To those of you who have a family member graduating, like me,

Congratulations to you and the Graduate!

ALERT! SHORT SALE 90 DAY RULE:

In my escrow industry we are constantly sharing updates and alerts, so it is my privilege to transmit some of these alerts to you, so that we are all kept in the loop.

I thought perhaps Short Sales were slowing down, but I found out that this is not true. I may not be getting many, but the transactions are still out there and some other Escrow Officer is probably still grumbling and moaning, poor thing.

Short Sale Lenders are sneaking in a 90-day no sale rule that we must all watch for. Sometimes, like in the case of Bank of America, this 90 day rule may be inserted with their final closing statement approval as a memorandum on Equator. As Escrow Officers have no access to the BoA Equator software, we rely on the negotiating real estate agent for notification of this very important fact.

Other Lenders are putting them on their written Short Sale Approval Letter and attaching a statement that must be signed by all Buyers, Sellers, Real Estate Agents and Escrow Officers that they have reviewed and approved the conditions of the Short Sale and agree to be bound by same.

Apparently, the Short Sale Lenders have been monitoring the property ownership after closing and there have been cases in which they have pulled up proof that the property immediately flipped. In one case the same Escrow Officer handled both the sale and the flip transaction even though the Short Sale letter particularly stated that no sale within 90 days was allowed. Consequently this Escrow Officer and her company were blacklisted and barred from handling any future transactions with this same Lender. As the company was a national title company, this became a major problem for everyone else in the company, too!

The moral of the story? No matter what, if you did the sale, don’t do the flip purchase without reviewing the previous file and/or wait at least 90 days! “Oops” doesn’t even cover it!

E-RECORDINGS – SLOWLY BUT SURELY

According to the national Property Records Industry Association, the trade organization for county recorders throughout the nation, 900 counties throughout the nation are doing electronic recording of documents. Sounds like a lot but that is only 25% of the total county recorders nationwide. This step into technology can only help you and me; soon the standing in line at the county recorders and waiting for recording confirmation will be a thing of the past. Hey, 8:00 a.m. recordings will really be at 8:00 a.m. instead of actually at 3:00 p.m. This is particularly important in California where the priority of claim is determined by the sequence of the document recording date and time. A lien recorded at 8:02 a.m. will take precedence over a transfer deed recorded at 8:10 a.m. on the same day.

ZILLOW.COM ARTICLES

I do enjoy reading the articles on Zillow, and more importantly, I love looking at the pictures! Did you see the one about the man caves? Or the gazillion dollar homes? LOL!

Here is one article with tips to Buyers and Sellers on how to purchase/sell real estate in today’s changed market. Course, there is some self – selling in the article, but all in all, the tips are solid. If you are a real estate agent, you might want to take a look-see to determine if you are positioning yourself in this competitive market correctly. And you might want to subscribe for automatic e-mail notifications. They always have some fun and interesting stuff on it. For instance, views of serene backyard retreats and gorgeous patios.

USPS RAISING RATES AGAIN?

We saw a 1 cent postage increase by the US Postal Service January of this year. They tried to do away with Saturday delivery but Congress nixed that one fast. Now, 5 months later, with the loss of $12 billion in 2012 and $1.9 billion for the first quarter of this year, prices have nowhere to go but up! As the USPS chief financial officer Joseph Corbett said in this article – “it’s extremely difficult to compete with free”. So, again, there is once more a possibility of stamp price increases. This will be a burden borne by the elderly who have no computer access and rely on snail mail to transact business or keep in touch, and on small businesses like mine, where we still have many clients who want hard copies of their paperwork mailed to their home. I am happy to report that we had the foresight last year to buy thousands of dollars’ worth of “Forever” stamps, which keep their value no matter how high the rates go. Unfortunately, “Forever” won’t last forever and the next time we buy may be at a higher rate.

AIRLINES ON THE OTHER HAND…

Well, one industry that is making money hand over foot (or wing span over wing span, as the case may be) is the airline industry. The industry made more than $6 billion last year just in baggage fees and reservation changes! Okay, perhaps the cost of fuel tempered the profit a little, but charging for not only food, drink, but also the first checked bag or even the carry-on luggage is outrageous, isn’t it? Just watch, pretty soon they will give you tokens for one free bathroom visit and charge if you want more!

THE STATE OF OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, PART 3

My last 2 newsletters each had a section regarding the horrific costs of medical care in this country, and I am happy to report that the original Time Magazine article that I recommended in my April 2013 newsletter (Part 1) has pushed Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, to look into this troubling issue and releasing a list of widely different prices that are charged for common treatments by hospitals throughout the nation. Look to Time Magazine to continue their coverage in our health care system in the next few months.

Last month I put out Part 2 where I questioned the ethics of drug companies making a killing on the diseases that are killing us because those who are ill are a captive, desperate market willing to pay anything.

This month I want to talk about the heartbreak and the cost of dying.

A few weeks back my brother sent me a link, which I am providing to you here http://www.mercurynews.com/cost-of-dying, on a series of articles dealing with not only the elderly, but those who are very ill and have not long to live. There are nine articles on “the cost of dying” and I recommend that everyone read them, if not all, at least the first few and having a serious discussion with loved ones after that. My siblings and I did and we sat down with my 94 year old very healthy and alert father and discussed the “Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment” (POLST) form (http://www.capolst.org/.) to supplement his Advance Health Care Directive (AHCD). We spent a wonderful day with him and we concluded it with the knowledge that we knew his exact wishes should things go south. We had always known that we had an open minded and organized father and this was proof positive. I too, shall do the same for my own family – my husband and children – and complete the POLST form now. I don’t know what tomorrow will hold.

VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT

(Real questions left on our website- verbatim!)

OWNERSHIP AS “JOINT TENANTS” VS “TENANTS IN COMMON”

Q: My son and I reside in my house in which I hold title to in Santa Clara County.  My living trust states that the house will go to my son upon my death.  The house is mortgaged under my name only and he would like to assume financial responsibility asap.  We have applied for a Non-Qualifying Assumption to add his name to the loan and the mortgage company is requesting a copy of a recorded deed reflecting title to the subject property in all parties’ names.  The Assessor’s Office said that we would need to record a new deed with both our names and how we plan to hold title (we want joint tenants).  To avoid a property tax assessment, we also need to cite the appropriate Prop. 58 language for the change in ownership.  What code/language do we use?  Also, will changing my current grant deed in which I only hold title affect my living trust?  Thank you.

A: Here is the issue: A property can be owned by 2 individuals as “joint tenants”, but if it is a Trust and an individual, you can’t own it as “joint tenants”; you would have to own it as “tenants in common” with each entity having a certain percentage interest. The reason is that the Trust is an ongoing entity with no “expiration date” so there would be no “rights of survivorship” which is inherent under a joint tenancy ownership.

In a “tenants in common” situation the interest does not automatically go to the other entity if one party passes away. The individual entity would need to leave a will stating who inherits the ownership when the person passes away.

So your question as to taking title with you in the Trust and your son as an individual, both as “joint tenants” is not workable. This deserves your serious consideration and you should talk to an attorney about that.

In a Joint Tenants transfer between parent and child situation, you can put language to avoid property tax re-assessment and payment of transfer tax. In a “Tenants in Common” transfer situation, even when it is a transfer between parent and child, the County Recorder and the Tax Collector MAY NOT approve the exemption from re-assessment because you have designated a particular undivided interest to be transferred.

“You don’t do the right thing because of the consequences.

If you are wise, you do it regardless of the consequences.”

~Jeannette Bankin (1880-1973)~

Activist and politician

Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI
Escrow Manager
Email: JulianaT@vivaescrow.com

Contact Me: LinkedIn Facebook

Good news! “The Art of Escrow” is out! Look for it on www.amazon.com!

WHAT IS IN A NAME?

It should be obvious that your name is very important. It is your identity, it’s how people know you, it’s the identity in which you conduct business. And when it comes to property ownership, it confirms to the whole wide world that you are the person who is the owner. Obvious, right? Well, apparently not, or I would not be including a blurb about this in my newsletter.

Have you checked your identity papers recently? Can you prove to others that you are who you say you are? Do your IDs match the name on your Deed, the name on your mortgage paperwork, the name on your bank accounts and credit cards? Are you a new immigrant or newly naturalized citizen who decided to change your name to a westernized name? Or are you one of those who have all sorts of name variations because you couldn’t decide what name to use and every time identification is required you have to pull out a stack of I.D.s to show? If you know yourself as “John Smith”, how come your legal paperwork – Grant Deed and loan papers – show you as Edward John Smith? Or vice versa? In this day and age of fraud and misrepresentation, how can an Escrow Officer and/or a Notary Public reconcile your identities if they do not match? More important, how can we notarize you? Will the real John Smith please stand up? Here are 2 simple cases that came across our desk recently:

Case #1: Our refinance client’s driver license and passport both show him as “Jose Eduardo T. ____”. However, his property is under the name of “Eduardo ______”. His W-2 has the name of “Eduardo _____”. His tax returns have “Jose Eduardo T. _____”. How do we reconcile the 2 names? How do we know that these are all the same person? There must be thousands of Jose Eduardo ________  just in Los Angeles County; in fact, what are the odds that a family member (like his father or his son) has the same name?

Case #2: My borrowers, “Vicky Joanna ____” and her husband are Trustees of their Trust and they are doing a refinance. When the notary went out to sign the loan paperwork our client pulled out a driver’s license that only listed her as “Vicky ____”. But her property, her previous mortgage, and her Trust all show her as “Vicky Joanna _______”. What happened to the “Joanna” part? Not only did she have no form of picture identification that showed her as “Vicky Joanna ______” she had no idea why all the legal paperwork was drawn up under “Vicky Joanna _______”! Hello? Were you present and accounted for at that time?

In both cases we were not able to do notarizations until the client could get a credible witness to the signing table who could verify the identity of the signor. So, what’s in a name? More than you can imagine and it becomes very important in real estate transactions. Make sure you are consistent and everything matches your I.D. and/or Passport.

FHA AND E-SIGNINGS? CAN IT REALLY HAPPEN?

