Is It Worth Going to Small Claims Court?

Is It Worth Going to Small Claims Court? You might win the case (or not!) ...

Transferring Ownership of Property to Family

Transferring Ownership of Property. Hire an attorney to assist you in preparing the right documents ...

Buying a Home with Environmental Issues

Buying a Home with Environmental Issues. Do not close on the property (commercial, industrial or ...

Tenant Moves out Before the Lease Ends

Tenant Moves out Before the Lease Ends: Your lease agreement should contain a paragraph that ...

Estate Planning: What is Small Estate?

Estate Planning: What is Small Estate? But just because you have designated beneficiaries for most ...

Should You Sue Seller for Faulty Sewer Line?

Should You Sue Seller for Faulty Sewer Line? The key, in most cases, is whether ...

Selling a Home with Unpermitted Work

Selling a Home with Unpermited Work: Seek advice on your options and what you’ll need ...

Joint Ownership of a Home after Divorce

Joint Ownership of a Home after a Divorce: Look to the divorce decree and see ...

Homeowners Insurance Coverage and Claims

Homeowners Insurance Coverage and Claims: Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive and complicated. By Ilyce Glink ...

Lien on a Property after Death

Lien on a Property after Death: it’s unlikely that any liens could or would attach ...

Estate Planning: Transferring Your Property

Estate Planning: Transferring Your Property. Make sure you have a will in place or have ...

Neighbors Gutter Drains on My Property

Neighbors Gutter Drains on My Property. All houses and communities have problems. You can’t ignore ...

Divorce, Death and Joint Tenancy

Divorce, Death and Joint Tenancy. The divorce decree may control ownership and state the sole ...

Can you Sue your Homeowners Association?

Can you sue your homeowners association? The damage needs to be great enough to want ...

Transferring Property After Death

Transferring Property After Death: Sometimes you have to take a step back and take an ...

Reducing Noise from Upstairs Neighbors

There are ways to take care of reducing noise from upstairs neighbors, but some of ...

Responsibility of Maintaining Retaining Wall

Responsibility of Maintaining Retaining Wall. Make sure the agreement notes that the neighbor is using ...

How Does a 1031 Exchange Work?

A 1031 exchange is a mechanism under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code. It ...

Adding Property to Living Trust

Adding Property to Living Trust. A living trust is a great way to easily transfer ...

Taxes on a Sale of Inherited Property

Taxes on a Sale of Inherited Property. You need to know the cost of the ...

Estate Planning: Property in Trust

Estate Planning: Property in Trust. We’ve received some questions about trust issues that might be ...

Using Retirement Savings to Pay Off Mortgage

Using Retirement Savings to Pay Off Mortgage: In general, it’s almost never a good idea ...

Understanding a Joint Bank Account

Understanding a Joint Bank Account: It is an account where each of the owners in ...

Release of Mortgage Document Error

Release of Mortgage Document has Wrong Name. We suspect that the information on the release ...

Joint Tenants Property Ownership

Understanding joint property ownership: Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship vs Tenants in Common By ...

When to Change Your Living Trust

When to Change Your Living Trust? if you’re satisfied with your choice of trustee and ...

Tax Implications for Selling Foreign Property

Tax Implications for Selling Foreign Property. You will have to figure out if the real ...

Risks when Transferring Property to Family

Risks when Transferring Property to Family. Be very careful giving up part or total ownership ...

What is a Reserve Study and Is it Important?

What is a Reserve Study? These studies detail the many components of an association building’s ...

Home Fraud Protection or Scam

Home Fraud Protection or Scam: Be vigilant when you assess these offers, since many may ...

Real Estate Tips for Buyers and Sellers

Real Estate Tips for Buyers and Sellers: Don't be afraid to hire professionals to help ...

Benefits of Automatic Water Shut-off Valves

Benefits of Automatic Water Shut-off Valves: installing water sensors and other modern home water sensing ...

