The annual statistics on wire fraud and cybercrime are nothing short of alarming, and criminals continue to elude the FBI’s best attempts to apprehend them. Most of the time, there’s not a grand conspiracy at work. In fact, most hackers are more consistently successful with “social engineering” than they are at writing malicious code. Many of them can sound quite professional on the telephone, or through e-mail, and relieve their victims of thousands of dollars because they sound so trustworthy.
Before you purchase a new home or investment property, an important step is performing your due diligence. The process begins with making an offer on a suitable home and ends at closing. One of the most important parts of getting the sale consummated is the title search.
Many people get a little overwhelmed as they approach closing, and it’s understandable. It’s one of the biggest purchases that most people ever make, and preparations involve a lot of planning and research. You have to trust a team of professionals to come together to make closing run smoothly, and it’s their responsibility to ensure that your trust isn’t misplaced!
In 1997, we decided that Arkansas homeowners needed a truly local option when it came to purchasing a home or an investment property. There’s currently a disturbing trend for lenders to ship customer service call handling and other processes overseas to improve their bottom line. This arrangement often benefits their stockholders at the expense of their clients.
After your offer on a home is accepted, there remains a great deal of work to get you to the finish line. In order to cleanly consummate the sale, you have to be assured that the seller is in a clear position to sell the property. Typically, the home is the largest asset that people own, and if there are delinquent taxes, HOA dues, or unpaid child support, encumbering the property, these title issues must be settled before proper title can convey. These title defects are commonly known as “title clouds” and it is important that you are aware of their existence on property that you may be interested in.