Woohoo! That second government behemoth – the Federal Housing Administration – is upgrading their software systems and putting into place a platform that will allow for Borrowers to sign electronically. Now that will be something to see! I wouldn’t hold my breath though. This ain’t gonna happen tomorrow, for sure! But, any change in that institution is something to look towards to, perhaps with a little trepidation, yes?

SHOULD MILLIONAIRES COLLECT UNEMPLOYMENT?

No, really, this is a question for all of us to think about. Should, for instance, a laid-off millionaire stockbroker in New York still be allowed to collect his unemployment benefits just like the $30,000 laid off factory worker in Pittsburgh? In 2010 unemployment payouts to millionaires cost the government almost $30 million. Are millionaires entitled to the money since they did contribute to the unemployment tax when they were employed? Or do you think that there should be a cap placed on who can collect these benefits so that there is more in the pot left for those who really need it?

THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA:

The power of social media – Facebook and Twitter – lies in its concept that communication can be fast and almost instantaneous. One posting and boom! the whole world knows what you ate for lunch. But like all things, for every positive there is a negative. Information can reach millions within a short period of time (remember how quickly we found out when Michael Jackson and Steve Jobs died?) and on the flip side, MIS-information travels at the same rate of speed (if not faster!) to the same amount of recipients (if not more!). Many of you heard about the hacking of AP’s Twitter account and a posting that the White House was hit and the President injured. This is a prime example of how MIS-information transmitted through Twitter reverberated throughout the world, causing the stock market to drop 143 points at one point. The spoken word, like the arrow, cannot be retrieved. 140 characters once sent, can cause markets and governments to fall. That is the dark power of social media.

HOW IS THE SEQUESTERING AFFECTING YOU?

Yes, the effects of sequestering are trickling down and hitting close to home. The cuts in government spending are happening and nowhere was the impact more obvious than the furloughing (is this a word?) of FAA employees – those air traffic controllers who are manning the skies and making sure we start our vacation on time. The cost cutting measure was in effect for only one week, but it got so bad that it caught the immediate attention of Congress, which is now trying to stem the pain that travelers are and will face as vacation season starts. If their efforts are unsubstantial, there are ways you can alleviate the effect: book direct flights, schedule longer time lag between connecting flights, try to bypass the hub airports in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or… stay home. What NEXT?

BIG AND BIGGER BROTHER:

Like all businesses, city, county, state and federal governments have to look for their next dollar income and close loopholes wherever they find them. The IRS – that first government behemoth organization that is unmanageable and seems to be able to ride rough shod over the public, Congress and the President, – has upgraded their software so that it is now able to collect a huge amount of our personal information through social media, e-Bay, and internet purchase transactions. I don’t think even George Orwell (“Nineteen Eighty-Four”) realized how big the Brother could get. Regulations and laws that govern the IRS have not kept pace with the explosion in technology that now allows them to look into our most private lives and use the information gathered against us. So, yeah, be sure you watch what you claim on your returns!

THE STATE OF OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM , PART 2:

Should drug companies make a killing on cancer and other drugs that are so necessary to desperately ill people? Is it ethical to make huge buckets of money on the misery of others? Are you sure your insurance policy will cover the cost of these drugs throughout your illness? An article about this issue is here. Something to give serious thought to. (Part 1 is in our April newsletter)

MAN’S BEST FRIEND?

Would you count this particular dog as “Man’s Best Friend”? This is the story: dog left in the car get hungry and eats $500 in bills left lying around. Owner is upset (obviously) and follows the dog around for days in an effort to collect the undigestable paper as it “passes through the system”. Owner tapes, cleans and presses the bills together and sends them to the Dept. of Treasury where (hopefully) he will get them replaced! There is a moral to this story somewhere….

By the way, as we talk about $100 dollar bills, the Treasury Dept is rolling out a high tech version that will be less susceptible to fraud and forgery. Good ole Ben would be so proud. However, I bet it still has no built in securities against bored dogs.

AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO FOR YOUR EMPLOYER?

To all you real estate professionals out there, how far will you go for a higher commission split? A New York real estate company is adding a 15% extra commission to their agents’ split if the agents are willing to tattoo the company logo somewhere on their body. Honest. No joke. You can’t make these things up! I hope the agents who took up this offer realized that tattoos are permanent and chose a less obvious place for it. My question is: what happens if they want to work for a competitor?

VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT

(Real questions left on our website- verbatim!)

^ o ^ CLAIMING THE CORRECT TRANSFER TAX EXEMPTIONS:

Q: When my wife and I bought our home I did not qualify to be on the loan.  As a result my cousin helped us out and was added as a non-occupying co-borrower.  4 years later (a few months ago) I was able to refinance the house and got my cousin off the loan and added myself onto the loan.  I received a call today from out of the blue from my title company telling me i may owe a transfer tax.  Can I claim exemption R&T 11911 (Bona Fide Gift)? The title lady was somewhat clueless when I started asking her questions as she said she is from Michigan and does not have knowledge of CA laws.  Thanks in advance.

A: When we do a refinance transaction the Lender normally wants to see whoever is on the property qualifying for the loan. Therefore, when you got your cousin off the loan and put yourself on, there should have been a Deed in that transaction that reflected the new owners of the property as your wife and you only. The payment (or non-payment) of Transfer Tax should have been reflected on that document, and you can claim an exemption of said transfer tax under R&T 11911 as there was no consideration and value to the deed transfer document.

What surprises me is that you say you did this refinance a few months ago and you are only now getting a request for a transfer tax to be paid? The insuring Title Company/Settlement Services company should have taken care of this issue when they finalized your refinance transaction. Was the Deed transferring your cousin out of the ownership and putting you on not done in your refinance transaction? I am sorry the title lady was clueless; as all states have their own laws, rules, regs and standards of practice, I would never handle a transaction in a state in which I had no knowledge of said laws.

Anyway, the answer to your question is that yes, you can claim it is a “bonafide gift, no consideration involved” under R&T 11911. Mind you, the request for exemption is a “request” and the County Recorder and County Tax Assessor have to determine that they find your request acceptable. If they accept it then you don’t need to pay transfer tax and there will be no re-assessment of the property tax values.

“The happiest people seem to be those who are producing something; the bored people are those who are consuming much and producing nothing.”

William Ralph Inge, Cleric and Writer (1860-1954)

Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI
Escrow Manager
Email: JulianaT@vivaescrow.com

Contact Me: LinkedIn Facebook

Good news! “The Art of Escrow” is out! Look for it on www.amazon.com!

THE USE (AND MISUSE) OF THE POWER OF ATTORNEY:  Two days ago I had an old client call me to question the validity of a Power of Attorney she had given to a person 2 years ago. This attorney-in-fact had helped her sign documents for her purchase, and now his help was no longer required. In fact, he was in the midst of some bad financial difficulties and my client wanted to be sure that his difficulties would not spill over onto her. She also very wisely asked how to cancel this authority that she had given to another person.

It is a very important issue, enough so that I did an article on it a couple of years back, and even recorded a short video (*Roll eyes*), which can be accessed at this link: http://www.vivaescrow.com/for-your-convenience/faq/power-of-attorney. The fact is, giving and receiving these powers to handle another person’s business places a very special and serious responsibility on both parties, the appointor and the appointee, and both should think about it before committing themselves.

In my neck of the woods, where we very often have people who travel in and out of the country or foreigners who are not here to sign their documents, the power of attorney is used constantly. As you can see from my article, there are certain things that we look for, particularly if there is a Lender involved. There are also certain instances where a Power of Attorney can not be used at all, for instance, in the cases of corporate entities or Trusts.

As a refresher, take a moment to read my article through and let me know if there are any other questions.

As to my client’s question, the financial difficulties of her friend who received her power of attorney do not affect her, but you never know if something untoward may happen. Cancellation of this authority is simple – do a “Revocation of Power of Attorney” (you can find that form on our website also- http://www.vivaescrow.com/for-your-convenience/forms) and have it recorded as soon as the original needs have been met.

ZOMBIES! I guess that sooner or later themes in the entertainment industry and the real estate industry would have collided, if only in descriptive words used. The movie industry has “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) and “Zombieland” (2009) and the newest one “Warm Bodies” (2013). Real Estate now has “Zombies properties” – vacant and deteriorating properties that are in foreclosure with no one to care for them. RealtyTrac reports that foreclosures are up nationwide as the controversies due to robo signing are finalized. Lenders are now bringing up all those delinquent loans that were on hold and starting the foreclosure process on them again. Meanwhile, owners have moved out, properties have been vandalized and neighborhoods blighted. If the cities step in to clean up the properties the clean up costs get attached to the homeowners. Or they may even threaten homeowners with lock-up if they do not show minimal care. Remember “shadow inventories” (March 2013 newsletter) – properties that should be put up for sale but are not for a variety of foreclosure reasons? Zombie properties are the next step and are what happens to shadow inventory properties when they are abandoned.

THE STATE OF OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM: As a small business owner always facing the challenges of providing affordable but good health insurance for myself and my staff, the Special Report by Time Magazine (March 4 issue) “Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us” was a huge eye opener and a shock to my system. I am in good health now, but there is never a guarantee that I will be so tomorrow. Is my insurance coverage going to be adequate if I get cancer tomorrow? My fingers and toes are crossed. But there are 2 sides to the issue of health care – the issue of good and affordable health care insurance, and the issue of good and affordable medical costs, particularly hospital costs. Unfortunately, the 2 issues don’t meet anywhere in the middle and the losers are you and me.

There is one sentence in the long article that caught my attention right away: “When we debate health care policy, we seem to jump right into the issue of who should pay the bills, blowing past what should be the first question: Why exactly are the bills so high?” The monster under the bed, the new and scary word that I learned was “chargemaster” – the hospital’s internal price list. From Tylenol-like pills ($1.50 each), gauze pads ($77 for a box) to cancer wonder drug Rituxan ($13,702), mark-ups can range from 50% to 400% or more (Acetaminophen aka Tylenol pills marked up 1,000%??) depending on the hospital. If my insurance payout has a lifetime cap and I develop cancer, I may be out of luck. The total charge to treat cancer can far, far exceed what my policy will pay and guess who will be stuck with the remaining bill?

