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| The summer tends to be the busiest time for me, and it's fairly common for people to call up asking for quotations for their real estate matters. Recently, I received a referral from an
agent that I ordinarily dealt with. Her client was involved on the sale of an upscale condominium and the purchase of a half million dollar home. After providing the quotation, the agent informed me
that her client was a little concerned because the quote was $500 more than he had wanted it to be. The total cost of the transaction on my part formed about 0.25% ... |
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| Posted by Brian Kwan at | | | |
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With the many closings that have been happening over the last few months, there are inevitably some issues that arise post closing. Some can have a quick resolution, such as
readjustments for taxes when the purchase is title insured, while others may take much longer. Lately, the two biggest problems that have arisen seem to be something on the property not working
correctly and not enough keys being delivered.
If you discover that something is not working properly after closing, practically speaking, there is little that the lawyer can do for you after closing without you incurring additional legal fees.
For ... |
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| Posted by Brian Kwan at | | | |
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Although this may be a little late, a few weeks ago, "paralegal" firm X-Copper filed for bankruptcy. The official reason? They were unable to meet
their current liability. The root of the problem? They were unable to secure licensing as a paralegal firm.
To combat the licensing issue, X-Copper attempted to work "under the supervision" of a lawyer, effectively using his or her license to circumvent paralegal licensing requirements. Despite having a
legal mechanism in place, they were unable to stay afloat.
Based on some postings across the Internet and on several news articles, it seems to me that their problem ... |
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| Posted by Brian Kwan at | | | |
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I had previously mentioned that there were some unintended consequences from my series of updates in late March to early April. While we did receive more inquiries for work, there were many
attempts by people at fraud. While those inquiries seemed to have died down, I've made it clear here that I engage in no such activity.
To further strengthen my stance against fraud, we are imposing the new Law Society requirements on identification immediately, even though I am not obligated to do so until October 31,
2008. Before accepting any new matters, we shall require:
- Government issued identification with a photograph
- Address
- ...
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| Posted by Brian Kwan at | | | |
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I wasn't sure how to title this post. Originally, I was thinking of a quote from Peter Griffin on Family Guy from the episode Jungle Love, in which, after virtually
enslaving the natives of a remote island, he says, "Finally, a white man has a chance to be in charge and succeed." Or it was something like that. But I didn't want to get carried away with
Family Guy quotes like I did with Star Wars ones in the last two posts.
I was recently reading a copy of the National Post in which they talked about awards that were ... |
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| Posted by Brian Kwan at | | | |
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Alright, two Star Wars references in two straight posts is enough. I'll ease up on those in the next few. I promise.
Noted Toronto Star contributor and Toronto lawyer, Bob Aaron, recently wrote an article about knowing what is covered by title insurance. I had
also previously addressed this issue. In his article, he notes that both Stewart Title and First Canadian Title
do not cover final utility bills, but that TitlePLUS would.
Shortly after the publication of his article, Stewart Title sent me notice stating that they would begin covering final utility bills. It's well known in the legal ... |
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| Posted by Brian Kwan at | | | |
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It's been a while since I've updated my blog. To all my loyal readers (all two of you out there), I apologize since it has been a busy time. I'm sure that my Google rankings have gone
down, but the last time I improved my Google rankings, there were some negative unintended consequences. More on that in days to come.
It's not as though there hasn't been anything to discuss over the last month or so. Actually, many issues have arisen that I have wanted to discuss, but I just haven't had the time to bring them up.
So here I ... |
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| Posted by Brian Kwan at | | | |
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It's been a little while since I've posted here. There's been a lot of stuff happening lately, some good, a lot of it bad. I won't get into it, but needless to say, it's been a rough
time for me. Fortunately, many other professionals in the industry have come out and lent some level of support to me. I really appreciate everything that they have done. It hasn't affected my work,
so there's nothing to worry about there.
The Toronto Star recently did another article about flat rate real estate agents. Frequent readers of this blog (if any), will know ... |
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| Posted by Brian Kwan at | | | |
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It's no secret that mortgage lenders have been tightening up their purse strings in the last little while. A clear sign of this new conservative attitude can be seen with the recent layoffs at Xceed Mortgage, which resulted in two-thirds of their staff being let go. Unfortunately,
desperate times can mean desperate measures, which has given mortgage fraudsters the opportunity to move in on a distressed area.
Recently, I've noticed an increase of questionable deals around the industry, and it's prompted me to implement new measures to fight fraud. These changes are as follows for new clients:
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| Posted by Brian Kwan at | | | |
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Sony BMG, the company that claims that buying CDs and transferring them to an iPod is
stealing, was busted in France for using pirated software on their servers. Yes, it's the same
company that created rootkits to be installed on computers as part of an anti-piracy system to it's CDs. The best part was how they got caught: An IT manager called into tech support and gave a
pirated serial number.
The software involved was related to server administration tools from the software company PointDev. PointDev's CEO's statement (translated) may summarize Sony BMG in a nutshell: "I think piracy
is ... |
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| Posted by Brian Kwan at | | | |
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