WHAT IS A JUDGEMENT AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT ME? Judgments are involuntary liens against a person which, once filed in Court and recorded at the County level, are like computer viruses. They attach to the person and property he owns and can’t be shaken off or zapped off unless it is taken care of or paid off. Selling a property? You can’t give clear ownership of the property. Buying a property? It will attach to the new property immediately once your name appears as the owner. These nasty blots against our credit are the main reason the Buyer and Seller are requested to complete a Statement of Information (S.I.) form upon opening of a transaction.
Yes, there is a reason we need your personal information, including a 10 year history of where you lived, where you worked and previous marriages. Judgments are good for 10 years unless extended prior to it expiring. Besides the amount of debt owned at the time of filing, the judgment form also calls for the debtor’s name, last known address, social security number and/or driver’s license. If these important pieces of information are not stated how do we differentiate if the debtor/defendant is you? With the proliferation of common names in California, if we can’t identify a common name by other information provided on the form then it becomes a significant issue in the transaction. Is the Joe Smith named in this judgment the same Joseph E. Smith who is a Seller of our transaction? Is this a “hit”? It takes time and effort to go through the General Index (G.I.) – an alphabetical list of thousands of filings at the County Recorder’s office. Submitting the S.I. early will help expedite and eliminate potential problems.
A judgment can be removed only if the creditor/plaintiff who is owed the money files a Satisfaction in court AND records it in the County Recorder’s office. When a judgment appears on our preliminary report I immediately alert the party so that he has the opportunity to work out some payment or satisfaction first. Once the creditor/plaintiff has agreed to a payoff amount, we will request a formal demand letter for payment through the transaction. Please note, a Satisfaction can be given which releases ONLY certain assets from the judgment while keeping the rest attached. It is up to the debtor/defendant to work out the terms of satisfaction to his best possible advantage.
So the next time your Escrow Officer asks for an S.I., don’t delay! Your client’s name may appear on the G.I. and the more information that is provided the faster we can eliminate any possible similar name situation and continue on with the transaction.
GENERATION SKIPPING ESTATE PLANNING: 2011 will be here in a few weeks and new estate tax regulations will come into play. We have all been made aware of the loophole in Federal estate taxes for this year (see my newsletter of July, 2010). Did you know that if you have parents or grandparents who have assets they are looking to transfer to deserving grandchildren, this may also be the year to do it? This generation skipping tax break comes in handy and should be taken advantage of before this newly voted in Congress closes the loopholes. However, if those grandkids are minors, watch out! It will raise other issues like setting up a conservatorship for the minors to handle the assets transferred. Remember, you don’t have to be rich to have estate tax issues. Take care of it now and decrease tax liabilities for your heirs in the future. Be proactive! Read more about it here.
SHORT SALE FRAUD! Imagine that! You would have thought that after the misery of the last 3 years due in part because of irresponsible and fraudulent lending practices people would stay away from anything that smacks of fraud. Those of you who have a real estate license and are in the process of handling Short Sale transactions are probably aware of the fraud warning from the Department of Real Estate regarding Short Sale scams. Things have gotten so bad that Jeff Davi, California’s DRE Commissioner, issued a letter to Lenders to request cooperation and coordination on these issues. Here are several ploys that the DRE is very concerned with:
- Short sale flipping, where agents, with false appraisals or broker price opinion letters, undervalue the property to the Lender to submit an offer from a “straw” buyer at an artificially low price. After the purchase the property is then re-sold at a much higher price.
- Payment of fees to an unlicensed Short Sale negotiator in addition to the real estate commission, sometimes outside of the transaction, without disclosure to short sale lender or the Buyer’s new lender. Here’s a relevant post about this topic.
- Payment of money between Buyer and Seller outside of the escrow transaction without disclosing to the short sale lender or the Buyer’s new lender.
- Listing Brokers who only entertain offers from Buyers who request a credit from Seller for closing costs and then request Buyer to pay the negotiator fee from this credit.
These are all matters which violate RESPA and Real Estate Law. The DRE is investigating the complaints they receive. If the real estate agent/broker is found to be guilty of any of the above matters, losing the license will be the least of their worries. Jail time is a definite possibility!
AS SERIOUS AS A HEART ATTACK: As my friends, family and I get older comparisons of our health status invariable come up each time we meet. We compare aches and pains, we trade stories, we wonder about specific symptoms. My personal fear has always been the big C – cancer, having a history of this disease through my maternal side. I never worry about heart disease because I feel that I have inherited great genes in that regard from my paternal side. However, because I worry about one and not the other, the odds are that it will be the “other” that will give me trouble. Isn’t that life? The following article lists certain things that we should watch for, leading indicators that all is not well. Upon review, I have this sinking feeling that I should be a little more worried:
- Indigestion
- Exhaustion
- Breathlessness
- Sleeplessness
- Anxiety
- Rapid fire pulse rate
- You just don’t feel like yourself
Yep, that pretty much describes me, any day!
