By Eli Schon, Esq., Counsel
Madison Title Agency
City life can be expensive. In some cities, even the air costs money. Indeed, air rights are often bought and sold in major cities.
What are air rights and how is it bought and sold? Continue reading
Those involved in the real estate business — whether it’s the property owners or the lenders or the advisors and service providers to those owners and lenders — are becoming increasingly (though sometimes reluctantly) familiar with terms such as LEED accreditation, Brownfields and sustainability. The growing emphasis on the environment is obvious to us all.. a focus that will not be ignored. Since the first Earth Day in 1970, what used to be referred to quaintly as the “environmental movement” has grown into a central component of our lives. Being “green” is certainly accepted and generally considered “cool”.
There is another term associated with the environment has gained traction recently – “Greenwashing”. Greenwashing is derived from the combination of Green (environmentally friendly) and whitewashing (to cover up) and is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image”. Continue reading
By Samuel M. Shiel, Esq.,
Director of National Title Services and
Senior Underwriting Counsel, Madison Title Agency
In my February 16, 2011 blog post, I addressed the decision that major underwriters made to end the practice of removing the creditor’s rights exception from their policies. This changed the practice of negotiating the removal based on significant financial analysis. It was with great intrigue that I followed that development within the real estate industry.
Now, a little over a year later, we are seeing yet another significant change to real estate title by one title insurance underwriter. After many years of significant loses on Mechanic’s Lien claims in North Carolina, the Fidelity Title Insurance Group, parent company of Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title and Commonwealth Land Title, announced on May 10th that they would no longer issue Mechanic’s Lien coverage for title commitments issued after June 15, 2012. (See their letter below.) Fidelity is also placing restrictions on the effective date of endorsements for previously issued policies. Why this change and why now? Continue reading
The leadership at Madison Commercial Real Estate Services (MCRES) will be attending and exhibiting at RECON 2012, the largest retail commercial real estate convention in the world. Hosted by the International Council of Shopping Centers, the RECON Show will be held in Las Vegas, NV from May 20-23, 2011. This is a rare opportunity for commercial real estate property owners and their advisors to meet privately with all of Madison’s top brass – in Madison’s private conference rooms at Booth S541, at the corner of W Street and 54th Avenue in the South Hall — to review and gain insight of how best to improve the ROI of one or multiple properties. To schedule an appointment with Madison’s Leadership Team at RECON 2012, contact Keren Peters at 732-333-2471 or kpeters@madisoncres.com to coordinate a meeting date and time. Continue reading
According to Preqin, between 2003 and 2012, more than 300 real estate private equity funds have raised around $670 billion in institutional capital. Unfortunately, PE firms had earned the reputation of being the vultures of the financial world. While Private Equity firms have been portrayed as greedy irresponsible investors in the past, with changing times a new outlook on them may be necessary. Continue reading
A recent tax court memo raised a lot of questions regarding cost segregation. I would like to give
you some clarification and perhaps even answer some of those questions. Continue reading
In case you didn’t notice the new NAR HAI report that came out last week, you missed what may be one of the biggest indicators about where the current housing industry is heading.
First the basics….what on earth is the NAI HAI??? It stands for the National Association of Realtors’ Housing Affordability Index. This number is a reflection of how affordable a basic house is for a basic family with 100 being the median rate at which, all other things being equal, that a normal house can be purchased by a regular, typical American family. Click here to read the good news. Continue reading
There are numerous strategies in the marketplace for creating “headache free” real estate investments to be used as replacement property in like kind §1031 exchanges. Fort Properties, Inc. challenged the validity of this patent, claiming that AML’s strategy is unpatentable. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal District agreed. Continue reading
Whether we like it or not, we will be hearing much more about the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) as the year progresses. Established in 1995, MERS’ shareholder roster reads like a list of the nation’s large financial institutions.
MERS was established to facilitate the mortgage backed securities (MBS) market through the elimination of the time-consuming and expensive practice of recording assignments in the local county clerks’ offices. Other than the faint moans and groans of the local practitioner (legal and title), the real estate finance world’s plan for a private, electronic mortgage registration system went forward without much complaint. Things have changed. Currently, the MERS website cites more than 200 decisions in lawsuits against MERS in the past six months. Continue reading
A number of years ago, when I was a transactional real estate attorney, I got a call from a client who wanted to purchase an apartment building in Manhattan. The real estate market was smokin’ hot and buildings were selling fast. There were usually multiple bidders all offering to sign a contract in two days and also willing to buy the building subject to all violations. My client wanted the building badly but I insisted we do some due diligence. I needed to find out how many and what kind of violations affected the building. I needed to determine the legal use permitted by the Certificate of Occupancy so I could make sure my client could continue to maintain the rental stream upon which the purchase price was based. Continue reading
