What Happens at Settlement?

If you’re in the final stretch of buying a new house, it’s still not quite time to pat yourself on the back. You’ve made it this far and are inches away from owning your dream home. Now that you’ve jumped through all of the necessary hoops and obstacles, there’s one final, significant hoop you must…

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Smaller Real Estate Agencies Are Better

When the time comes to buy or sell a home, there are many advantages to enlisting the help of a realtor. They have the education and experience in your local market, can act as buffers between you and the seller’s agent if you’re looking at a home to purchase, and can handle the negotiations and…

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How to Make Your Offer Stand Out

When you fall in love with a home in your budget range, it can be magical. It might also be the start of a fierce competition; it’s very possible that there are other buyers out there that feel the same way you do. Good news – there are ways to make your offer stand out…

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Must-Have Homebuyer Apps

Buying a house is an exciting time, but a stressful one as well. More often than not, homebuyers are burdened with self-doubt, confusion over paperwork and industry-related jargon, and the general stress of making a huge financial commitment—all of which make it difficult to stay on the ball. Fortunately, however, there are apps for that.…

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Our service doesn’t end at settlement.

I recently received a phone call at 9:42 am on a Sunday morning from a very nervous couple, clients of ours who had just settled on their new home the Friday before. Over the weekend, they began the process of moving into the house when they discovered mold along the baseboards in two of the…

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Top 3 Reasons to Give Up Your Right to Choose

We’ve designed our website www.ALTtitle.com to be a resource for anyone who’s considering buying or refinancing real estate. From the more than one thousand people who visit our site every month, we list the top three reasons that they’ve been given as to why they shouldn’t shop around for title insurance and related settlement services.…

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The truth about real estate’s Controlled Business Relationships

We recently received an email from a potential customer who was trying to be an informed consumer and get a fair deal on a mortgage. Here’s the opening line: “I’m considering a refinance to shorten term and lower rate. Lenders are unable to provide any kind of transparency (or patience) with questions on fees.” Unfortunately,…

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Did they really get a good deal on title insurance?

A Philadelphia real estate broker recently referred a couple to us for title insurance; she had listed their Center City home for sale.  The couple wanted to move closer to work, and planned to buy a home in Bucks County.  Since the couple was moving out of the city, they were working with a different…

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The Value of Having Your Own “Wrecking Crew”

Twenty five years ago when Ronald Reagan was finishing up his second term in office, I passed the real estate exam in Pennsylvania. I still remember the first house that I sold in Willow Grove PA for $85,000 and the rate for the borrower’s thirty-year mortgage was 10.75%. I think I showed Sharon and Jay…

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