From: alvin@zany.mti.sgi.com (Alvin Oga)
Newsgroups: misc.invest.real-estate
Subject: Re: Question, please help !.
Date: 8 Jan 1993 16:45:54 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Distribution: ca
Reply-To: alvin@zany.mti.sgi.com (Alvin Oga)
NNTP-Posting-Host: zany.mti.sgi.com

In article <9034@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU>, giao@harpo.seas.ucla.edu (Giao N. Tran) writes:
|> 
|> Greeting !.
|> 
|> 
|> Story:  I bought a piece of land, and has been financed ( 12-yr term )
|>         by the owner for ~5 yrs.  Also I have been paying fiscal year
|>         tax of this property under the owner's name.  All I have are
|>         the Agreement of Sale ( which states the info about the property,
|>         the seller, buyer and the finance conditions ... ), and the Payment
|>         Book being sent back and forth between me and the owner every month.
|> 
|> Question:  Is it secured enough for my right when something happens to
|>            the seller, if I only have the Agreement of Sale and the
|>            Payment book ?.
|>            When I mention about recording my name on the deed, the seller
|>            is unwilling to do so with the reason that "there is no need
|>            to, and the escrow costs a lot of money ... ".   Is it true ?.
|>            What should I do to protect my right on this property ?.
|> 
|> I realy appreciate any kind of help\advice.
|> 
|> ---G.T.

IF  the 'Agreement of Sale' is recorded at the county recorders office in the
county that the land is in, then your interests in the property MAY be secured.

IF the 'Agreement of Sale' was poorly drawn and/or not reviewed/drawn by an
attorney licensed to practice in CA, then you may want to take the 'agreement of Sale'
down to your friendly attorney knowledgable in real estate and contract law
and then have it recorded.

IF the 'Agreement of Sale' is NOT recorded and was NOT notorized, then that
piece of paper IS PROBABLY worthless, unless you happen to be working with
a 'honest' seller whom will perform according to the terms of the agreement.

The payment book is 'meaningless'....  I can get a copy of the payment book too
and start making payments on your land, but that does not give me any interest
in the property.

HOWEVER, if you are paying the 'property taxes', you may be able to recover
that amounts you paid, should the deal go sour.

ESCROW IS NOT REQUIRED if everybody in the world was honest and perform
according to their signed agreements. BUT....human nature (greed) steps in when
money is kinda floating around.....

Putting your name on title is a 'moot' point and typically not useful except when
you have creditors coming after you...now they can attach their lien against you
secured by your property to which you told everybody you owned.

BOTTOM LINE...IF YOUR 'AGREEMENT OF SALE' IS NOT RECORDED,
YOU'RE IN DEEP ______.....   Typically in California, some people prefer using
a 'memorandum of agreement' instead of a 'agreement of sale'.  talk to the attorneys
about the differences cause I donno....  I like 'memorandum of agreements'...


Good luck
alvin		alvin@mti.sgi.com
(408)988-8500
From: brower@hpnmdla.sr.hp.com (Chris Brower)
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 21:06:00 GMT
Subject: Re: Real Estate IRA?
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Santa Rosa, CA