I am 5 years away from being able to qualify for Medicare and I am keeping my fingers crossed that nothing happens to me between now and then. Once I am on Medicare the costs are discounted way down and the chargemaster no longer rules. Plus, of course, Medicare will take care of most everything.

This is a long article, and it is unfortunate that you would not be able to read the full article unless you are a subscriber (here it is if you are). If you can get a copy of this article, I recommend that you read it through. Every time I go to the Methodist Hospital (Arcadia) to visit my mother-in-law (on Medicare) I can’t help but look at their brand new facilities with a different (and jaundiced) perspective. Yes, they should be very profitable; they have all the well-off Asians in the community paying premium for their hospital stays. Definitely a bitter pill to swallow.

GRIDLOCK BY ANY OTHER NAME … Perhaps there is a correlation between gridlock in our nation’s capital on the Hill as well as on the regular streets surrounding it. A study by Texas A&M Transportation Institute ranks Washington D.C’s traffic gridlock as No. 1 in the nation, which of course, means loss in productivity would also be #1. Oh. Now we know why Congress gets nothing done. Our Congressmen are all sitting in gridlock of some sort!

UNCLAIMED MONEY? In a couple of months I will be putting together all the unclaimed funds still sitting in our escrow trust account and submitting it to the State of California. Funds that have not been cashed or claimed within 3 years from the date of last contact have to be “escheated” to the State and taken off our books. What a chore! This is the main reason why we dislike having to write checks for less than $50.00; those checks never get cashed and they sit on our account and give us more work through the years. But once I send it off to the State then I am off the hook and done with it. Does the State like receiving $1.20? Maybe not, but you have a thousand of those denominations and it will start adding up, and of course some amounts are much more substantial. Check out if you have lost money on the State’s website right now and once a year. If you do, don’t feel stupid, you aren’t the only ones; look at which other celebrities have funds and accounts they have forgotten about! It’s tough when you have so much money, that you can’t keep track of it!

CHINA – THE MIDDLE KINGDOM – LAND OF THE STRANGE AND WEIRD: (My general interest story of the month)

I am 100% Chinese and I still have problems understanding and absorbing some of the weird and crazy things that my compatriots go through. If I have a problem wrapping my head around this, I can’t imagine what other cultures and countries think when they see these stories:

Ghost marriages – Are you sad that your relative passed away and now cannot enjoy the benefits of marriage and companionship? How about a ghost marriage between a dead man and dead woman? Complete with marriage ritual? Weird! Weird!

Rent a boyfriend/girlfriend – Too much pressure at family reunions regarding your unmarried status? Your mom always nagging you about your marital prospects? Rent a boyfriend/girlfriend and get them off your case! This practice, however, is known in other cultures, but I think we have another term for them ….

Winning the lottery… for a car plate – Beijing and other big cities have too many applications for vehicle license plates so a monthly lottery is conducted. If you are lucky, you get a plate and get to buy a car! Not quite the Powerball lottery, is it? This curbing of vehicle registration to ease traffic congestion has led to other weird and strange stories, like the related story about the daughter-in-law suing her mother-in-law for her dead husband’s plate. Hmmm. Mother/daughter in-law dynamics, always tricky. Happens in every culture!

Finally, talking about Powerball…. April 8^th is the day, California!

VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT

(Real questions left on our website- verbatim!)

IS A DEED THAT IS NOT NOTARIZED VALID?

Q: I have such a document that states a transfer of a home/deed, owned by my mother, to my sister. It’s a will/transfer of deed, not notarized (this is the only asset my mom had). My mom recently passed away and we’re not sure what needs to be done. Can we do nothing and just hold on to the document and use that to sell the property in the future? OR do we need to have the property transferred and recorded?

A: Let me first qualify my answer to your question by stating that we are a settlement services/escrow company in California, and most of our transactions are handling properties in this state. Other states have different laws, rules, regulations and standards of practices that I cannot comment on. If you are from a state other than California, you should ask your question of closing professionals or closing attorneys in your state.

To transfer a property in California the owner has to sign a Grant Deed that is properly completed. It needs to be notarized by a notary public in order for this document to be recorded and made of public record. If your mother signed the deed transferring the property to your sister, but it didn’t get notarized, then it obviously is not made of public record and this could be a real problem. The law may consider that the ownership never transferred to your sister and if that is the case, this property will need to go through probate!

You won’t be able to sell or do anything with the property until it is established that your sister owns it outright. Please contact a Probate attorney right away to determine the status of the estate of your mother!

Hope your Easter was a happy one, especially now that “Habemus Papam – Francis!”

“None are so poor that they have nothing to give…

and none are so rich that they have nothing to receive.”

~John Paul II (1920-2005)~

Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI
Escrow Manager
Email: JulianaT@vivaescrow.com

Contact Me: LinkedIn Facebook

Good news! “The Art of Escrow” is out! Look for it on www.amazon.com!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY RECORDING GOT PULLED?

*Groan* Every Escrow Officer cringes when he/she has to advise their clients that the recording of their documents did not happen and the transaction they were so looking forward to close, can not. Why does this happen? Here is a list of the most common things that can happen at the eleventh hour which make us tear our hair out:

• Where is the Lender’s wire? Oh no! The Lender’s wire of new loan funds didn’t make it out!
• What do you mean the Title Company couldn’t find the funds wired by the Lender? Check your bank again!
• What? The Lender wired to the wrong title company? OMG!
• Last minute judgments? Against my client? Why me?
• Unpaid taxes not previously disclosed? But I don’t have enough money to pay them!
• I am sorry to report that the County Recorder did not like the way you signed your name and is refusing to record.
• The Notary Public did not put their seal on the document? And he is in New York? How did we miss that?

And sometimes, but very, very rarely,

• Whaaaat? The Title Company forgot to send the documents to the County Recorder to record? I can’t tell my clients that! OR
• Oh, no. I booboo’ed and forgot to set it up for recording! I am so doomed! I will commit hara-kiri!

^&%$ happens and Murphy was hanging around!

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FORECLOSURES GONE, LONG TIME PASSING?

The foreclosure market in our Sunshine State is slowing down in a nationwide comparison. RealtyTrac’s figures in January states that California is no longer the state with the highest foreclosure cases, due to certain legislation that came into effect the beginning of this year (Yeah, Governor Brown!). This is one instance in which it’s great NOT to be #1! Florida has now taken the lead and is at the top of the heap (so sad). Since foreclosures are really depressing (in all possible interpretations of the word), we really hope this trend in California continues. We want the value of properties in the hard hit areas – San Bernardino, Riverside, Lancaster – to stabilize and rise, allowing for better sales figures and better possibilities of appraisals coming in at a decent value to allow for refinances. Here are the RealtyTrac figures and if you are a graph-y person, check out this other link here. Oh yeah. I like Pink!

ARE YOUR DEGREES WORTH THE DEBT TO GET THEM?

There are degrees and there are degrees. According to this article by the Wall Street Journal, almost 67% of graduates will graduate with accumulated loans. The question is, will the debt accumulated be worth the degree achieved? Will it translate into a decent job wherein a sufficient salary can be made to pay off this debt and sustain a reasonable living? Parents beware, the time to conduct a serious conversation with your college bound child is before applying for college. Reality should be faced at this time, not 4 (or 5) years down the road when they are walking up to get their diploma with a back hunched from the debt burden. That is not the way to start their professional life!

TIPS FOR TRAVEL: (My general interest story of the month)

I am always planning a vacation. What’s that 60’s song… “Dream, dream, dream”… anyway, here is an article with some useful tips because hey, who knows, dreams can become reality sometimes and I might find myself being able to use this stuff!

• How to cancel our reservations without charge,
• How to defend our leg space on the plane,
• Fixing broken luggage zippers,
• Finding free WiFi spots, or
• Finding a free phone charger if we forgot ours at home!

FREE! FREE! FREE!

Love the word! Whenever I come across an article like this, I have to share. Why pay when you don’t have to? You making too much money? Here is a very partial list for:

• Free food
• Free security software
• Free digital storage space
• Free tech support
• Free museums
• Free E-Books

The operative word is, of course, “Free”. I do love this 4-letter word!

WHY THE CFPB

Now, don’t roll your eyes, I know I have talked about the CFPB ad nauseum, but you know that they are gonna make our lives miserable. We know that Richard Cordray’s appointment as Director of the CFPB is being contested by the Republicans, but this is not stopping the gentleman from promoting and pushing the CFPB’s agenda of bringing accountability to the mortgage industry. When reading his February article titled “Why the CFPB” a few sentences stand out in my mind: “…Congress also specified that loan originators should be motivated by proper incentives …Loan originator compensation may not be based on the terms of the mortgage transaction …By removing financial incentives for originators to push borrowers toward risky loans, we are ensuring that the mortgage market will be more stable and sustainable, and consumers will be better protected.” Am I living on the same planet as he? Removing financial incentives? Am I facetious when I say that the CFPB’s rulings are going to fall considerably short of its lofty goals?

VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT

(Real questions from real people with real problems, left on our website!)

 NOT RECORDING A DEED OF OWNERSHIP!

Q: I was given a deed from my grandmother to a property and she passed. My cousin was left everything in her wil that was made befor the purchase of the home and befor the time the deed was givin to me. Does my deed over rule the will if I nevdr filed the deed?

A: I am not sure if your property is in California or not, but the answer I am giving here applies to properties in California. Every state has its own laws, especially probate laws, so you are cautioned to take my answer in the correct context.

I have always cautioned my clients that even though a deed need not be recorded in order to be valid in California, recording it will make it of public record and thereby establishing your ownership of the property, especially if something were to happen to the person giving up the property. Your case is an example of this.

If the deed from your grandmother was not recorded but was given to you, you can make the claim that the asset is not part of your grandmother’s estate and should not go to your cousin or be a part of her will. However, there are many issues involved in establishing your claim and I would not be the person who can answer that for you. You should, first of all, show the deed from your grandmother to your cousin or whoever is handling your grandmother’s estate and if questions are raised, then you need to obtain your own legal counsel. If there are no questions, perhaps you should record that deed as soon as possible.

No matter what, you should contact an attorney in the state for which the property is located for legal advice.

