? Questions will cover a wide variety of topics so anyone can play. Your score doesn’t matter if you learn something new. Tune in and have fun. 
 
Don’t miss it! If you watch the whole program and don’t check your email (not even once), you’re entitled to 0.5 hours of CLE!

*NOTE: You need to register (blue button) in order to receive an email with information to access the program!
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May Lunch & Learn

DATE: May 12, 2021
TIME: 12:00 p.m. - 12:30 p.m.
PROGRAM: TBA
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Wire Fraud In Vermont

It's real. It's here in VT. It affects VT law offices and VT buyers. It can wipe you out.

There is a 100% chance that you are a target. In fact, the bad guys may already be monitoring email traffic running through you office! The hacked party can be your office, the realtor, a client, or some other party in the transaction.

Here are some procedural requirements that will minimize the risk to your firm, and your clients, of falling victim to a wire fraud scheme. Please STOP and READ them.

Important: Most buyers are unaware of wire fraud. When they receive an email from "your office" telling them to urgently wire money, guess what? They do it. Guess what else? It's probably a scam and the money is gone. This just happened to a VT buyer who "only" lost $45,000.00 by following "her lawyer's" email instructions.

The solution: At file intake, have a verbal conversation with EVERY client. Tell them about wire fraud and and tell them that you will NEVER ask them to wire money. Of course, if you have to change your mind, you can always call them on the phone and explain the circumstances.

One wire fraud can ruin your day (or much more).
Save Trees, Time & Money. Think "Lean and Green".
 
Only remit:
 
•   Schedules A, B (and, if applicable, B-II)
•   Continuation sheets
•   Property description
•   Endorsements
•   Transmittal form
•   Remittance check(s)*
 
Please do not remit: Anything else - not even Policy Jackets or the CATIC Financial Privacy Policy attached to the OP!
 
Reducing the paper you mail to us will greatly reduce copy time, paper costs and postage costs.

* To streamline policy processing at Home Office, please insert the Policy Number on both the transmittal form and the remittance check(s). That will help reduce the number of follow up calls from CATIC for clarification. As an added benefit, having policy numbers on your trust checks may also help you reconcile trust accounts or help close out files.

Become "Lean and Green" in 2021. If you have any questions, please contact the VATC office.
VATC June Law Day - CLE

While most Vermonters will likely be vaccinated by early June, it is still not clear that Vermont will allow in-person gatherings of more than 150 people. Since we need some advance notice to pull things off, we are going to pass on doing a live program in 2021.

We'll be back in person in June 2022!

In the meantime, you can get your real estate CLE as follows:

  1. VATC Lunch & Learn Series. We've been doing this each month beginning in December, 2020 and we'll continue through 2021 (except for June). All past programs are archived on our website. Join us for upcoming programs in April, May and the rest of 2021.
  2. In June we will do three, 1-hour CLE programs. Dates and subject matter to follow in the coming days. Stay tuned.
Tips & Tricks When Searching Online Land Records

After our March webinar with RecordHUB, a member was kind enough to share the following tips with us. Bottom line - you may not be able to trust the way things look. Be careful with all online searching.

  • “Last document recorded” does not mean that everything received for recording up to that date has been entered in the system.
  • Keep an eye on the book and page numbers, and also the file or document numbers to watch for gaps. Sometimes entire days are not entered. 
  • There are often documents that are in the day book with document numbers and book and page numbers assigned, that are missing from the online database.
  • Recording is only certified to the date shown under “Document Date Availability”.  
  • Make a phone call and ask the clerk about documents that may not yet be in the system.

If you have any tips you would like to share in connection with any of the Online title searching platforms, please email Katie.
Career Network

We often hear of firms who are hiring. While we welcome phone calls or emails, we have added a career network posted under News and Announcements (bottom right hand corner) of the VATC website.

We only post information with your permission and we will not act as an intermediary. If you would like to add a FREE posting for a job opening or a job sought, please email Katie with the information you would like to appear on our website.