All Forum Posts by: Jerel Ehlert

Call the title insurance underwriter, not the title company.  Look at the first few pages of the title commitment for the numbers or the last few pages after schedule D.  Policy should either pay it or give you reason why in short order.

Pay your current year's taxes on time.  I know, this is after July 1st.

Calling the assessor's office really doesn't get you anywhere because the ones you are talking to are not lawyers or have any authority to change (and zero motivation to do so).

See Property Tax Code, Sec. 32.01. TAX LIEN and Sec. 32.07. PERSONAL LIABILITY FOR TAX specifically.  See also, Sec. 25.16. PROPERTY LOSING EXEMPTION DURING TAX YEAR. 

Tax liability attaches to the owner of record on January 1st.  If an exemption is lost, it attaches to the owner of record as of January 1st of the year for which the exemption no longer applies.  In short, the tax bill should go to the seller for those years they owned it (or their heirs, if that's the case).

Could be done, but very carefully.

Talk to an attorney to get specific advice, because there are many factors that can dramatically change what you should do.

Calling a loan because of the due on sale clause is rare, but does happen.  If the underlying terms are extremely favorable and the principal large, maybe.  Notice to the buyer and appropriate language in the closing docs could cover most of the liability.

You will want to use an RMLO, inspection, and title company.

Just....don't.

That sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.  

If you must sell sub-2, cash out the underlying financing and then do it yourself.  If that is something you are unwilling to do, then it sounds like you probably should not be doing it at all.

I've worked with many lenders.

I started investing in 2000, then went to law school in 2012, passed the Texas bar in 2015. Happy to help.

Attorneys are licensed by the state and not every lawyer is licensed in every state.

Where are you doing business (where the property is located)?

Without knowing your background and goals, that's a tough call.  

Know the market where you intend to invest. Terms are local.

Know what your borrower should be doing.  You need to monitor your borrower and your collateral.  If you must foreclose, you need to step in and do what they failed to do.

This is not exactly "passive" like a stock you can buy and forget.  There's some good advice here.

Want to tell a lawyer what you think?

I'm considering putting together a paid online course teaching the law as it relates to real estate investing in Texas. I'm looking for help shaping what this course looks like.

Date is Monday, July 29th from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. The main presentation is only about 20 minutes, but Q&A may (I hope) take longer. Registration is limited to 40 participants. Cost is FREE.

Because I'm asking for feedback, speaking up and telling me what you think is encouraged.

Want to tell a lawyer what you think?

I'm considering putting together a paid online course teaching the law as it relates to real estate investing in Texas. I'm looking for help shaping what this course looks like.

Date is Tuesday, July 23rd from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. The main presentation is only about 20 minutes, but Q&A may (I hope) take longer. Registration is limited to 40 participants. Cost is FREE.

Because I'm asking for feedback, speaking up and telling me what you think is encouraged.

To the poster talking about "urban legend", a few minutes with Google will get you as many citations as you desire.  For instance, when I Googled "Texas specific performance" the search yielded these gems:

DiGiuseppe v. Lawler, TX (2008), https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/tx-supreme-court/1398705.h...

Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Se. 2.716, https://casetext.com/statute/texas-codes/business-and-commer...

Specific Performance Versus Damages for Breach of Contract: An Economic Analysis, Shavell, Texas Law Review, Vol. 84, Num 4, March 2006, http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/shavell/pdf/Shavell-SpecP...

Anything more, you can request a consultation and pay the retainer.

 Courts don't like granting specific performance.  The purchase/sale of real property is one of the few areas that it *could* be granted.  If a court has ANY other way to award relief through money damages, that's where the court will go.  

For a dealer or merchant, there's a monetary damage model available - lost profits.  This model says that a merchant ("dealer") can be made whole by granting the profits the merchant would have received, but for the breach of contract.  If a flipper can calculate a money amount it would have received as profits with reasonable certainty, a court will favor that over specific performance.