MY FORAY INTO THE RADIO WORLD:

As many of you know from my last newsletter, I was given 2 opportunities to talk about the escrow process to listeners of KFWB’s Money 101 program with Bob McCormick. This was all part of my effort to promote the escrow industry, which is my goal for this year. I used the launching of my book as an incentive for them to allow me on the program (I needed something to recommend me, after all!) and boy, was that an interesting experience! Here are some thoughts on this experience:

• There are a LOT of commercials. A lot! A lot! A lot! I guess that 9-11 a.m. is prime time so ad revenue is super important.
• There is a lot of prep work that goes into each show. The producer (and reporter), Ken Jeffries, who is not on the air, was behind the scenes constantly lining up experts to call in during any given segment.
• Ken and the sound booth staff have everything down to a science. Every single second is planned and accounted for, when to cut to commercials, when to intersperse news, stock market updates, weather, and traffic.
• Yes, those are real people who call in! The computer screens do light up with incoming phone lines.
• Hand gestures! Since the show is live and you have to watch when you can speak, there are a lot of gestures. I love the “hand across the throat”, the “finger point” the “thumbs up”, the “finger count – 3-2-1”.
• The commute is a real bummer, unless you happen to live around the corner. And even then, around the corner on the Miracle Mile may take 10 minutes to navigate. It took me 1 ½ hours to get there at 8:30. The congestion is terrible!

The main speaker guest when I was there was a real estate attorney, and the topics he chose to deal with involved problems brought forth by the physical condition of properties. As it had nothing to do with the actual purchase/sale of the property, I had relatively little to contribute, unfortunately. Would I do this again? I would, but probably not if I had to drive to the radio station, and probably not unless they did a segment just on the escrow process. It sure was a learning experience!

Winter is almost over! Happy Spring! March is coming in strong, like a lion. The Pope has resigned and the fall out from the sequester will engulf us all. I look forward to talking about the outcomes next month when you may be stuck reading my views on them all! Till next month!

“It now costs more to amuse a child than it once did to educate his father”

~ Vaughan Monroe, Singer and Actor (1911-1973) ~

Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI
Escrow Manager
Email: JulianaT@vivaescrow.com

Contact Me: LinkedIn Facebook

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

And it is the Year of the Snake! (** see below)

For Sale By Owner, Should We or Shouldn’t We?

In every economic cycle that I have faced in the last 37 years, whether it is an up one or a down one, there are always Sellers who seek to sell their property as a “For Sale By Owner”, also known as a FSBO. The attraction is obvious; without a real estate professional involved a Seller saves on the payment of commission to this realtor, and whether the property is sold at a high value or not, the savings are not to be sneezed at.

So, should we or shouldn’t we?

First, let me qualify that everything I say here comes from an Escrow Officer’s point of view, which, of course, may differ from the client’s or the real estate professional’s. But being as we are in the center of the transaction, we see, not one, but a whole panoramic view.

The only real advantage for a FSBO is, as mentioned above, the savings in commission dollars. The disadvantages can be many, so the real question is: Will the dollar savings be worth your while?

Here is a list of questions I would like to put forth to you as a FSBO Seller to consider before the decision is made: – for the full article, please click on the following link : http://www.vivaescrow.com/for-your-convenience/faq/for-sale-by-owner

QM, and QRMs, and CFPB, Oh My!

Is the Director of the CFPB – Richard Cordray – in trouble? If so, what happens to the QM, the QRMs and the Closing disclosures? In its infinite wisdom (sarcasm intended) Congress is trying to establish whether Mr. Cordray’s appointment to the post is a constitutional one since President Obama appointed him last year when Congress was “in recess”. If ruled “unconstitutional” does that mean all the rulings that the CFPB has come out with are deemed invalid? Here is the skinny on the important one – the QM and QRMs:

Under the Dodd Frank Act the CFPB was mandated to draw up rules that would reduce the practice of risky lending, the kind of lending that got us into the terrible mess that we are only now digging ourselves out of. So after a lot of lobbying by the National Association of Realtors, the rules have come down. Lenders now have to meet new underlying guidelines which will then make the loan a “Qualified Mortgage” or “Qualified Residential Mortgage”.

What are the new rules? Here is a brief summary or the main points:

• As long as you are an institutional Lender you are covered under the rules
• Credit scores must meet minimum standards
• Borrowers must show job documentation
• Monthly payments must be commensurate to income, not exceeding 43% of pre-tax income
• Other debts and obligations must be taken into consideration
• Government backed loans – FNMA, FHLMC, FHA – are “exempt” from said rules for up to seven years, a “safe harbor”
• Once the QM guidelines are met, Borrowers are supposedly protected from getting bad loans that will put their financials in jeopardy, and
• Lenders will be protected from lawsuits filed by the Borrowers in case something goes wrong in the future
• Lenders will be protected from lawsuits filed by investors who purchase these loans in the future
• Rules start January 21, 2013 but Lenders have one year to get their act together.

For a more detailed analysis, go read this AND this article.

Now, with Cordray’s appointment up in the air, does this mean that the QMs are out? Does this mean the new Loan and Closing disclosures that they are trying to force down Lenders, Mortgage and Settlement Agents’ throats are also on hold? Is it too early to break out the champagne? Like everything else in the government, everything is up in the air, guys!

Psssst! Wanna buy? Just a Million Bucks!

Most of us who are in the real estate or real estate related industry have an understandable avid interest in looking at properties, whether we are driving around or surfing the net. All of us compare and wonder and exclaim and exhibit an insatiable curiosity of what is out there in the market, especially the high-end ones that are in (gasp!) foreclosure. We like to company and comment and we are all Lookie-Loos, aren’t we, slowing down and take a look. In my neck of the woods a nice decent property with nothing special on it may run in the gut wrenching $1 million range, easy, so when this slideshow came up on CNN Money, I was helpless against the compulsion to click and view, comment and salivate.

After going through the description of what each property has, it is very clear to me that (1) I may work in the right state but I sure don’t live in one, and (2) for the same amount of money, I could’ve gotten a lot more bang for my buck in say, Wisconsin, or, Illinois.

My Home, My Desk, My Castle (My general interest story of the month):

What does my desk say about me? This brief little article says that the type of person I am can be seen by what I surround myself with 12 hours a day. Having a messy desk says one thing, having a gaping goldfish for a card holder says another. After reading this article I got up, walked around and sat on the customer’s chair in front of my desk and pictured me in all my glory, surrounded by all this stuff that allows me to get through the day. Hmmm. From the looks of it I am conscientious, creative, somewhat neurotic, and an introvert. That’s not bad, in fact, I think this is a perfect description of an Escrow Officer…. Especially the neurotic part….

VIVA ESCROW Q & A SEGMENT

Some days we get 2 to 3 questions left on our website for which I make a conscientious effort to answer within 24 hours. The questions come from all over the States, and even from across the world, which never ceases to amaze me. The reason is that there is no readily available resource out there for people who have questions regarding issues of owning or transferring real estate. Want to see what kind of issues other people have in their lives? Here is a sample of some questions, along with the answers that I gave them (Please note: the questions were copied exactly the way they were posted on our website, with no changes or corrections):

 IS THIS FRAUD OR ELDERLY ABUSE OR BOTH?

Q: An elderly woman I know sold three lots in California and basically carried the loan herself.  The buyer still owed her a large sum of money but coreced her into signing a full reconveyance by telling her he could not get a loan to build homes on the lots if the loan she carried was not shown as paid, and in turn would not be able to continue to pay her unless he could build/sell the homes.  He assured her he would make payments to her until she was paid in full, but stopped roughly 1 year after the reconveyance was filed with the county.  She has nothing in writing stating this but the copies of payments he made are dated after recording date.  Is there any legal recourse she may have?  Would a real estate attorney take this case, if she has a case, on a contingency basis?  As stated above she is elderly and has no money to pay for an attorney.

A: Ouch! There are so many unscrupulous people out there! If your friend did not ask the Buyer to sign a new Note and Trust Deed for her in exchange for her signature on a Reconveyance, she may be out of luck. If she got something in writing, even if it isn’t a new Note and Trust Deed from this person, promising that he would continue payments after the Reconveyance, it may help. Otherwise, I am afraid that her only chance would be through filing a lawsuit.

If she were to consult with an attorney he could probably use fraud and elderly abuse as the basis of the lawsuit. Unfortunately, I can’t say whether an attorney would be willing to take this on a contingency basis. It would probably depend on the strength of what your friend can provide him as proof of the promise to continue to pay, and it would also depend on how much money is involved.

I am so sorry, my answer is probably not what you would like to see, but legal counsel through an attorney would be her best next step.

CONFUSED? THAT’S THE LEAST OF IT!

Q: i AM VERY CONFUSED 6 YEARS AGO i HAD SIGNED A QUITCLAIM DEED WITH A VERY GOOD FRIEND WHO WAS ILL.  hONESTLY I DID NOT KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IT MEANT.  i ONLY KNEW SHE WAS VERY ILL.  i THOUGHT IT WAS TO TAKE CARE OF THE PROPERTY.  SHE HAS SINCE PASSED AWAY AND RECENTLY IT WAS BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION.   THE HOUSE HAS BEEN EMPTY NOW BUT THE TAXS ARE CURRENT.  dOES THIS MEAN THAT I CAN LEGALY MOVE IN THE HOUSE.  sHE HAS NO LIVING REALITIVES.  wE NEVER FILED THE PAPER IN THE COURT.  iS THER ANYTHING I CAN OR SHOULD DO?

A: Let me first qualify my answer to your question by stating that we are a settlement services/escrow company in California, and most of our transactions are handling properties in this state. Other states have different laws, rules, regulations and standards of practices that I cannot comment on. If you are from a state other than California, you should ask your question of closing professionals or closing attorneys in your state.

You said that 6 years ago you signed a Quitclaim Deed. Was this deed giving the property to you? Who signed the Deed? You also mentioned that this Deed was never filed with the Court. If the document was never filed in Court, then it hasn’t been recognized that the property is yours. You also said that the taxes are current. Who paid the taxes?