Multiple Purchase Offers on Different Homes

Multiple Purchase Offers: Do we have any recourse and secondly how do we protect ourselves ...

Tax Implications for Splitting Inherited Money

Tax Implications for Splitting Inherited Money: When it comes to estate taxes, the giver of ...

HOA Require Aesthetic Changes

Aesthetic Changes: Can a homeowners association force me to replace a perfectly good roof because ...

Governing Documents Define Common Area

Governing Documents Define Common Area: Understand what the specific provisions in the governing documents say ...

Unrecorded Quit Claim Deed

So the best advice we can give our readers is this. If they intend on ...

How to Prevent Water Infiltration

How to prevent water infiltration. Keeping your basement dry is one of the most important ...

How to Remove a Name from the Mortgage

How to Remove a Name from the Mortgage. Usually the easiest way to get a ...

Read Legal Documents Before Signing

Read Legal Documents Before Signing: If you don’t understand them, ask questions. By Ilyce Glink ...

The Condition Use of the Quit Claim Deed

The Condition Use of the Quit Claim Deed.  By Ilyce Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin ...

Homeowner Association Fees

Homeowner Association Fees: Homeowners associations have great latitude and discretion in running the associations. By ...

Leaving Real Estate to Children

Leaving real estate to children, you’re generally far better off inheriting property than using a ...

What to Expect Searching Your Home’s Title Online

What to expect when you search for your home's title online. Homeowners should be aware ...

Inheriting a Property in Pennsylvania

Inheriting a Property in Pennsylvania. That state has some unusual rules that directly affect our ...

Sell the Farm or Lease the Land

Sell the Farm or Lease the Land. The land could be rented and they could ...

Real Estate and Documents

Real Estate and Documents: Keeping these documents well-organized in the cloud will serve you well ...

Buying a Home As-Is

Buying a Home As-Is. If the home inspector finds significant or material issue with the ...

Your Home Inspector Missed Something

Your Home Inspector Missed Something. We highly recommend buyers go to their own home inspection ...

Avoid Probate with a Living Trust

Avoid Probate with a Living Trust: As the owner of the trust and the trustee, ...

What is Special Assessment Insurance Coverage

Homeowners insurance companies can issue an endorsement to a condominium policy which is designed to ...

Can a Buyer Cancel Purchase Agreement?

Can a Buyer Cancel Purchase Agreement? When you sign a purchase agreement, you are contractually ...

Review and Update Your Homeowners Insurance

Review and Update Your Homeowners Insurance: The policy should be in the name of the ...

Who is Responsible for Private Road Maintenance?

Who is Responsible for Private Road Maintenance? The responsibility of rules and maintenance of the ...

Condo Associations Should Have How Much in Reserves

Condo Associations Should Have How Much in Reserves? More buildings should have more in reserves ...

Buying a House with Open Permits

Buying a House with Open Permits: As you might have gathered from your open permit ...

Transferring Property into a Living Trust

Transferring property into a living trust: Have an attorney prepare a deed of conveyance to ...

Putting Your Child’s Name on a Property

Putting Your Child's Name on a Property -We don’t think parents should put real estate ...

Real Estate and Capital Gains Tax

This week’s column features thoughts, comments and suggestions from our readers about real estate and ...

Consider Non-Family Member for End-of-Life Agent

Consider Non-Family Member for End-of-Life Agent. A business person who can read my end-of-life wishes ...

Managing Parents Real Estate Portfolio

Managing Parents Real Estate Portfolio. The right answer starts with a deep conversation with parents ...

Gift Tax on Money Acquired by Elder Abuse

Gift Tax on Money Acquired by Elder Abuse. When a parent gifts money to children ...

Selling Combined Lots? What are the Tax Implications

Selling Combined Lots? What are the Tax Implications. Figuring out the Cost Basis and Capital ...

Neighbor Dispute About Shared Private Road

Neighbor dispute about shared private road. Private roads are governed by easement agreements. An easement ...

