The Quill – July 2016

The Quill Tip

There are many truths in the Real Estate Closing Business. Try these two on for size:

1. Lenders need everything yesterday.

2. Lenders wait for the last minute to give you what you need to do your job.

Taking those two statements as Truths, here’s a tip to save time and consternation:

Send us a copy of the Vesting Deed with your Preliminary Opinion.  We are often asked to include Chain-of-Title information on our binders by the Lenders.  If you don’t send us the Vesting Deed, we have to go to the Registry’s website to find it. We don’t mind doing that, but it takes time, which is more time for the Lender to yell at you wondering where their title binder is.

In the immortal words of Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire:

Riddle

What has a head and a tail, but no body?

Send your guesses to Christine by clicking here.

Good luck!

This was last month’s riddle and answer:

What runs around a soccer field and never moves?

A fence.

Show us your koozies!

We want to see your Barrister’s koozies in action this summer! Email Summer and we’ll share your photos on our Facebook page!

(Think Where’s Waldo?)

Industry Updates

ALTA 34 Endorsements

Church Closings

Church closings represent a unique set of risks for Closing Attorneys and title Agents alike.  Most churches are incorporated entities; some are more like Trusts and others still have no formal structure at all (Yikes!).  Like any other entity, there is documentation that we need to become acquainted with to determine the proper way to handle the closing, whether on the buy or sell side of the transaction. When we are dealing with non-church entities, typically LLC’s, the parties involved understand that there are Governance documents, and usually, but not always, have them available for us to look at.  These same parties generally understand that we have to follow the rules laid out in the Governance documents.  In my experience, Churches often struggle to understand that there are rules that control the conduct of their real estate deals, and oftentimes, when you point them out, they don’t always want to follow those rules.

All Churches, even those that are unincorporated, have a Governing body.  Generally speaking, you will need Minutes from whatever Meeting is required by the Governance documents and a Resolution from said Governing Body approving the essential details of the transaction.

If the Church is the Buyer, then the Resolution should indicate:

1.  That the Church is approved to purchase the property and make reference to the terms of the contract itself;
2.  The essential terms of the loan being used to acquire the property;
3.  The identity of the person on behalf of the Church who will be executing the appropriate buyer documents.

If the Church is the Seller, then the Resolution should indicate:

1.  That the Church is approved to sell the property and make reference to the terms of the contract itself;
2. The identity of the person on behalf of the Church who will be executing the appropriate seller documents.

Note:  In the case of an unincorporated Church, it may be the congregation itself that must approve the transaction!!!  Click below to see examples of minutes and a Resolution in which the Church is acting as a party to the transaction:

Church Resolution

Certificate as to Resolution

Church Resolution – Alternative Form

Many of the larger, affiliated congregations are Governed by a Book of Discipline.  Other churches, may not have a Book of Discipline, but will have written rules specific to real estate transactions.  Generally speaking, those churches are aware of the rules and fairly adept at following them (But not always. . .)

The smaller, independent churches can be more problematic.  Oftentimes, they are not aware that there are any rules at all.  Some of you may have had this conversation before in anticipation of a closing:

You:  Pastor/Reverend/Deacon. . .we need a copy of your Governance documents.

Church Official:  We don’t have anything like that. I am the person who is supposed to sign the documents.

You:  Sir/Ma’am. . .without those documents, I am afraid that we will not be able to have a closing.

Church Official:  We looked again and found these documents.  Is this what you were looking for?

You:  Yes.  I guess you were not aware that in order to sell/buy this real estate, you need approval from a Special Meeting of the Congregation.

Church Official:  No. . .I was not aware of that.

I’m my experience, Church Officials always mean well and want to do the right thing, but on occasion they can be ignorant of how the Church dictates that the real estate transaction is to be conducted.  A few years back, we insured a lender working with a local Church. Unfortunately, the Church defaulted on the loan. During the foreclosure process, the Church tried desperately to keep from losing the property.  In the end, the lender was able to successfully foreclose, however, had the closing attorney not followed the Church’s Governance documents perfectly, the outcome may have been different for the lender.

sb

CLE and our Annual Customer Appreciation Happy Hour

As many of you know, we have annually dubbed August as our Real Estate Professional Appreciation Month (affectionately referred to as REPAM).  During this special month, we team up with the guys from ReelTime CLE to offer our customers an opportunity to earn CLE credits in a “reel” fun and exciting way. You will earn 2 hours of Ethics credit and 1 hour of Substance Abuse/Mental Health credit by taking this course.

And as in years past we will be hosting a Happy Hour for ALL of our customers whether they are attending the CLE or not. Mark your calendars and come on out to earn some CLE credits and/or have some food and drink with us after work! See the details below.

To sign up and read more about the CLE entitled, “Nobody Told Me There’d Be Days Like These!”- Stress, Pressure and Ethical Decision-Making in the Practice of Law, click the link below.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

**There is an Early Bird discount available if you sign up before August 5th. AND in addition to the Early Bird discount ReelTime is offering Barristers Title customers a 20% discount!  Enter “barristers” as a discount code to receive this additional discount.  

Registration is limited to 40, so hurry!

Why Limit Happy to just ONE hour?!?!?!

Where: Sullivan’s Steakhouse

1928 South Blvd, Charlotte, NC 28203

(704) 335-8228

When: Wednesday, August 10th

Time: Happy Hour 5:30 – 8:30pm

Who: Barrister’s Title Customers

You can RSVP (encouraged but not required) to the Happy Hour by e-mailing Summer Hogan at summer@barristerstitle.com

*You DO NOT need to attend the CLE session to come to the Happy Hour.

Barrister’s All Star
Josh Pinyan of Costner Law

From time to time, we like to take a minute to highlight one of our many wonderful customers. This month we would like to give kudos to post-closing attorney,Josh Pinyan, of Costner Law!

Josh has made it a point to send over a copy of the equity line payoffs AND a copy of the close account letter signed by the Seller or Borrower at closing with his Final Opinions. This is huge help for us when issuing policies so we can get them out in a timely manor. Josh, you are an All-Star! Thank you!