If the person has no living relatives then it is to be hoped that she left a will in which she designated who the property should go to. If no will was left then it would be up to the Court to decide who gets the property. If you have the original Deed, even if it was not filed, you may want to submit that to the Court or to the Estate of the deceased person. If someone has been paying taxes on it then there is a person who is responsible for the property, even if it is empty.

No matter what, you need to establish that you are the true owner of the property before you move in. Please contact a real estate or probate attorney and show him the Quitclaim Deed that was signed and he should be able to direct you from there.

COMMUNITY PROPERTY RIGHTS AFTER DIVORCE?

Q: I am in the process of getting a divorce in orange county california. My wife signed an interspousal trust deed conveying all rights community or otherwise to me as the seperate and sole owner. Does she have any right to the property or profits once divorce is final

A: If your wife signed an interspousal quitclaim deed then it means she gave up any community property interest that she might have had to that asset. However, nothing is ever set in stone and depending on when that deed was signed and how contentious the divorce might be, she might still try to claim her share of community property interest for the time period after she signed the deed if, for instance, community property funds were used to upkeep the property after she relinquished her interest.

We are not attorneys and are not in a position to give out legal advice, especially if there is a pending divorce. Please do consult with your attorney with regards to this matter!

So, what do you think? Isn’t it scary what situations people get into?

**Year of the Snake:

I am a Snake. I am cold, calculating, with a tendency towards complacency. Hey! Who wrote this? Let me find another one. I am thoughtful, wise, rational, clever, a woman of few words (!!!) This is much better!

KFWB News – My goal this year is to educate the general public and the consumer regarding the escrow process, so that the process itself does not seem to be such a mystery. I figure that the more people understand what we do, the easier it will be on us as Escrow Officers.

To that end I am happy to report that I am invited to be a guest speaker on KFWB’s Money 101 with Bob McCormick on February 5^th. The great thing about radio is that there are no cameras filming so really, you can wear your pj’s to the radio station and the listener would have no clue. The bad thing is that this segment is live (not pre-recorded), which means that it is straight off the cuff, what comes out of my mouth is what the listeners will hear. Gah! I don’t mind telling you that I am totally stressed out and super nervous and I just hope I don’t disgrace the escrow profession by blanking out or throwing up right in the middle of it all!

I will let you know next month about this whole experience. Wish me luck!

“There are moments when everything goes well; don’t be frightened, it won’t last.”

~Jules Renard, (1864 – 1010) Dramatist and author~

Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI
Escrow Manager
Email: JulianaT@vivaescrow.com

Contact Me: LinkedIn Facebook

“The Art of Escrow” is out!

Here is the link on Amazon. To preview, click on the book cover on the Amazon page!

I am so pleased that my book made its debut on December 24, 2012. It was so exciting to receive a copy, to actually hold it in my hand!

This book was written in the hopes that it will bring a better understanding of the escrow process to the consumer and general public. I hope that my escrow peers and real estate professionals will find it useful enough to recommend it to their clients!  It is dedicated to all the escrow professionals. Their hard work and dedication deserves to be acknowledged.

The book is on sale at Amazon and the electronic version will come out soon for Kindle, Nook and I-Tunes. I look forward to any comments that you may have and appreciate your leaving it on the Amazon website under this book title. Or you can leave your questions and comments on our Viva Escrow website: http://www.vivaescrow.com/the-art-of-escrow.

OUR (SURPRISINGLY!) POPULAR WEBSITE: No one was more surprised than I to find that the various topics and articles that I published on our website generate so much interest. Who would have thought? The 2 most searched topics were regarding “Documentary Transfer Tax” http://www.vivaescrow.com/for-your-convenience/faq/documentary-transfer-tax-exemptions and “Grant Deeds” http://www.vivaescrow.com/for-your-convenience/faq/grant-deed. I get one or two questions posted a day, not only from the general public all over the State of California, but from other states, too. I even received one question from a person in India! We also get direct phone calls from the public when their question is too complicated to transmit in writing. This just goes to show that these topics are definitely of concern to many people and there is a lack of good and reliable resources to go to for answers.

What are the questions I see the most? Mostly they deal with the transfer of ownership between friends and family members. Do you pay transfer tax? What transfer tax exemption can they use? Will the property taxes get re-assessed? And so forth.

I try to be specific in my answers; I am, after all, educating the public, but I always qualify that they should get legal and financial counsel before they considering doing any changes, and they should call the Tax Assessor’s office directly if they have a case in which re-assessment may not be avoided.

If you are interested in the questions that are asked and answers given, be sure to visit us at those links! Now, if only I could generate more interest in our fabulous (and totally uncommon!) Mortgage Refinance Calculator….. http://www.vivaescrow.com/for-your-convenience/faq/refinance-calculator

DEATH OR TAXES: As I started this newsletter at the end of 2012, the fall off the fiscal cliff looked very ominous. Well, now we know that death by falling off the cliff was avoided (barely), but taxes, well, that is another story. The government was able to restrict increases of income tax to only the super wealthy, but even so there will still be a raise in taxes in some form or another this next year.

Last month I talked about the 3.8% tax on capital gains to fund necessary parts of Obamacare which may affect only the wealthier segments of the population. Hitting much closer to home and encompassing the whole population in one fell swoop is the .25% increase in the state wide California sales tax. Now this may not seem like much on paper, but it is a tax on everything that you purchase (except for fresh food) in the state (includes internet businesses based in California, like, Amazon). Los Angeles County sales tax, for instance, will jump from 8.75% to 9%. To those low income or unemployed people, this is a huge, huge burden to bear.

Now is the time to seriously consider where you are purchasing your product. This makes a big difference when you go to discount warehouses and buy cart loads. For instance, in El Monte (Sam’s Club), the sales tax is 9.50%. In Duarte (Costco) it is 9.0%. So shop smart!

If you want to find out how much taxes are in certain counties and cities, go to http://www.boe.ca.gov/cgi-bin/rates.cgi. Remember that certain cities and counties voted in separate additional tax rates which will go into effect later in the year. For more information on sales and use tax, the State Board of Equalization’s general site http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/pam71.htm has lots of good information for you.

By the way, while on the subject of discount warehouses, here is an article comparing the large discount warehouse centers, based on membership costs, selections, return policies and shopping experience. Maybe you are like me, a member of 2 of the big ones. Good shopping!

MOOO! aka FALLING OFF THE DAIRY CLIFF: Forewarned is to be forearmed. The temporary fiscal cliff settlement extended the previous expired farm bill to September of 2013, which gives Congress time to write up a new one. You may ask, how does that affect us individually? We are not farmers, after all. Well, if it had not, we would have been forced off the dairy cliff as government subsidies of dairy products would have ended and the cost of milk as well as any products which requires milk would have soared. We can drink milk again until September of this year but what will happen afterwards? We know Congress must slash the budget, and subsidies to the farmers which created the artificially low milk prices will probably be the first to go. Can you imagine paying $6 or more for a gallon of milk? Do you remember how much milk teenagers drink? Are we willing to cut off the subsidies and see where the milk prices land?

LOOKING BACK TO LOOK FORWARD: Happy 2013! Some say that my little world is a good indicator of the general market condition, and if that is so, I will tell you that with my finger on the pulse rate I find that it is pumping hard and fast! Let’s just hope that there are no arterial blockages halfway down the hatch which will cause strokes and heart attacks. So here is what my pulse says at the end of 2012:

1. Existing home sale prices are steady and going up, all over California, even in the previously depressed areas. If the property is priced right, then there will be multiple offers. Happy Sellers!
2. In certain areas of California, north and south, we are coming up against insufficient inventory! Again, refer back to #1 and final sale price exceeding the asking price. Sound familiar? Didn’t we go through this a few years back?
3. Money is still flowing fast and furious from China. A good 50% of the business that comes across my desk are “all cash” funds from Chinese investors.
4. The “Affordable” homes market – sale of homes that are subsidized by different city and other government agencies – are hanging by a thread as the agencies are strapped to find the funds that they originally earmarked to help low income families.
5. Construction for new homes is only inching up due to the difficulty of finding construction funds. For those developers who have a private source of funds, however, the homes they build are quickly snapped up (see #3 above).
6. Lending underwriting restrictions are still there, but the public is becoming more familiar (and resigned?) with what works today. Underwriting time periods have not improved however, for commercial or other non conventional loans.
7. Short Sales are taking less time to get approved, but perhaps this is due to less files sitting on the negotiators’ desks. We also see more HAFA incentives for Seller relocation. The standard is $3,000 on the transaction.
8. The view from my desk is that foreclosures sales seem to be slowing down, but I think this may not be industry-wide. Perhaps it is just my particular REO Lenders who have thinned out their inventory.
9. The number of refinance transactions is also steady as the borrowing costs and interest rates have been kept low, but I feel that we have probably hit the bottom for now. However, as the values of homes rise we will see more properties appraising at higher values, thereby allowing more people to take advantage of refinances at low rates. This will start, I think, by the second quarter of 2013.
10. With so many of the big lenders – Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, Citibank – going out of the wholesale market, the mortgage brokers have been hit hard and are scrambling to find wholesale lenders who they can work with and who have underwriting guidelines that are not too off the wall.
11. The sale of mom and pop businesses has also risen the second half of 2012. As the purchase cost of these businesses are low, the Buyers are either (1) willing to take a chance that the business will succeed for their minimal investment, or (2) these Buyers need to go into business for themselves or face unemployment.
12. With the silver lining there is always the dark side of the moon. 2013 will see the real estate, lending, escrow and title industries dealing with more regulations coming out of Washington DC. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is rolling out the “Qualified Residential Mortgage” regulations, much to the dismay of the real estate industry. It is also finalizing the new Loan and Closing Disclosures, to the apprehensive concern of the Lending and Settlement Service industries.
13. As a side note, certain Lenders are demanding that the Escrow Officer handling a particular transaction go through a “vetting” process (their credit report and employment status be reviewed through a third party vendor) in order for them to handle the file. This issue has put the settlement industry in an uproar throughout the nation and will come to a head this upcoming year. The fight will be dirty and bloody.

Did I miss anything?

Okay, enough of the exciting stories. How about a couple of “human interest” ones to balance it out?

