Rochford Resources Blog

Buying property can be a great investment, but the purchase comes with a lot of paperwork. Lenders protect their money by requiring buyers to sign documentation associated with the loan. Various state laws require different paperwork, but Tennessee operates as a Deed of Trust state. Ultimately, a deed of trust is a legal document that ties the buyer and lender together until the loan is paid off. We take a closer look at what this means when buying property.

For many years, the U.S. housing market has been climbing at a steady pace. Recent reports are highlighting changes, and in 2018 the purchase and sale of homes has reached a peak. There are a few contributing factors to the plateau such as tariffs on building materials and mortgage rates. Specific pockets of the country are being hit harder than others. So, what does this mean for home buyers and sellers?

It’s expected that shopping for a home can take some time, but many homeowners don't plan for the closing process. The closing proceedings involve the exchanging of titles, documents, and money to secure the deal for both the buyer and the seller. It's an arduous process but a necessary one designed to protect the sale of the home. This final step requires some refinement if you don't want to get stuck in a back and forth between you and the seller. There are a few tips we have to help you make the closing process smoother.  

As a buyer, after shopping around for the best interest rates, a competent lender , a realtor you trust, and searching for the ideal home, it’s hard to believe that you still need to shop around for your settlement services. And for sellers, the anxiety, uncertainty of the process, and maintenance of your property may be enough to keep you awake at night. With so many moving pieces, it’s tempting to sit back and let someone else dictate who handles your settlement and title services.

What is Adverse Possession?

In the simplest of terms, adverse possession is a legal concept allowing individuals to acquire the title to a piece of land that they do not own because they have openly trespassed, inhabited, possessed, or used the property for an extended period of time. In Tennessee, neighbors or adjoining landowners can wind up in court over imprecise descriptions in deeds; fences that have marked boundaries for years, but are misplaced; outbuildings that straddle property lines; community gardens that have taken root on “vacant” lots; or deed overlaps where there’s not enough land to fulfill the descriptions for two adjoining parcels.

HPR stands for Horizontal Property Regime. In case you missed our last article on HPRs, we’ll fill you in before continuing onwards.

A Horizontal Property Regime is a legal way to divide a single property into two different properties, which is something that comes into play quite often in cities like Nashville. With Nashville’s economic boom, it has been estimated that as many as 100 people move here every single day.

A first glance, real estate law might seem like a very specific niche in the legal world. Well, it shouldn’t take much exploration to begin to understand just how much is encompassed by the term “real estate law.” Indeed, real estate law is a world unto itself, and one that often must be extended to include adjacent areas of practice. Indeed, real estate lawyers are forced to wear many hats!

Today we’ll be talking about one such instance of real estate law overlapping with other fields of practice. We often handle matters that blur lines between different areas of law, and the following matter is a perfect example of this.

Today we’re going to circle back to revisit topics that we’ve talked about in the past, and give you some insight into how these issues can play out in real life.

We’ve published articles talking about the intricacies of deeds. We explained the differences between different types of deeds, as well as the practical implications of those differences. We’ve also spent time talking about how title insurance works, and why you need it. Now, it’s time to bring all 3 of these discussions together, and examine how these dynamics can play out in real life. The following is a real scenario that we’ve had to dealt with in the past…

If you own a house, the fundamental piece of evidence that proves your ownership to the rest of the world is the deed to that house, also called a ‘title.’ Deeds come in the form of legal documents, but not all deeds are created equal. There are different types of deeds, each with its own unique set of implications.

So you’ve toured the builder’s flawless and fully-furnished model home and you’re in love. Buying a newly-constructed home is an exciting and optimistic time, but before rushing headlong into an agreement you may regret, there are a few things you should know before signing on the dotted line.

Nashville real estate attorney, John Rochford notes, “I often get calls from people who are in the process of buying a new home and who have some reservations about the contract their builder has presented to them. Needless to say, their instincts are often correct and the contract is totally one-sided. I help buyers examine their contract and negotiate the best terms for their new home.”