If you are selling your home, you want everything to be smooth. You could be selling for any number of reasons — upsizing, downsizing, moving out of state, moving to senior living, or even because you are just ready for a change. After all, you went to all the trouble of putting your house on the market, procuring a buyer, dealing with the buyer’s inspection items, waiting for the buyer‘s mortgage to be finalized, and meeting with your attorney to sign a stack of papers. And now finally, finally, finally, you have a closing date on your calendar. Just a few more days, and you will be on to the next chapter of your life. Or so you thought. . .Everything was fine. . . And then your survey came in. In a typical residential real estate transaction, the survey is usually one of the last things the parties actually… read more →
At least once a week, quite literally every week, I talk to a client who says to me, “I need to put my house in a living trust.” I had this conversation with someone just yesterday, and it was not even the first time this week. Over the years, I have learned that there is a one-word follow-up to this statement: “Why?” And really, whether or not the house needs to go into the living trust is dependent on the answer to that question. Many people have heard from their friends, their family members, and, of course, the internet, that they should have a living trust. A living trust is a wonderful estate planning tool. It can simplify the process of transferring assets to family and other heirs after a death. That is why I ask people why they want to put their house into a living trust. If they… read more →