ONLY IN JAPAN: One of my lasting impressions of modern day Japan was the fashion and personal statements of today’s Japanese young (and not so young), women. After my trip there in 2010 I came back with pictures upon pictures of everyday dress fashion, much of which were eyebrow raising, to me at least. It was like looking at a street full of Gwen Stefani’s Japanese backup girls. To tap into this rich and “different” market Honda is putting out a new car catering to this social strata only – the car is called the “She’s” (where do they come up with these names!) and can be purchased in PINK, with PINK accents and PINK stitching, and in some other colors to match eye makeup. I swear, that’s what the video said. Things like this I don’t even know how to make it up.

With all the hype today of “self driving” cars that Google, Toyota and other car makers are putting out, is the rolling out of a pink car Honda’s marketing strategy for this year? It is a statement of the difference in social cultures that I say that this car will probably do very well in Japan where women of all ages love PINK, cute stuff (like hearts and kisses), and, of course, Hello Kitty. *Eyes Roll* Maybe, just maybe, Honda can make a pink self driving car for those busy Japanese women who have trouble driving in their Pink car and talking on their PINK phone at the same time.

MIGHTY MOUSE IS HERE TO STAY!: Ah ha! Never too old to learn new tricks! I remember those mice-less days, just as I remember the IBM PC XT and the novelty of having a fax machine (woohoo! So technologically advanced!). I do admit that when I first started using the mouse, I couldn’t figure out how to get it to point correctly (yeah, you did too, admit it!). Now, 20 years later, I am still learning about things that I can do with that little sucker. For instance, did you know you can do more with the left click than point and shoot? You can also do awesome stuff by double clicking, triple clicking and, if you hold down one of the control keys and use the scroll wheel, you can actually scroll sideways!!! Now isn’t that something you have always wanted to know?

WHAT IS IN A NAME? Well, it could be quite a lot, especially if you live in Iceland, for instance, where they have laws regarding baby names. Apparently, you can’t just name your child any combination of letters from the alphabet as people are wont to do here in the good ole, US of A. There is a prescribed list! I came upon this article that an Icelandic girl is taking the government to court for not allowing her the right to use the name given to her. You go, girl! Big Brother, freedom of speech and all that!

All the best wishes for a prosperous and successful 2013!

“A dollar may not go as far as it used to,

but what it lacks in distance it makes up in speed”

~Author Unknown~

Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI
Escrow Manager
Email: JulianaT@vivaescrow.com

Contact Me: LinkedIn Facebook

Another year has gone by and for better or worse this will be my last e-news edition for 2012. Does time fly faster as we grow old? Is there some sort of formula that I don’t know about? Does E really equal MC squared???? What is amazing (to me, at least) is that I have been putting out this newsletter since 2008, every month, without fail, except for the May 2010 edition when I was on vacation. That surely says something about my character, doesn’t it? Perseverance? Dedication?  Stubbornness? Obstinancy? Do I have waaaaaay too much time on my hands?

Okay, update on my book – “The Art of Escrow” which is in its final, final stages (I keep thinking it is final until my editor sends me another version to review) and the timeline says it should “hit the stands” around Dec. 20^th. I have to tell you that even if I didn’t write the book (which I did), I have read it and edited it so many times that I could probably recite most of it from memory! I must admit that having never done this before (but look forward to doing it again) I found that writing a book was a harder process than I thought it would be. I have to sound normal but professional, technical yet still interesting, detailed without giving away confidential information. And because it is non-fiction, I can’t just make up stuff to give it an interesting story line! It was tough to balance out all my concerns. The book will be dedicated to my fellow escrow professionals, the most overworked and underappreciated group of people in the whole real estate industry. I will keep you informed as to the final-final-final!

CLOSING DATES ARE NOT SET IN STONE! Every transaction starts out with a “Closing Date” – the date all parties aim to finalize, close, and hand over property and proceeds. Whether we are able to hit that date right on the money is an issue that all real estate agents should address with their clients at the time the offer is being written by Buyer and accepted by Seller. If the clients have an understanding of what the whole escrow process entails, it is easier to understand that there are many factors which may affect this date. Please click on this link to access my full article: http://www.vivaescrow.com/for-your-convenience/faq/closing-dates.

THE 3.8% TAX: Contrary to what some people believe, the new 3.8% tax that will take effect on Jan. 1, 2013 and levied on the sale of real estate is not a “transfer tax” like the one we presently pay with the recordation of a Grant Deed at the time of closing. This new tax, which will be used to keep Medicare going and is part of Obamacare, is to be paid through your income tax returns when you generate income from capital gains derived from the sale of real estate, from rents, interest or dividends. If you or your clients have concerns about this tax, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has an excellent summarization and samples that you can access at these two links: here and here.

My grateful thanks to Cristina Garcia, my good real estate agent client, who brought this tax concern to my attention and suggested that I let all my other clients know. Yes, it will be a new year and there will be many new tax laws that will have an effective date on New Years Day. Knowledge is power and advance planning is key, so familiarize yourselves with those laws that may change the way you do business or invest. You still have about one month to sell without incurring this new tax! This tax is one of the reasons why so many big companies like Costco and Disney are distributing dividends for their stockholders before the end of this year.

E-MAIL- A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP: This fiasco with David Petraeus and his extramarital affair exposes so many issues and problems that can be found in positions of power and influence. Out of the many repercussions and lessons that it exposes, the one I want to mention is about e-mail technology and privacy.

The use of e-mail can be a double-edged sword. In today’s business environment it is absolutely imperative to have this capability, but it’s a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” scenario. We need it to communicate quickly and effectively but we also need to understand that it is not a piece of private communication between parties. Whereas we understand that when posting on Facebook and Twitter and the other social media sites you are knowingly and actively letting the world know what you think, you might be lulled into thinking that transmitting certain information by e-mail is not. For example, E-mails on most server accounts like Google and Yahoo can be pulled up by tech investigators without warrants, just a subpoena. Another dilemma: think of how many corporate companies have had their dirty linen aired because internal e-mail communication was made public. Think it can’t happen to you? Here is the most obvious scenario: your “private” e-mail gets forwarded by your recipient without you knowing, deliberately or otherwise. Just one click and some other recipient may be on the receiving end of whatever you wrote, good or bad.

Here is the reason why I bring this whole e-mail thing up: If my escrow file gets subpoenaed in a lawsuit, I am obligated to provide every single piece of paper belonging to the whole file, and that includes all e-mail correspondence, good, bad, sensitive or incriminating. Even a simple “thank you” response e-mail back is important; to the attorneys looking at the file it means “you got the e-mail so don’t think you can say you didn’t”. So, if there happens to be anything in the transaction that does not bear close scrutiny, please don’t include your escrow officer into such situations; you won’t like it when that particular e-mail appears in court!

Many lessons can be learned from the Petraeus fiasco and the one that we all can learn from is that online communication is never private, If our CIA Director – our “Master Spy” – can get caught at it, what hope is there for us? Bottom line is: If you don’t want the whole wide world to know, it’s best not to put it in an e-mail, and if you absolutely have to, then read your e-mail over before you hit that “send” button. Can it stand up in court? Will it embarrass you in the future? As I tell my staff, your e-mail is a reflection of you!

ARE UNIONS BANKRUPTING THE ECONOMY? On a somber note, San Bernardino is just a hop, skip and jump from where I am, and I handle many, many transactions in that city, because some of my clients have found that the real estate market there very fluid. There is money to be made there for investors, even though the city itself declared bankruptcy this year.

According to this article, the city was led into this sad state of bankruptcy mainly because they succumbed to the demands for higher pay and retirement benefits from city worker unions during the good times which they were then unable to meet when the economy tanked. It is common knowledge that many cities throughout the nation, many of the states, including California, and countries (does Greece come to mind?) have been brought to their knees by the same issues and concerns. The question then is this: Are unions good for our economic recovery? Is the good for the few worth the pain of the many? The latest example – the striking bakers’ union put the Hostess Brands company under, to the detriment of 18,000 workers who will lose their jobs. Would concessions by the union have saved the livelihood of the 18,000 workers, even if it is at a lower standard of living? This is a serious issue which deserves our thoughts.  Obama got another four years but how can he push the economy on the right path if other factors drag him down?

FONTS AND YOUR DRIVING: Every newsletter I try to insert an article that I found amusing, exasperating, confounding, or generally eyebrow raising. This month it is about an MIT study that was done on a group of male drivers ages 36-75 which indicated that the type of fonts used by a car manufacturer on the dashboard navigation systems has a lot to do with driver distraction which could then lead to accidents. Certain fonts are just harder to read, which means more time is required for the driver to interpret what they are reading, or requires them to glance at it more times, thereby taking their concentration off the road. Interesting, isn’t it? Eye-brain-hand coordination. Can you imagine if the study was done on the males aged 18-28 group who have excellent eye-brain-hand coordination but use it to talk and text instead of driving? You notice that the article said there was no appreciable difference for women. Hmm, I wonder if it means that women’s brains distinguish real and unreal faster?

HOBBIT FEET? UH OH. Our health note of the month involves the study of our feet to uncover our potential health issues. Poor circulation, anemia, diet problems, thyroid, osteoporosis and other issues can be diagnosed just by looking at the state of our feet. I will tell you that I read this article, going through each of the 18 slides, its accompanying descriptions and what to do’s, very carefully. For one who has fractured her foot and tends to wear 5 inch heels with no arch support, the state of health of my feet are very important!

STAMPS ARE FOREVER: Finally, as a Christmas present to all of us, the start of a brand new year will ring in an increase in first class mail from 45 cents to 46 cents. Purchase those “Forever” stamps now before the rates go up! In addition, effective next year, those of you who still send snail mail to other countries (including Canada, which is another country, no matter what Americans say) will be able to buy an international Forever stamp for $1.10. Gotta keep that old ship – the USS Post Office – afloat.

As the holiday season swings into full course,

Develop an “Attitude of Gratitude”.

Say thank you to everyone you meet for everything they do for you.

