Staging Your Home to Sell Sellers Tips: Setting The Stage Sells Your Home	When is Escrow Opened? When Is Escrow Considered "Open"?
Title Insurance? What Title Insurance Will Do for You?

Sellers Tips: Setting The Stage Sells Your Home

The age-old observation that "you never get a second chance to make a first impression" certainly applies when it comes to attracting buyers to a home for-sale. Making a good first impression can mean the difference between receiving serious offers for your home or being subjected to months of lookie-loos dropping by but never buying. How can you ensure that your home will make the best impression possible? Here are six tips for savvy home sellers: 1. Focus on curb appeal. The outside of your house can be the source of a very good first impression. Keep the grass well-watered and mowed. Have your trees trimmed. Cut back overgrowth. Plant some blooming flowers. Store toys, bicycles, roller-skates, gardening equipment and the like out of sight. Have at least the front of your house and the trim painted, if necessary. Sweep the porch and the front walkway. After dark, turn on your front porch light and any other exterior lighting. 2. Clear out the clutter. Real estate agents say buyers won't purchase a home they can't see. If your home has too much furniture, overflowing closets, crowded kitchen and bathroom countertops or lots of family photos or collectibles on display, potential buyers won't be able to see your home. Get rid of anything you don't need or use. Fill up your garage or rent some off-site storage space if that's what it takes to clear out your home. 3. Use your nose. Many people are oblivious to scents, but others are extremely sensitive to offensive odors. To eliminate bad smells, bathe your pets, freshen the cat litter box frequently, shampoo your carpets, dry clean your drapes, and empty trash cans, recycling bins and ash trays. Place open boxes of baking soda in smell-prone areas, and refrain from cooking fish or strong-smelling foods. Introduce pleasing smells by placing flowers or potpourri in your home and using air fresheners. Baking a fresh or frozen pie or some other fragrant treat is another common tactic. 4. Make all necessary repairs. Buyers expect everything in their new home to operate safely and properly. Picky buyers definitely will notice - and likely magnify - minor maintenance problems you've ignored for months or even years. Leaky faucets, burned-out light bulbs, painted-shut or broken windows, inoperable appliances and the like should be fixed before you put your home on the market. These repairs may seem small, but left undone they can lead buyers to question whether you've taken good care of your home. 5. Introduce lifestyle accessories and make your home as comfortable and attractive as possible. Set the dining room table with your best dishes. Put out your only-for-company towels. Make up the spare bed. Hang some fresh curtains. Put some logs in the fireplace. Use your imagination. 6. Get a buyer's-eye view. Walk up to your home and pretend you've never seen it before. What do you notice? How do you feel about what you see? Does the home seem inviting? Well-maintained? Would you want to buy this home? Your answer should be an enthusiastic yes!

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When Is Escrow Considered "Open"?

When you give your deposit to the real estate agent and the signed sales agreement has been signed by both the buyer and the seller, the agent may then "open" escrow. If there is no real estate agent involved in your transaction, the escrow may be opened by either the buyer or the seller. When you first make your offer to purchase a property, you typically give a good faith deposit check. The real estate agent will deposit this money into their company "escrow account", to be held until the seller has signed the agreement and all the terms of the purchase have been mutually agreed upon. Escrow is not open until the good faith money is actually placed in the hands of an escrow agent. This may be a title company, an independent escrow company, an attorney, or any other authorized closing agent allowed in your state. Upon depositing the buyer's deposit money with a closing agent, escrow may be considered to be "open" and a file number given for the escrow. An escrow officer or closing agent will be assigned to your account, and this person will follow your escrow all the way through the closing process. The escrow agent will be your main contact at the title or closing company. Any questions in regard to your title report, escrow money, obligations under the escrow, or progress reports should be directed to this person. Although there are many steps involved in processing your escrow and several different people working on your escrow, such as searching the title, preparing the title insurance policy, processing the loan documents, your contact at the title company will remain the escrow officer. As a party to the escrow, you are entitled to call the escrow closing agent at any time to request information or explanations.

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What Title Insurance Will Do for You?

Title insurance is a one-time premium paid to a title company that guarantees that you own a particular piece of property and guarantees that no one else has a claim to that property. You can't tell by looking at a property or at the deed whether the title to that property is good, and no one will require you to obtain title insurance, unless you are obtaining a mortgage. Title insurance works the opposite of your health or home insurance, which pays for loss or injury occurring after the effective date. Title insurance pays for events which occurred before the policy's effective date. It is the best protection you can have against any claims that may arise out of the past. You may wonder what can go wrong once you have a deed to the property in hand. The deed is recorded at the County Recorder's office, everything looks official, and an examination of the property shows no visible signs of encroachment or problems. You have walked the property, verified the survey, and see no boundary disputes. You could even go through the county records, if you wanted to do so, and check for any possible problems. Do you still need title insurance? Yes, you need title insurance for several reasons. There are matters that could have occurred in the past, such as a forgery, or a signature by an incompetent person, clerical errors, incorrect marital status, undisclosed heirs, improper interpretation of wills, signing by anyone without authority, a minor's signing, or any possible claims made by third parties against the title, all of which could make title to the property unmarketable. Title insurance will also cover losses or damages you suffer if there is no access to the land. Even if you searched all the county records yourself, you would still have to be able to interpret the effects of such information on ownership. Overlooking just one judgment or lien could be very costly. Imagine that you have purchased a property which has an adjoining parking lot. Half of the parking spaces are on the property which you own, which is described in your deed, and the other half of the parking spaces are a joint easement, shared with your neighbor. Let's imagine that a city ordinance requires you to have a certain amount of parking spaces to provide for your tenants. You have enough parking spaces with the half you own and the half which you share with your neighbor. Let's imagine that you neighbor suddenly, after several years, brings to your attention that he really owns part of the parking easement, and this property is included in his deed. You are now in jeopardy of loosing your occupancy permit on your property, as you could not provide the required parking spaces. You realize there must have been an error made in the boundary description of the easement. Where would you turn for help? The first place to turn is to your title company. When you purchased the property, you had a recorded easement for parking purposes. The title company will be responsible to investigate and negotiate with your neighbor to resolve the problem. In this particular case, the title company offered to buy the additional parking spaces from the neighbor, adding that land onto your deed. They had made an error in the description of the shared easement. The purchase of the parking spaces alone well exceeded the price of the title insurance premium. Title insurance is protection that you can't afford not to have. The chances are that you will never have to file a claim, but in the event that you do, you will be glad that you have this valuable insurance. The cost of title insurance is minimal when you consider the protection it provides.

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