Real Estate Paralegal Position

Excel Title Services, LLC, a full-service multi-office title company, is seeking a Real Estate Paralegal for the West Chester, OH location. This position will provide paralegal support for the Residential and Commercial Real Estate Groups. The position offers competitive salary, good benefits and pleasant working conditions.
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Qualified Opportunity Zones Update

The Treasury Department recently released a second round of proposed regulations clarifying certain requirements for investments in Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOFs).  The proposed regulations are designed to encourage development in economically distressed communities and provide flexibility and certainty for investors and funds that invest in Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs).

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Treasury Issues Guidance on Qualified Opportunity Zone Tax Incentive

Treasury recently released Proposed Regulations providing guidance to those looking to qualify for the new Qualified Opportunity Zone (“QOZ”) tax incentives created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“TCJA”). Congress created this new tax incentive to encourage investments in certain low-income communities that have been designated as “Qualified Opportunity Zones.” In sum, the QOZ rules allow a taxpayer to defer tax on the gain from the sale of property if, within 180 days, the taxpayer invests in a Qualified Opportunity Fund (“QOF”).

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Don’t Go Without It: Understand the Importance of Title Insurance

Excel Title echoes the sentiments reflected in the linked blog. Recently we were assisting a buyer in purchasing a home from a seller who had previously purchased it from a “big” bank.  The bank had purchased the property back out of foreclosure. Unfortunately, the title company or law firm assisting in the foreclosure utilized the wrong legal description.  This inadvertently omitted some very important portions of the property (vacated alleys).

We suggested that the seller contact the title insurance company from which he had purchased title insurance. The title insurance company accepted responsibility, tracked down the title owners of the omitted parcels and obtained signatures on the required quitclaim deeds. The title insurance company promptly paid the recording cost, resulting in no additional expense to the seller. If the seller had simply relied on an attorney title report when he purchased the property, he would have most certainly incurred the costs of hiring an attorney to correct the problems.  The attorney fees would have far exceeded the cost of the title insurance.

Our client did not underestimate the benefit of title insurance. No one should, especially when so much property is now transferring through foreclosure proceedings. Read this article for more about the importance of title insurance.