How to Get Ready for Escrow Closing when Purchasing a Home/Interspousal Deeds

Escrow signing is one of the most important parts of closing a real estate transaction. For sellers and buyers they must come forward with valid, government issued identification and sign off on the documents that they approve. For buyers, they must approve all the costs that have been sent to escrow. For sellers, they are often releasing title and approving their seller net proceeds. There are many documents that need to be signed and the escrow officer or notary will explain what each document does. The seller and buyer have an opportunity to review all the documents until they are satisfied.

If you are a buyer, the best way to prepare for this day is to make sure to:

1. Make sure that all your identification valid and not expired. Drivers license and passports work well. As long as it is government issued ID you should be fine. I recently learned from the notary of one title company in Cupertino that a certain form of ID called a Matricula, which is a form of ID that can be obtained from the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco, is not valid in order to sign off. This happened to us, and we were compelled to renew the Mexican passport in order to sign off on an interspousal deed. For this transaction, we were lucky because we were able to get a renewed Mexican passport within the same day. My Hispanic clients worked quickly to set an appointment at the Mexican Consulate and get the Mexican passport renewed the following day. As long as the buyer brings the documents asked of him to the Mexican Consulate, then the renewed passport is not a big deal. However, it is always better to get the renewed identification as soon as you get a contract accepted.
2. Another valuable thing to check is how buyers will take title and what relationship they have with each other. One thing I recently encountered is that if a brother and sister take title, and if the brother and sister are married to their respective spouses, and they want the spouses off from title, then it is very likely that their spouses need to be present at escrow signing in order to sign the interspousal deeds. Interspousal deeds are instruments that remove the other spouse’s interest in the property. Signing this document is triggered when the other spouse does not want to be on title. This is because the state of California is a community property state, which means that whenever a spouse purchases a property, the other spouse is naturally included on title unless they sign this document.
3. It is important to make sure that the spouses are available to sign and are not out of the country. If they are out of the country, they can use a nearby US Embassy in order to get an interspousal deed signed and notarized. After it is notarized, they can use an international overnight courier service to get these documents sent to escrow as soon as possible. Very often, these documents are a condition to fund a loan or to close the escrow.
4. If the spouse is out of the country, another tool that you can use is a specific power of attorney wherein the spouse grants the specific power of attorney to sign on legal matters for them. This allows the spouse on title to sign off for the other spouse who’s out of the country, and this could be useful in avoiding delays in closing. Drafting a specific power of attorney should be done by your legal counsel and you should get legal advice before doing it.
5. Very often, US embassies in foreign lands are very busy and their notary departments have limited hours. It is often the case that you do not need an appointment to sign with them, however it is prudent that you get an appointment so you know that you will be helped. By looking at the Tijuana US Embassy website, for example, they charge about $50 per signature and notary. If the US Embassy is just too busy and you are really strapped for time, it might be a good idea to cross the border and get the document signed by a notary. This works especially well for clients from Mexico might have the abilities to drive across the border and into San Diego to get a notary.

Many people wonder if a mobile notary can cross the border from San Diego to Mexico in order to get a notary signed. The answer to this question is: no they cannot. US notaries are licensed and permitted to make notaries only on US soil.

All in all, if you are signing off on a property that you are about to purchase, it is always good to have valid, not expired identification and make sure that all your spouses are available to sign with you. If they are not available then make other arrangements to make sure that your closing takes place smoothly. Thanks for reading.

The same story is heard again and again: here in Calfornia the housing inventory is decreasing and demand for homes are on the rise. But what should sellers do and what should buyers do in this market? I’d like to offer some tips and tricks that buyers and sellers can use.

Sellers:

1. Get your home informally valued by a Realtor. The Realtor will use active, pending, and sold data to suggest what your house will sell for in the open market. In some ways the Realtor’s report can be more accurate than appraisals. Appraisals are mostly backward looking, which means if there is a strong uptrend in price, they cannot account for that. Realtors, on the other hand, can use active and pending data to make adjustments to price.
2. Manage the showings. Houses in today’s market will be like revolving hotel doors. Make sure you set the showing times and make sure people show on time. Seller still occupying the house need their privacy, too, and don’t want to deal with no shows.
3. Choose the highest and best offer. While this applies in any market, it’s likely you might get presented with 20 offers. You can’t just choose the highest price; you need to choose the offer with the best terms. If a deal can close faster or with cash, you’re reducing the amount of risk by accepting that offer.
4. Be careful about how you respond to backup offers. While you might want to hold an offer in backup, you need to do it correctly. If you accept another offer in backup, that backup might have priority to other incoming offers. If those incoming offers are superior to your backups and you committed to a backup, you’re stuck. But if you don’t get incoming offers, you need to somehow make the backups stick around for you. Talk to your Realtor to choose the best plan of action.

Buyers:

1. Be mentally prepared to overbid on well-priced properties. Ask your Realtor to value the house, then determine how much anticipated competition there will be on the house. Decide how much you want the house based on your wants, needs, and means, and make your offer appropriately. It’s rather clear that if you keep getting beat by other offers, you need to get your price up and your terms clean.
2. Increase your down payment. Needless to say, cash is king and cash offers will beat out financed offers most of the time, so you need to find a way to make your offer more attractive. Increasing your down payment gets you closer to the goal.
3. Partner with other buyers in a syndicate. If you partner with other people, you might be able to make cash offers on investment property. Five people with $20,000 don’t have as much power as an LLC offering $100,000. Be creative and it’ll work out.
4. If you really want the house and overbid, remove the appraisal contingency. Basically, sellers don’t want to deal with buyers who will ask sellers to pay for the difference when their financed offer does not appraise at the purchase price. If you want to be a strong buyer, remove your appraisal contingency and be prepared to pay the difference in the appraisal. Make sure you have enough funds to this, and most importantly, make sure you want to do it. The Realtor can estimate how much the difference might be and it varies case by case. Make sure your other contingencies protect your deposit. That’s another noteworthy topic worth discussing with your Realtor.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have gained some insight on how to behave in a market with dwindling seller inventory (particularly the one we’re experiencing in the bay area).