The CourthouseDirect.com Blog

What's the Difference Between Quitclaim and Warranty Deeds?

Knowing about deeds is your right and responsibility as a property owner. A deed can completely change the ownership of a piece of land. It can pass property from your hands to those of a new buyer, or from your parents to you. There are ...
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How to Appeal a Property Tax Assessment

Property taxes are enormous expenses for homeowners. Every year, along with mortgage payments, homeowners write checks for thousands of dollars based on their property tax assessments. What you might not know is that the government likely ...
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How to Handle Inherited Mineral Rights

When individuals inherit property, along with that property comes rights to anything in the ground. In many parts of the globe, whatever is in the soil belongs to the government, but in the United States, oil, gas and precious materials ...
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General vs. Special Warranty Deed: Avoid Unpleasant Surprises

Real estate professionals know that there are several commonly accepted means for a property to be transferred between buyers and sellers. Different methods of transfer are used in superficially similar situations depending on the nature ...
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Grantors, Guarantors, & Trustees: What You Need to Know

Legal and financial documents often use terms that are vaguely familiar or used in other contexts to mean something very different from their meaning in the document you are reviewing. If you are in a position to analyze a legal financial ...
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The Complete Guide to Affidavits of Heirship

When a person dies without leaving a will, an affidavit of heirship may be needed to establish facts about the deceased person’s heirs and the transfer of property. While laws regarding an affidavit of heirship vary from state to state, ...
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Tips for Conducting a Mineral Rights Search

Searching for mineral rights can be a challenging task, but a property owner successfully searching out the details of who owns the mineral rights to his or her land can be a rewarding experience, full of interesting turns. This guide will ...
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What Is an Involuntary Lien?

When it’s involuntary, the term “lien” is not a good thing in real estate. A lien is the right of one party to take and keep possession of a property that belongs to someone else until the owner repays a debt. A property lien is a legal ...
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The Ultimate Due Diligence Checklist for Your Real Estate Property

Due diligence in real estate refers to the buyer’s responsibility of researching the property and being thorough in making the decision to complete the purchase. Buying a house is a major decision. It’s often the costliest investment of a ...
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How to Become a Real Estate Appraiser

Real estate appraisers create trusted valuations that lenders, tax assessors, government agencies, businesses, and individuals can use to make transactional decisions. Appraisers are highly trained and certified professionals who ...
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