Estate Planning: Living Trust or LLC for Properties

Estate Planning: Living Trust or LLC for properties. Its time to go over your estate ...

Buying a Home Without a Buyer’s Agent

Buying a home without a buyer's agent. A mistake made when buying a home could ...

Understanding the Cost Basis of a Home

Understanding the cost basis of a home. Rental property vs primary residence effects the taxes ...

Error in Title Documents for Condo

Error in title documents for condo. Make sure that you are looking at the document ...

Understanding a Quit Claim Deed after Divorce

By Ilyce Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin Q: I divorced my husband two years ago ...

Tax Implications of Adding a Child to a Deed

By Ilyce Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin Q: My mother put me on the deed ...

Dealing with an Association

When dealing with an Association, you should understand the rules and get involved. By Ilyce ...

Family Dynamics and Estate Planning

Family Dynamics and Estate Planning: Parents should discuss their finances and any arrangements they’ve made ...

When Can a Seller Back Out of a Contract

When can a seller back out of a contract. Almost none contain clauses that discuss ...

Moving Costs Seniors Should Consider

Moving costs seniors should consider. They will need to hire extra hands to help them ...

Adding a House Into a Trust

Adding a house into a trust. You need to prepare a deed to transfer the ...

Dividing an Inherited Property

Dividing an inherited property. How do you split a property when one person gets 80 ...

Ideas to Consider When Deciding to Declutter a Home

Ideas to consider when deciding to declutter a home. Whether it is yours or someone ...

Why Sellers Might Waive Home Inspection

Why sellers might waive home inspection. There are valid reasons not to permit an inspection ...

Can a Landlord Terminate a Lease

Can a landlord terminate a lease? The answers to your questions can be found in ...

The Dangers of Overpaying for Property

The dangers of overpaying for property; buyers should think about if they buy homes with ...

Handling an Unsolicited Low Offer

Handling an unsolicited low offer. The listing broker should tell you that and give you ...

Should Seniors Buy or Rent

Should seniors buy or rent: You should consider how you will age in your home ...

Selling While Home Prices Are High

Selling while home prices are high. If you’re tired of living in your home, or ...

How Can You Find Out If You Are Listed On A Trust?

How can you find out if you are listed on a trust: if you are ...

What documents do you get when you payoff a mortgage

What documents do you get when you payoff a mortgage: a release of mortgage and ...

Buying vs Renting a Home

Deciding between buying vs renting a home comes down to financial considerations and personal preferences, ...

Validity of a Power of Attorney

The validity of a power of attorney remains until the principal dies. Once the principal ...

Suing a Seller for Non Disclosure

Get your proof ready if you are suing a seller for non disclosure of a ...

Getting Rid of a Timeshare

Getting rid of a timeshare can be a nightmare and the expenses drag you down ...

Home Inspector Missed Problems

My home inspector missed problems with the home I just purchased. Can I sue the ...

Selling Home to a Developer

What should you consider when selling home to a developer? Is price the only factor? ...

Real Estate Agent Cancels Listing

Real estate agent cancels listing agreement against my wishes. Can she do that? Do I ...

Is This A Housing Bubble?

Is this a housing bubble or is it just a housing shortage? The US is ...

Paying Taxes on Family Home Sale

If you inherited the family home, you need to know if you're going to be ...

Fix Mistake from Closing

Should you fix mistake from closing or keep extra land that was included in the ...

Shortage of Homes For Sale

There is a shortage of homes for sale in the United States of up to ...

A Cash Offer For a Home

A cash offer for a home means a buyer either has the money in the ...

Benefits of Multigenerational Housing

The benefits of multigenerational housing are there but you need to set it up carefully ...

What Happens if you Die Without a Will

If you die without a will, you lose control over who will get your money ...

Seller Failed to Fix Septic System

Seller failed to fix septic system that failed inspection after buyer closed on the home ...