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After a fire, the repair estimate is usually the first number a seller sees, and it’s almost never the full scope. The framing and HVAC are the parts that don’t show up until someone opens up the ceiling. That gap is what the repair-or-sell decision usually turns on, and a lot of sellers don’t have…
The part nobody warns you about in a short sale is that the seller controls almost nothing once the package goes to the bank. You can have an offer, an escrow, and a signed contract, and the lender still comes back months later with a rejection and no explanation you can do anything with. It…
Most California sellers land somewhere between 8 and 12 percent of the sale price in total selling costs by the time the closing statement comes back. That range tends to come in higher than sellers expected when they started putting together their net. Commission is where the conversation usually starts, and it’s also the number…
The path to stopping a foreclosure in California depends almost entirely on timing. The options available before a trustee sale date is set look very different from what exists once that date is locked in, and some of those options close permanently as the process advances. In August 2016 we closed on a house on…
California property liens fall into 11 recognized types, all organized along two axes: voluntary versus involuntary, and general versus specific. Knowing the type early changes how you plan the timeline and determines whether resolution is a simple escrow function or weeks of direct coordination. Most sellers find out about a lien when the title company…
Sellers call me thinking they’ve resolved a lien, and then they find out in escrow it’s still on title. The debt got paid but the release never got recorded with the county, and those are two steps that don’t always happen together. What I see most often are sellers who paid a creditor months before…
If you’ve ever sold a house or tried to refinance one, you’ve probably heard the word lien come up during the title search. Most people know it’s not a good thing to have but not everyone knows what it actually means or what to do about it. And there’s a pretty wide range in how…
Families who reach out after scheduling a cleanout crew are usually surprised to find out that nothing can be moved or distributed until probate closes, including what’s inside the house. The situations that take the longest to work through are usually the ones where something has already left the property. The ones that stand out…
If you’re trying to figure out what your house is worth, the number comes from what similar homes in your area have actually closed for, adjusted for how your property compares. I spent seven years as a certified residential appraiser doing that calculation, and it’s still what drives our offers now. Most sellers I’ve sat…
If you’ve inherited a house with a mortgage, the lender can’t demand full repayment just because the original borrower died. A federal law called the Garn-St. Germain Act prevents lenders from invoking the due-on-sale clause when property transfers to an heir, and the heir can continue making monthly payments while they decide what to do with the…
