Your real estate agent told you correctly. There is no contract for the sale of real estate in the state of New York unless and until the seller signs the contract, and in addition, the signed contract must actually be delivered back to the purchaser or to the purchaser’s lawyer.

No probate is required for trust-owned/trust-titled assets. The trustee is responsible for distributing those assets in accordance with the terms of the trust, without separate court permission, without separate waivers or consents from any third parties, and without additional separate authority... View More

Your wife creates a new quitclaim deed with her as the party of the first part and both of you as party of the second part. You have to determine what form of join ownership you want to have, with or without right of survivorship.

Usually this is fairly simple via a quitclaim deed from the current owners to all of the people whom you want to be on the deed. There could potentially be some mortgage issue if there is a current lender. But this should not be a complicated transaction.

First of all, I believe you are asking if a Seller can back out and ask for more, not a buyer. Not sure why you had more than one inspection and spent money on a title search in advance of having a signed contract. The bottom line is, there is no firm binding deal until there is a signed contract.... View More

So long as your corporation is an S Corp, there is no real practical difference with respect to taxes between that and an LLC. The profits and losses of the business flow through to your personal tax return in either instance. But there might be other considerations which favor one form of entity... View More

The governance of LLCs is determined only partially by state law, but primarily by the LLC Operating Agreement which hopefully your LLC has and hopefully you signed. That agreement should detail both the responsibilities and duties of the officers as well as the options and requirement for... View More

There is no legal basis for you to have to pay back rent above what you paid and what was accepted for all that time. However, without a lease, you can be evicted on 30-days’ notice.

The conventional wisdom is that the “on or about” closing date affords both parties a “float” of up to 30 days. In fact, there is no established law that specifies the 30 days. It could be less, depending upon the circumstances.

In your case, more than 30 days has elapsed. You are... View More

You did not say whether you actually had entered into a contract for this transaction, signed by both parties, or whether you never made it past off and acceptance stage. If you did not have a signed contract, in me too view there was no deal and you should have been able to walk at any time. If... View More

The question is whether you have legal authority to sell. You said you are on the mortgage but you did not say if you are on the title (the deed). The short answer to your direct question is, the mortgage does not need to be refinanced in order to sell the property. On the contrary – the... View More

The deed governs the legal ownership. If you are not on the deed, you cannot have present legal ownership.

However, while not being in a true share of ownership, potentially you could have a beneficial interest in the house if the house were titled in a trust and if you are a beneficiary of... View More

If you do not obtain waivers and consents, you must send notices to all next of kin who are at the the equivalent level of kinship (“consanguinity”) as the level the law requires you to reach. In NY state, if the deceased dies without spouse or children, then look to parwnts of the subject,... View More

If you signed an exclusive agency agreement with the broker, then in all likelihood you cannot circumvent the broker. But it depends upon the exact language of the broker agreement.

It is very hard to unwind a real estate deal in the 11th hour if there are no contractual contingencies remaining to be satisfied. Normally some escrow would be held that would be in a sufficient amount to cover all you your expenses. And the full terms of the post-closing occupancy agreement... View More

In New York State, there are no statutory fees for creating a trust. The only fee is the legal fee for the lawyer you retain to draw up the trust in accordance with your objectives.

Mr. Siegel basically is correct, but to flesh this out: you need to execute a new deed from yourself as transferor to yourself and your wife “as husband and wife”. The words in quotations provide the legal structure of joint ownership with the right of survivorship. This form of ownership also... View More

If you already are contemplating a delayed recording to the extent you might die in the interim, something is wrong with this picture. If the deed was properly signed and notarized, it should be acceptable for filing, but there are other transfer documents in NY State that also have to be signed in... View More