Looking at Title Insurance - What is it, what does it do, Part I

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

Title Insurance 101. A primer.

What is Title Insurance?

A title is the evidence or right in which a person has the ownership and possession of land. A defect in that title can be any legal right held by someone other than the owner to claim that property or to make demands on the owner of that property.

Title Insurance is protection offered to the owner of real estate and the mortgage or home loan lender against defects in the title of the real estate that is insured. The owner's title insurance policy guarantees the owner against loss due to defects in the title pursuant to the terms of the policy. Your investment in real estate, whether residential or commercial, is quite possibly the most important, and expensive, investment you'll ever make. An owner title insurance policy protects that investment. Your owner title insurance policy remains in effect for as long as you or your heirs retain an interest in the property or have obligations under a conveyed warranty.

Next up -  What is a "title defect?"  Stay tuned!

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

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New Jersey Senior Freeze program helps with your tax bill.

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

From New Jersey Money Help-

A question about NJ's Senior Freeze Program

Q. Has the property tax freeze been increased to incomes of $90,000?— Senior

A. You’re talking about the Senior Freeze program.

According to the website of the New Jersey Department of Treasury, Division of Taxation: “The Senior Freeze Program reimburses eligible senior citizens and disabled persons for property tax or mobile home park site fee increases on their principal residence. To qualify, you must meet ALL the eligibility requirements for each year from the base year (the year in which you became eligible for the senior freeze) through the application year (the current application year is 2018).”

These eligibility requirements are based on age/disability, residency, home ownership, property taxes payment history and income limits.

In this year’s budget, funding for the Senior Freeze program is increasing by $18 million in fiscal year 2020 for a total of $219.7 million, Taxation said.

The increase was because the budget removed language that capped income eligibility at $70,000, raising it back to $89,013, which will allow more people to apply, Taxation said.

Keep in mind that if your status is as a married/civil union couple and you lived in the same household, you must combine your incomes for the year and be below the income limits, said Deva Panambur, a certified financial planner with Sarsi, LLC in West New York. and adjunct professor of personal finance at Montclair State University.

The Division of Taxation has an online questionnaire to help you check your eligibility.

Email your questions to Ask@NJMoneyHelp.com.

This story was originally published on July 23, 2019.

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

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New Jersey residents get answers about #incometax refunds

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

New Jersey's Division of Taxation has been creating FAQs for curious taxpayers.  And I'm not embarrassed to say we refer to them frequently in our #titleinsurance business.

A FAQ was just distributed under the heading Your Tax Refund: What You Need to Know and answers several questions. You can read the full FAQ here.

Let us know what you think.

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

#NewJersey

#incometax

#titleagent

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From the New Jersey Law Journal - tips for lawyers as they travel

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

Commuter Commiseration: Tips Lawyers Can Use to Make Travel Time More productive

Everyone struggles to make travel time productive.  Watching people text while driving is infuriating because of the danger involved.  

Some tips in this article from Law.com may distract from driver attention, others are excellent.

On average, New Jersey residents have longer commutes than people living in any other states except New York and Maryland. According to 2012-2016 U.S. Census data, the typical Garden State commute clocks in at over 30 minutes.For attorneys, who often travel to court or meetings with clients in addition to trekking to the office, time on the road can really add up. But this time should not be considered “lost.” There are many ways to make your commute more productive.

• Use GPS so you don’t get lost traveling somewhere you have never been before. Even if you know where you are going, it is helpful to plug the address into an app with real-time traffic updates. In our densely populated state, there are always unexpected events requiring a detour. You don’t want to get to court late due to an accident you could have known about before hitting the road or avoided with a quick detour.

I recommend you read the full article.

If you have any comments, we'd be glad to hear them.

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

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NJ's Homestead Rebate - don't lose it!

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help!

This post is from NJ Money Help.

I missed the New Jersey Homestead Rebate deadline. What now?

Q. I was denied the 2016 Homestead Rebate because I filed late. The application was literally lost under a pile of “too much to do” on my desk. How can they deny it to us under any circumstances?
— Unhappy homeowner

A. We can relate to that “too much to do” pile on your desk, but we’re afraid that won’t cut it.

A deadline is a deadline.

Generally, tax refunds are not issued unless the taxpayer files a tax return requesting the tax refund that they are entitled to receive, said Neil Becourtney, a certified public accountant and tax partner with CohnReznick in Eatontown.

He said for income tax purposes, an individual taxpayer has three years from the due date of the federal and New Jersey income tax return to file for a refund.

“If a taxpayer fails to file their federal or New Jersey personal income tax returns within this three-year time frame, they will lose out on any tax refunds to which they were entitled,” he said.

Unfortunately, the New Jersey Homestead Benefit program is based on income thresholds that need to be verified, requiring eligible homeowners to file a form each year with the New Jersey Division of Taxation.

The deadline for filing a 2016 Homestead Benefit application was Nov. 30, 2018.

The application called for the entry of your 2016 gross income, which could not have exceeded $150,000 if age 65 or older or blind or disabled, or $75,000 if under age 65 and not blind or disabled, Becourtney said.

This is explained in detail on the Division of Taxation’s website.

Unfortunately, you’re out of luck.

“In the future, I recommend that you file it the day it arrives in your mail,” Becourtney said. “I file the form for a few of my elderly clients who forward their forms to me – it only takes about five minutes to complete.”

Email your questions to Ask@NJMoneyHelp.com.

This story was originally published on July 11, 2019.

So, New Jersey homeowners, it goes something like this: you snooze, you lose.

For your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

@vestedland

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