~Brian Tracy, Motivational Speaker~

With blessings to all,

Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI
Escrow Manager
Email: JulianaT@vivaescrow.com

Contact Me: LinkedIn Facebook

My book is coming out soon! “The Art of Escrow” is in its final edit stages, with the illustrations, front and back covers already done. It is the most exciting project that I have done in recent years and surprisingly, it was a real education for me, too. I am looking forward to seeing it in print and electronically in December, but meanwhile, you can see a picture and excerpt on our website at www.vivaescrow.com.

LEARNING THROUGH YOUTUBE: Too busy to read my article relating to the whys and why nots of the Preliminary Change of Ownership form (PCOR) and the Change of Ownership form? Take the easy way out and watch my YouTube video on this subject. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrWiL2lm_D0 . Learn why we need to fill out these forms and the consequences of not doing so!

PLAN YOUR FUTURE WISELY BY AVOIDING MISTAKES and you will be halfway there. With the elections coming up and our social security system under tremendous scrutiny by both presidential candidates, this is a good time to review some issues about this system that may benefit us. Here are some highlights for you to think about, because remember, it’s never too early but it could be too late!

• Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Just because you reached 62 years old doesn’t mean you should start collecting immediately. Waiting increases your benefits amount.
• Benefits are calculated based on your earnings records over 35 years. When was the last time you checked if your earnings history is up to date?
• Are you self employed? Not reporting your income to avoid taxes will hurt you in the long run if you want to claim benefits after retirement.
• A marriage that lasted 10 years or more will give the divorced spouse rights to benefits on the ex-spouse, even if he/she re-marries. You just need to claim it.
• The “when” of claiming spousal benefits affects the “how much” you will receive. In fact, benefits between spouses should be coordinated for maximum advantage.
• Don’t start claiming social security out of fear that the system will run out of money. Any changes that will be made to the programs may not affect the older generation, just the future generations.
• Most importantly, sufficient planning is essential. The Social Security has planning tools that are free. Take advantage of that.

Here are the 2 articles for further details and insight. Two words: Plan ahead!

MAKE EVERY DOLLAR COUNT! Yep, the Christmas shopping season is less than two months away. We have to make our hard won dollars count! Gas was a killer on the budget, don’t let other things weigh it down even more.

• DID YOU KNOW that the costliest bank charge is the NSF fee which averages $31.26 per shot? That’s almost 8 gallons of gas! So don’t overdraft. It will still cost you even if you have “overdraft protection”. Why give this money to the banks?

• DID YOU KNOW that some everyday consumption items can be marked up to a shocking 4,000 percent of its actual cost ????? I am talking about movie theater food, prescription drugs, bottled water, eyeglass frames, soda/coffee/tea ordered at the restaurant, those hotel mini-bar snacks, cute greeting cards, flowers (that wilt after a few days), the all important women’s make-up necessities….and much more. Need a nice shock to the system? Check this out and you will never look at another bottle of water the same way again.

• DID YOU KNOW that some items in a dollar store costs more than that proverbial dollar? For great savings this holiday season get your party plates and napkins there, your holiday card and decorations, plus think of all those kitchen gadgets and other household items to stuff all those stockings, all at close to $1.00. All you have to do is look and compare. Why go to the mall when there is the Dollar Store around the corner?

• DID YOU KNOW that there savings and there are savings. Some savings are not as smart as other. Thinking of buying a small car for that deserving son or daughter? Before you shop, do your homework. Some cars are cheap, but are more crash prone than others, especially the small cars. The list includes the Chevrolet Aveo wagon, Nissan Sentra, Dodge Avenger, Hyundai Accent, Nissan Versa, Kia Rio, Mitsubishi Galant, Chevrolet Aveo, Suzuki SX4 and finally, the Toyota Yaris. Don’t look to save yet compromise on safety. Start by reading this article and do the math.

• DID YOU KNOW that there really are freebies that don’t cost you anything, waiting for you to find and take advantage of them? Okay, maybe some are not quite what you can stuff in a stocking, but you never know, with a little ingenuity… For instance, how about unlimited texting, certain tech support, some computer software, recipes, health care, certain prescription antibiotics, retirement planning, FOOD, e-books, music, classes offered by large universities, hobby classes, and many more things all for FREE! Love that four-letter word! Here is the article for further information.

Finally, some random news you can bring up to generate buzz and interest at some boring cocktail/dinner party function:

• Sending gifts to your Friends through Facebook – Let’s say you get a notice on Facebook that a Friend has a birthday coming up, and immediately you have the option of sending him/her birthday cookies with one click and your credit card. Facebook is looking into developing a “gift” app for the person who wants life made easier. Shopping while socializing. Can it get any easier to spend money?

• For those sports fans who want to impress their significant other (or apologize for the time away at a game), how about purchasing something from the Victoria Secrets retail store right after the big game? Dallas’ Cowboy Stadium will put a VS store right in the stadium. Beer, popcorn, er… lingerie, anyone?

• And now Walmart is getting into the banking business by opening up MoneyCenters in some of their stores, offering services that are normally found in conventional banks. Superstore?  You betcha! What’s next? Maybe selling real estate and getting the escrow transaction done, right  inside their store. Where do I line up?

• Break my heart! Bank of America is being sued $1 billion by the government because of their practice of doing the “Hustle” – the name given to their reckless mortgage practices that started the worldwide economic slide to the dregs. Why the “Hustle”? Read it up in this article and do a little dance!

• Okay, this one scores high on the beyond-belief scale. How about low income housing breaks for billionaires? Can you imagine this happening in Los Angeles? Well perhaps not any more since John Noguez, LA County Tax Assessor, is out of circulation. But in New York City, billionaire homeowners of units in the One57 Tower are applying for huge breaks on their property taxes under the city’s tax reduction program. The program was supposed to benefit low income housing, putting people into “affordable” housing but some smart billionaires decided that they can try to play the game, too. For example, buy a $90 million apartment at this location and you might receive a 91% property tax reduction from $230,000 to $20,000 a year. And the higher the floor, the higher the tax break. This is not set yet so I would keep an eye out to see if NYC will really allow this tax break, especially in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. If you ask how come the rich become richer, now we know how. Through sheer gall.

A Happy Thanksgiving holiday to all!

We will be closed November 22 and 23^rd in celebration of this holiday

Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI

Escrow Manager

E-mail: JulianaT@vivaescrow.com

Contact Me: LinkedIn Facebook

News Flash!

County Property Taxes are out!

We are prorating based on new tax amounts and Lenders are requiring first half taxes to be paid on all closings from now on.

CITY OF HOPE – WALK FOR HOPE EVENT IS COMING UP! I have a dream….a dream that cancer will be eradicated within my children’s lifetime. Towards this dream I seek to raise $1,500.00 towards my City of Hope fundraising goal. Won’t you help me in my efforts? Join me and walk the walk on November 4^th. If you can’t physically come and walk, won’t you at least “virtual” walk with us with a donation of $25.00 (or more)?   Click here to visit my personal page. Let’s dream the dream and make it a reality!

CITY OF L.A. TRANSFER TAXES: City, County, State and Federal government are trying everything to raise taxes to bridge deficit gaps. Perhaps income tax rates are considered sacrosanct (especially in an election year), but there are other taxes that affect everyone on a daily basis (Sales Tax) and there are those that may affect certain segments of the population (Property Taxes). There are also taxes that you may not have heard of but can be very hefty to those affected. One of this is the Documentary Transfer Tax. You can find out all about California’s Documentary Transfer tax by going to one of our popular resource sections on our website: http://www.vivaescrow.com/transfer-tax.

If the Los Angeles City Council has its way, we will be updating our site soon. At this time the City of Los Angeles charges a City Transfer Tax of $4.50 per $1,000 of the sales price of a property being sold. This means that for a $500,000 home, the City will charge $2,250.00 at the point of sale. This is separate from the County Transfer Tax charge of $1.10 per $1,000, which equals $550.00. Now the City wants to double their tax to $9.00 per $1,000. If this passes through, City and County Transfer Tax to be paid on this property will be a whopping $5,050.00!

What people forget (or don’t realize) is that the City of Los Angeles is huge and encompasses a lot of the San Fernando Valley, areas like Van Nuys, Encino, North Hills, Northridge, etc. In fact, to find out if a property will be affected, pull up a Thomas Guide (remember those?) and everything that is colored in white belongs to the City of Los Angeles.

Needless to say, if Los Angeles starts on this road of increasing the City Transfer Tax, you know that other cities will follow. The highest tax rate right now is the City of Berkeley which has a tax rate of 15%. Isn’t that absolutely incredible?

So, if you live in the City of Los Angeles and are against this potential increase, now is the time to take action. See this link http://www.stopunfairtaxes.com/, taken from the West San Gabriel Valley Board of Realtors website. Make your feelings known to your Councilperson!

WHY WE HATE MONTH ENDS: A month has an average of 30 days, give or take one or 2. Out of all these days, why is it that all loan approvals and loan documents must be squeezed into the last few days? “Month-End” starts a week before the actual last day of the month and leads right into the first week of the next month and are the busiest days in the escrow industry. These are the days that you see hair tearing, stomach cramps, and facial breakouts as stress cumulates to a breaking point.

What is even worse is when the last day of the month is combined with (1) a Friday, (2) the end of a quarter, (3) the Friday right before a long weekend, or (4) all of the above! Now, “all of the above” is rare, but on August 31 we hit the jackpot 2 out of 3. End of the month for August started on August 27^th and didn’t end until September 7^th. That was a long time to carry high levels of stress hormones in the blood stream. It’s a good thing that this year December 31^st is not on a Friday, because if it was, it would be (4) all of the above! So, you ask, what can happen during the period?

