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SHOW! ME! THE! MONEY!
A settlement agent would never demand that a purchaser “show me the money.” However, the settlement agent must be in receipt of all signed closing documents AND all closing funds for settlement to be complete, as Virginia is a “wet settlement state” – essentially settlement is complete when the ink on the signed closing documents is still wet, theoretically speaking.
What do skunks, alligators, peacocks, and capuchin monkeys all have in common, besides the obvious fact that they are all animals? All are examples of true-life emotional support animals or ESAs. Network news and social media abound with examples of the extreme. Back in 2015, a Wisconsin McDonald’s restaurant received some unwanted publicity after ejecting a woman and her emotional support kangaroo from the restaurant. In 2018, Frontier Airlines removed a passenger from her flight after she insisted on keeping her 11-week-old emotional support squirrel with her, delaying the flight by 2 hours. And more recently, in September 2023, a man unsuccessfully attempted to bring his emotional support alligator into Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia for a pregame meet-and-greet with Phillies players. Many other newsworthy instances of issues around ESAs revolve specifically around housing, which opens up a whole new can of worms. Access to fast food, airplane flights, and fun leisure activities like professional baseball games don’t trigger the Fair Housing Act, which would apply to cases involving ESAs and housing.
A seller approaches you seeking a quick sale on a vacant lot. That seller communicates and interacts with you strictly via email and/or text message and uses words indicating urgency. The seller requests a list price that is less than market value. These are all potential red flags for seller impersonation fraud.
Pulitzer Prize winning writer and poet Alice Walker wrote, “In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.” Well, that may be true unless said tree has been “Lollipopped.” As the old adage goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and reasonable minds can certainly differ on the beauty and aesthetics of trees in a residential environment. And furthermore, how does one even begin to assign a value to something as subjective as the aesthetic value of a tree?
Imagine buying your dream home, moving in, and then being contacted by an attorney representing the seller’s creditors. The attorney informs you that there was a pre-existing lien on the home in the form of an unpaid tax bill or a mortgage, that was incorrectly recorded in the county land records. This lien was not discovered until after closing, but as the new homeowner, the lien may now be your responsibility.
The benefits of a solar system are numerous – they can result in lowered energy bills; protect owners from energy rate hikes; extend the life of a roof by shielding the roof from rain, snow, and debris; and most relevant for the real estate industry, solar systems can help a home sell more quickly, and for more money. In fact, according to a 2021 study by Zillow, 67% of potential Buyers ranked energy efficiency as a “very to extremely important” feature for a home, and a study by the US Department of Energy found that Buyers were willing to pay $15,000 or more for solar-powered homes.
On January 17, 2023, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors (“BOS”) approved changes to Loudoun County’s Airport Impact Overlay District (“AIOD”). The AIOD is a zoning designation for properties susceptible to airport noise at or above specified levels. Properties located within the AIOD are subject to land use regulations intended to mitigate the impacts on homebuyers in the affected areas and to prevent residential development in areas where the highest noise impact is expected to occur.
The July 2023 updates to the National Association of Realtors’ (“NVAR”) standard contract forms are out and will be effective July 1, 2023 – they resulted in 4 new forms and modifications to 21 existing documents. It sounds intimidating, but a majority of the changes can be attributed to just a handful of major modifications and ensuring uniformity among the contract documents with respect to these changes. Those changes are as follows:
