Tag: property deeds
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Driving Change: Can a Real Estate Company Use AI to Root Out Prejudice in Deeds?
Seattle real estate firm John L. Scott is on to something. The company is working with Amazon Web Services to create intelligent document processing. The goal? To help deed holders easily check for race-based deed restrictions — and take action. Race-based prejudice is all too common in deeds across the United States. The language…
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Epic Heat? New Study Links Racial Deed Restrictions to Temperature Risk
What impact do racial covenants in property deeds have on heat-related health risks? You might be surprised. In a first-of-its-kind effort to answer this question, researchers looked at greater Minneapolis. They mapped out the places where homes have a history of white ownership, maintained by racial deed language. These historically exclusive neighborhoods are cooler, with…
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Facing Up to Discriminatory Deed Language: What Pennsylvania Did
With everything that’s happening in the world, maybe more needs to be said about what the Pennsylvania Senate did in December. Every senator agreed to pass state Rep. Justin Fleming’s H.B. 1289, enabling homeowners to publicly condemn offensive language in deed covenants. The new law 1289 makes it cheap or free, and very simple to…
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Oregon HB 2029 and Its Impact on Real Estate Deeds
In a significant move to improve the legibility and accessibility of recorded documents, Oregon has passed House Bill 2029, which comes into effect on January 1, 2024. This bill amends Oregon Revised Statute 205.232, specifically raising the minimum font size for recorded documents from 8-point to 10-point type.
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Dower Rights for Surviving Spouses: Does Your State Still Have This Old English Relic?
If you live in Michigan, your state ended its dower rights in 2017. But if you live in Arkansas, Kentucky, or Ohio, dower is still on the books in your state. This musty old legal provision gives spouses a peculiar set of real estate protections. Kansas, too, has a “dower-like” provision in its KSA 59-505.…
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Bargain and Sale vs. Quitclaim Deeds: A Concise Guide
Are you looking to buy a home though a bargain and sale deed? Perhaps you’re buying after a foreclosure, or from an estate or a court-ordered sale. If so, the entity granting the deed to you might lack knowledge of the property’s history. Basically, the deed means a buyer is expected to accept the house…
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Adding a Person to a Deed Using a Quitclaim Deed
One of the most common incorrect assumptions in real estate is that someone can be added to a deed. If one person owns a piece of real estate and wants to bring on another owner, this means that the current owner would give up their interest in the property to themselves and the other person.…
