Property

Picture yourself walking through a peaceful cemetery at dawn, light filtering through the leafy canopies of ancient oaks onto an array of crumbling carved gravestones.  In the distance you see a small mausoleum fronted, jarringly, with a white sign saying FOR SALE BY OWNER.   That’s probably not going to happen, at least in Texas where cemetery plots are controlled by a confusing mixture of state law and local rules.  When you...

If you own a home with a mortgage, then you need to know about 12 U.S. Code Section 1701j-3. More commonly known as the Garn-St. Germain Act, this federal law contains a list of exemptions from a due-on-sale clause for the sale of residential real property. A due-on-sale clause is a tricky little provision that authorizes a lender to accelerate payment of a note if the collateral is sold without the...

Texas real estate law can be pretty confusing, especially when it involves community property.  Read on for a cautionary, and all-too-common, tale. Carol and David Smith, married for 25 years, moved to Texas and bought a house.   The title company attorney initially prepared the property deed identifying them as “Carol and David Smith, husband, and wife.”  David, being a shrewd man who knew a thing or two about real estate,...

Let’s talk deeds, as in Warranty Deeds, Special Warranty Deeds, Deeds of Gift and Lady Bird Deeds. It can be a bit mind-numbing. A deed is the document used to transfer title to real estate in Texas. When you sell land, the typical form of the deed used is a warranty deed. There is a basic form in the Texas Property Code. This type of document gives the property with...