HOLIDAY SHOPPING MADNESS: I am such a lazy person that I would much rather pay a little more buying on line than fight traffic, find a parking spot, grouch at the thousands of mall-ers, and go to a store. Then I came across a great article in Family Circle which lists sites I can go on for free shipping, coupons and promotional codes before I hit the on-line check out. Let me list these out for you and hopefully it will help you in this holiday seasonal shopping madness. Remember what Ben said about pennies!
- Promotionalcodes.com
- Freeshipping.org
- Retailmenot.com
- Redplum.com
- Ebates.com
I have gone on personally and pulled these coupons. At my desk. In my p.js. It’s awesome! I am so glad I am young enough to know how to maneuver through the web and old enough to have the discretionary income to do so. Isn’t technology wonderful!!
IMPRESSIONS FROM TAIWAN AND JAPAN: You all know that I just took a short ten day whirlwind visit of Taipei and Kyoto. There was a 30-odd year gap between my last visits to these 2 countries, so you can say that I was looking with fresh and amazed eyes. Here are some of my impressions:
- I love Taipei’s subway system! Clean, well lit, with clear English signs, it was a joy to use. Some stops even have attendants policing the areas in white gloves!!!
- Why are pedestrian walkways in front of buildings not uniform in height? Shouldn’t there be building codes in Taipei regulating something that is so important to public safety? The walkways are presumably the responsibility of the owner of the building and they are laid out helter skelter, with no thought to match the heights to their neighbors or use consistent materials. For a person who has just come off crutches, it was treacherous to window shop along the busiest commercial streets because I had to constantly watch if the ground was rising or dipping! As for tiles and smooth stone, they may look good on a sunny day, but once it rains they become hazardous substances!
- No more honking and crazy taxi drivers on the streets in Taipei. Gosh, it almost looks like…. Los Angeles!!
- 24 hour dim sum restaurants!!!! Pigs feet for breakfast!!!
- The Japan Rail Pass was the absolutely best buy that we made. Once purchased for a set amount outside of Japan, it allowed us foreign nationals to ride any local train, subway or Shinkansen (Bullet) train run by the JR lines for no additional cost. It saved us a lot of money and freed up our itinerary, allowing us to travel to other cities at a whim without regard to cost. And the train time schedules are so convenient, running many times an hour.
- It’s a good thing part of the Japanese written language derived from Chinese so that we could, most of the time, figure out the signs. I was flabbergasted to realize that the English language was almost non-existent among the average Japanese population. To travel in Japan you need a travel book and map which has Japanese characters alongside the English name translation. That way, when you use sign language, you can point to the Japanese entry in the book to make yourself understood. You can say “Kinkaku-ji Temple” all you want, but unless you show them “金閣寺”, they won’t know what the heck you are talking about. We took buses a lot and it became a real problem when the next destination signs were only in Japanese. We ended up trying to count the stops to make sure we didn’t miss our exit. And buying from an auto vending machine? Good luck!
- Japan can be a nation of contradictions. Take, for instance, one daily aspect of life – restrooms. Restroom are plentiful but they can veer from the extremely high tech and exotic (butt cleaner toilet seats, anyone?) to the very low-grade “prehistoric” (squat toilets come to mind). And why do they have high tech toilets but no paper towels or hot air machines for us to dry our hands?
- Japan must have very low unemployment. People are hired to do things like clean the pedestrian walk markers by hand. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of Kyoto Train Station, with people streaming in and out, you see these workers on their knees cleaning the individual marker bumps on the ground. Surreal! Or you will see a gardener weeding at a temple garden. The garden may be acres and acres and here is this one person weeding one square foot.
I really enjoy traveling. You experience different cultures, see the wonders of different countries, but more important, I come back with true appreciation for what I have right here. I love the U.S.!
CITY OF HOPE FUNDRAISING: A big THANK YOU! to all of you who answered my call to raise funds for the City of Hope. Every year I rely on the generosity of family, friends and clients. I cannot do it alone; you cannot do it alone, but, together, we are force to be reckoned with.
OUR NEW WEBSITE: Take a moment to look over our new website and the information we have provided to help you navigate transactions of various types. Your feedback and input is important to us. Use our blog area for comments!
Thought of the day: “Accept that no matter where you go to work, you are not an employee – you are a business with one employee – YOU. Nobody owes you a career. You own it, as a sole proprietor.” – Andrew Grove, Author
A restful and warm Thanksgiving to all.
May the joys of family come to you during this holiday season!
Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI
Director, California Escrow Association
Commitment. Knowledge. Escrow.
Viva Escrow, Inc.
2549 Huntington Drive #103
San Marino, CA 91108
Direct Tel # (626) 744-1684
Direct Fax # (626) 744-1689
www.vivaescrow.com
