Mass Real Estate Blog

New Home Buyer Workshop on April 15.  Details after the jump.

From Karen Nickel: (more…)

One unintended benefit of a periodic refinance is a checkup on the title of your property.  Especially recently, with the latest refinance boom, people who have owned their real estate for several years discover that they actually have a mortgage still on record (i.e., not discharged) that was paid off from their last refinance.  This is usually because the lender didn’t issue the discharge to the attorney who did the last refinance, or they didn’t send it in to the Registry of Deeds after receiving payment in full, but it could also be that the original discharge was mailed directly to the borrowers and they either threw it away or filed it.

Regardless, it’s a problem that is usually discovered by the bank’s attorney at the next refinance.  Most of the time, the loan can still close with the undischarged mortgage or other title issue still outstanding.  However, the benefit is that it puts the owner on notice that this issue should be resolved before they try to sell.  Even if it’s an issue that’s covered by title insurance, it’s a good thing to fix to avoid any hassle or potential delay in the future when time is of the essence.

As an example, I recently had a refinance where the borrower had an undischarged home equity mortgage still outstanding from the 1980s.  I could tell by the title I ordered that the borrower had probably paid the loan off in full because other home  equity lines had been taken out after that one, and most of those had already been discharged.  I contacted the borrower and let him know of the issue.  I advised him to check his records, and sure enough, the original discharge had been mailed to him after he had refinanced in the mid 1990s.  He was a pack rat, so the problem was easily remedied, and he brought the original discharge with him to my office for the refinance, and I recorded it for him.  That completely solved that issue, and when (if?) he goes to sell in the future, he won’t have to scramble to find that discharge to close on time.

My title insurance post generated a lot of questions. I will be answering them over the next few days.

James asks, “How are title insurance premiums calculated? Can I shop around?” (more…)

Okay, here’s another one that comes up all the time. We’re going to devote a lot of time to this issue, including the pros and cons of title insurance (although you should know that it’s a no-brainer “yes” from me), but this particular situation came up in my practice last week. The sellers of this particular condo were very happy to have purchased their owner’s title policy when they purchased in 1999. Here’s the synapsis (but note I’ve changed all relevant names, dates, and lenders): (more…)