Should You Create a Living Trust?
Posted by Rachel LaMar, J.D. | Leave A Comment »
Have you considered creating a living trust? Many homeowners don’t even think about placing their homes in a trust, but there can be some big benefits to doing so and it is very simple to accomplish.
Let’s start with the basics. A trust is a binding legal document in which you name a beneficiary–a person or number of people–to be responsible for managing your property in order to benefit designated trustees (like your children should something happen to you). If you create the trust during your lifetime and elect to make changes to it at any time until your death this is a revocable living trust. You can also create an irrevocable trust, in which the terms cannot be altered.
Benefits of a trust:
1. Harder to overturn your dying wishes. A trust is more iron-clad than a will and does not have to go through probate.
2. Shorter time limits to settlement of your estate once you pass away. Normally upon death of the owner property has to go through probate. This legal process can be lengthy, especially if there are others or creditors claiming an interest in the property. With an established trust survivors are usually able to save time and expenses by avoiding probate.
3. May offer substantial savings on estate taxes. Since the estate will not have to go through probate it will save your survivors money associated with this process.
4. Privacy. Wills, which have to be filed in court upon the death of the maker, can be viewed publicly by anyone requesting a copy, but tems of a trust may NOT be made public. If you have substantial assests in the trust or perhaps some family members who you do not wish to fight over assets, a trust may be a great tool for keeping things quiet.
Caveats:
1. Title Insurance: A title insurance policy is a policy between the title insurance company and the named insured. Once that person creates a trust and names a third party or conveys property (e.g. by putting it into a trust), the title insurance may become invalid. This is because he nature of the relationship has changed–the owner(s) named in the original title policy is no longer the title holder.
A simple call to your title insurer will tell you whether you need to be concerned with this issue. If the trust will effect the policy there is an easy fix–an endorsement can be added to your policy that will effectively name the party covered in your trust. There will be a fee for doing so but it is worth the while if you find that a trust is beneficial to you.
2. Creditors. Depending on your state of residency there may be some issues with creditors being able to attach the real estate of the deceased spouse to satisfy sole debts incurred by that person. You need to check with your attorney to see if this will be an issue for you.
Trusts can be advantageous but it is imperative that you discuss your particular situation with your estate planning or real estate attorney to make sure it is a the right move for you, as not everyone will benefit from establishing a trust. Make sure you have all the information needed so you can make an informed decision.
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Making Marketing Easier for our Agents (and better for their clients!)
Posted by Erica Vautier | Leave A Comment »
Today’s Real Estate Agent is busier than ever, let us help you make the most of your time and money with advanced Marketing Tools.
Here are just a few of the Real Estate Marketing Tools we give our agents so they can give their clients an advertising advantage:
Receive a free personal Agent Website that features your listings- Have your listings automatically sent to more than 50 high traffic sites and enhanced on Realtor.com, SignOnSanDiego and other local sites
- Visibility Plus makes sending monthly Newsletters an easy way to stay in touch with your clients
- Build high end print pieces on Custom Xpress for delivery in just 24 hours
- Become an author on our Company Blog, Picture Perfect San Diego for complimentary lead generation
- We’ll teach you how to reach thousands of buyers and sellers without spending a penny!
Windermere will give you tools to market yourself and your listings for free. We’ll also help you make the good decisions about what other advertising you should invest in.
This means that you will be able to attract a lot more attention to your listings, sell properties faster and network with potential clients.
Give me a call and I’ll arrange a confidential demonstration of our tools and a no-pressure interview.
Erica Vautier, Director of Marketing
(858) 436-3260 or EricaVautier@Windermere.com
Want more information?
- Read More Articles by Erica Vautier about the Technology and Marketing Available to Homeowners and Agents
- Learn about the Real Estate Technology we give our agents.
- Contact me about working for Windermere and gaining access to these tools
- Contact me about becoming a VIP Member of our site and gaining access to great technology search tools for homeowners
- Leave Feedback and let us know what you’d like to learn more about
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3rd Quarter Statistics for San Diego Real Estate - Get the Facts
Posted by Diane White | Leave A Comment »
What happened in the San Diego housing market in the 3rd quarter? Most areas saw prices declining because the lower priced homes are the ones selling the most…which has brought down the average sales price. The fact is that most short sales and foreclosures have occurred in the lower price ranges and investors and first time home buyers are taking advantage of it,
This market may dry up sooner then we expected due to lenders being encouraged to modify their loans. Countrywide where one out of four loans were serviced, is being required to do so and they have up to 125,000 loans in California alone.
The number of home sales in San Diego County in the 3rd quarter were pretty steady. Total sales including Resale Detached and Resale Attached Homes were:
September 3,090 August 2,801 July 3,083
Here are the full reports compiled by Data Quick for San Diego County:
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Video Montage: Scenes from our Company Meeting & Happy Hour
Posted by Erica Vautier | Currently 3 Comments »
The Company Meeting and Happy Hour attracted a hundred guests. We ate, drank, networked and some of us even left with great prizes.
We heard from Company President, Mark Loscher about the industry and Windermere’s plans for the future. He told us how Windermere is building a strong foundation for our agents and that they are in the right place for when the market turns.
Director of Business Development and Branch Manager twice-over, Rich Johnson announced our new in-house Insurance Division. JBL Premier Insurance offers home, auto, life, and business insurance services. Having our own Insurance Division will help Windermere agents give their clients comprehensive service.
We did live demonstrations of our new blog site and I gave agents their first peak at our new Agent Resource Center. As it’s name suggest, our Agent Resource Center is a single website (linked to Picture Perfect San Diego) that our agents can go to for company news, industry updates, video training, marketing and listing material, a live company calendar and so much more!
Here’s a video montage of the night, captured for us by Barry Fisch. Check it out!
Great job putting this evening together team, and thanks to all of the agents who came!
Contact me if you would like to hear more about the new Agent Resource Center: EricaVautier@windermere.com
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