• Lenders rush to approve loans so that the loan officers can meet their quota
• Lenders rush out loan docs so that they can be signed in time to fund and close by month end. This means sending documents to escrow all hours of the night (remember, if they get documents out at 8:30 in the evening, they can still say they got them out that “day”)
• The last signing day before the 3 day right of rescission ends calls for begging and pleading to notaries to take your documents because their appointment schedule is packed
• Calling about a loan approval status? Forget about it! Bottom of the pile!
• You get no live person, you are lucky if voice mail is not full.
• Transactions with FHA payoff? Uh oh. The payoff must be made by the last day of the month OR the Borrower has to pay one more additional month of interest.
• Interest rates and loan documents may expire at the end of the month if not funded and closed
• Long weekend coming up? Everyone likes to move in-move out so that’s the date everyone is aiming for
• The County Recorder gets so busy at month-end that confirmation of recordings can be delayed until after 5:30 p.m. That means the physical balancing of the file may not get done until the next business day and the Seller/Borrower doesn’t get his proceeds until the next business day
• Besides escrow officers working late, late, late, Title Company staff also come in early and work late, late, late, sometimes through the night

After 35 years in the industry I have learned that it doesn’t matter how hard we try and schedule and pace our work, if others are not doing the same we are left hanging and on the receiving end of frustrated client phone calls. Who invented month-ends?

THE MAKING OF A BRAND NAME: On the light side, here is a fun trivia article for those times when you are stuck on hold with nothing to do but twiddle your thumbs. Have you ever thought about how the names of Coke, Starbucks and Amazon came about?  After reading through the article I find that the moral of the story is this: choose wisely, for the name of the game is…. the name! Can you imagine “Stat.us” instead of “Twitter”?

And in case you wondered, which companies are the top 10 name brands according to performance? According to RankingTheBrands.com,  #1 to #10 are – Apple, Google, BMW, Toyota, Amazon, Walmart, Honda, Coca-Cola, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagon. For the full 100 brands check this link. What, Viva Escrow! is not on it? What were they thinking? Maybe next year.

LOSING WEIGHT IS A LOSING PROPOSITION: The whole year is almost done and my New Year’s resolution of losing another 5 lbs has really gone down the drain. What happened? Not only did I not lose any more, I gained a few pounds, much to my dismay. This means I have to tighten my belt even more. See, the tighter the belt, the more I will feel it if I eat too much. It’s either that or Spanx. I know some of you are now rolling your eyes right about now but losing weight has been a constant struggle. Even one ounce is a big deal for me! But I came up on an article that makes great sense simply because it lists everything I know I should do but completely disregard. So, for those of you who are looking to lose a few so that you can gorge during the holiday season, here are the “dos” and the “don’ts” to follow in a one word description:

Do: Breakfast, Fiber, Protein, Water, Meals

Don’t: Sugar, Sodium, Carbs

For the full article and how to fix each mistake (which I printed out and keep on my refrigerator door), here it is. Thanks for reading my whiny post.

SIMPLE HEALTH TESTS TO TRY: And now leading right into the matter of our health, I found this article amusingly interesting. Go ahead and click the article and I’ll bet you will conduct those simple tests right here and now. Yeah! Go ahead, no one is watching…. so… do you have rheumatoid arthritis? P.S. for women, you should take off all your clunky rings, which will get in the way….

DRIVERLESS CARS: One last thing and I will quit for the month. We should take pride that California is always at the forefront of everything, especially lifestyle and technology. No matter if the rest of the nation looks at us askance and thinks we are “strange”, “weird”, and “fruitcakes”, I personally think Governor Brown did good to sign the bill that would allow self driving cars on the road. Too cool! Just think, now women can put on makeup and teenagers can text or answer the phone all without endangering the lives of drivers around us. Of course, it will be years before the first such car is released to the general public, but this is a step in the right direction. Star Wars, here we come!

Have a wonderful October!

“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow. Today is the right day to love, believe, do, and mostly live.” – Dalai Lama

Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI
Escrow Manager
E-mail: JulianaT@vivaescrow.com

Contact Me: LinkedIn Facebook

OUR NEW MORTGAGE REFINANCE CALCULATOR IS UP!!!

http://www.vivaescrow.com/for-your-convenience/faq/refinance-calculator

TRANSLATION OF A FOREIGN DOCUMENT: Just recently I had two files that required a translation of a foreign Death Certificate so that it could be attached to the Affidavit of Death and recorded at the County Recorder’s office. Both documents were Death Certificates issued in Hong Kong, but no matter that they were mainly in English with just a few Chinese subtitles, it was still considered a foreign document and had to be “translated”.

The U.S. Court System in Los Angeles has a roster of certified interpreters and translators, broken down by languages that we can access for translation work. The translator attaches a Declaration and Certification that he is a Certified Court Interpreter to the original document and his translated copy and the forms are then taken to the County Clerk’s office for a “Translation Certification”. Then, and only then, will this document be considered acceptable for recording at the County Recorder’s office.

The reason I am putting this information here is because all this information did not come easily to us. After trying to get the original document attached and recorded and having it rejected repeatedly, we called the County Recorder for their requirements. We Googled sites and called all over the world (one site I called was in Australia, for goodness sakes) before we caught a tip to call the U.S. District Court for translator information. So, if I can save someone a major headache when something of this nature comes up, then I have done my good deed for the day! Feel free to share this list with your Escrow Officers!

TRANSFER TAX QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS: I am simply amazed at how many questions are left on our website regarding the various aspects of transfer tax and how it applies to every individual’s particular case. It’s even funnier that they tend to be spread across two different pages. They are good questions and I like to think that I have provided them with thoughtful answers.  I am surprised but happy that this program has generated so much interest. I would have thought that our “Loan Calculator” would have been more useful, but this just goes to show you that one never knows. http://www.vivaescrow.com/for-your-convenience/faq/california-documentary-transfer-tax and http://www.vivaescrow.com/for-your-convenience/faq/documentary-transfer-tax-exemptions

NEW MORTGAGE REFINANCE CALCULATOR IS UP ON OUR WEBSITE! Have you ever wondered if it is worth your while to refinance to reduce your interest rate from say, 4.0% to 3.50%? It’s a little more complicated than just saying the interest rate reduction makes it worth it. Well, we are proud to present our new “Refinance Calculator” to the world. We put in a great deal of thought into the variables that needed to be considered and have been designing and developing this calculator for over a year. All you need to do is plug in details about your current mortgage and the potential new loan and the results pop up for you to compare! You can find this new addition to the website at http://www.vivaescrow.com/for-your-convenience/faq/refinance-calculator

You can even pair it with our first (and original) mortgage calculator – the amortization schedule calculator. On that one, you can find out how much more you can save over time just by paying a little more each month. You can see both of the calculators at http://www.vivaescrow.com/loan-calculator or on our FAQ page with our other resources.

ENGLISH ONLY, PLEASE! Should it be English only? Here is an interesting tidbit: the city council of Walnut, California is pondering whether to make their public proceedings English only. Anyone not speaking English would need to bring an interpreter. This is from a city in which 2/3rds of residents and 3 out of 5 council members are Asian. After reading the article, what do you think? Is this fair to the Asian community? On the other hand, we are in the United States where the national language is English.  Right now, the city of Walnut is waiting for the Department of Justice to provide guidance. Comments, anyone?

METH HOUSES! If you are like me, you probably think that we are so far removed from any kind of drug scene that this article is a dud. But, did you know there are no visible signs to a house that has been the site of methamphetamine usage or production? Did you know you could buy such a property and not know? Exposure to this poison can cause irreparable damage to our organs with young children at the highest risk. Buying in an upscale neighborhood is no guarantee, and, another scary thought, if you are one of the many who are buying foreclosed properties for rental purposes with no knowledge of the history of the property, you could end up with problems like this. What if you had tenants living there who are unknowingly affected? Can you see $$$ and lawsuits? Or it was your tenant who was into the drugs? Really gets you thinking, doesn’t it? The accompanying article is here.

NAME BRAND LOGOS: If and when you have a little down time, or you are sitting on hold waiting for someone to get on line, check out this article which shows the evolution of certain brand name logos like Kodak, IBM, McDonalds and Lego.  My favorite is Canon and Apple. Isn’t it a good thing their upper management woke up and did a little re-designing. What were they thinking in the beginning?

WHAT YOUR WALLET SHOULD NOT HAVE: Ever have your wallet/purse stolen or misplaced?  You break out in a cold sweat and then desperately try to recollect what you had in there that you now need to cancel. Hopefully, you were smart enough not to keep certain things in there, thereby providing some crook a perfect opportunity to steal your identity:

• Your social security card
• Your password cheat sheet (oops)
• Spare Keys
• Checks – blank or otherwise (oops)
• Your passport
• Many credit cards
• Your birth certificate
• Receipts for purchased items (oops)

I guess I am not as smart as I think I am. So where am I going to keep the password cheat sheet? In my head?

FINANCIAL TIPS NOT TO FOLLOW: Here are the top 10 on the list for us to think about. Is this a case of been there, done that?

1. Using a debt settlement company
2. Only paying whatever you can on your debt
3. Leave a credit card balance to improve your credit score
4. Use your 401(k) to pay bills
5. Close unused credit card accounts
6. Stop paying your mortgage
7. Use the equity loan to pay unsecured debt
8. Buy a car based on the monthly payment cost
9. Take investment advice from friends
10. Borrowing the maximum amount on student loans

For further details on each, go to this link.

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There has not been a whole lot of new economic news, whether good or bad. The unemployment figures have not improved, gas prices are rising daily, and Greece is still there. Last month the Olympics took us all away from our humdrum daily lives to the realm of awe and amazement. These next few months we will get the ring side seat to the circus called the “presidential elections”. Political fighting, which has always been pitched at high decibels, will increase to stratospheric levels until we call out, “Enough already, just give me a ballot and put me out of my misery!”

Meanwhile, I will make hay while the sun shines (and wilts it) because although properties and businesses are going through a good sale period right now, there is no guarantee it will continue through the end of the year.

On a final note, I mentioned last month that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued their 1099 page proposal on integrating the Truth In Lending, Good Faith Estimate and Respa disclosures …for the benefit of the consumers. The first comment period comes up September 7^th and my 5 page letter to them is already on its way. Will they read it? I understand that they have to read all comments that come. Will they consider them? That is really very doubtful. Is this an exercise in futility? Probably. Somehow I feel that no matter what the government says about wanting our input, they will still go ahead and do things their own way, irrespective of how strongly we the people oppose it. How many miles away is D.C. from L.A.?

~Bad is never good until worse happens~

Danish proverb

Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI
Escrow Manager
E-mail: JulianaT@vivaescrow.com

Contact Me: LinkedIn Facebook