Title Company and Sellers try to steal from Veterans!

Transcript

Sellers and title company conspired to steal from my veteran buyers and take their taxes not on my watch. We’re going to explain how this worked, how we caught them and how we enforce the law to make sure our veterans didn’t get it. Money stolen from them. So to explain this first, we have to talk about how taxes are paid in Texas.

They’re paid in arrears. That means that they’re paid at the end of the year, covering the beginning. So if you buy the house in the middle of the year, the seller has effectively lived six months tax free. So in that scenario, the seller has to give back the buyer six months worth of taxes. So we had a purchase for a veteran buyer and they’re buying a 400, 000 house.

Now, as most of you know, taxes in Texas are right about 2%, so taxes should be about 8, 000 a year. Even if there’s a homestead or some other exemptions, things like that, they should be in that ballpark, maybe 5, but pretty high. So we’re closing on a home, and they’re buying their house at the end of August, and I see 1, 287 coming back to my buyers in prorated taxes.

Should be more like 4, 000. So this is where having a technician as opposed to a salaried person working on your loan. So I check these CDs, and I look over those, and I found this error. If you’ve got a salaried person looking at this, they’re not going to care. They’re not going to get into some fight with the title company because it makes no impact on the bottom line.

And nobody’s going to see this. But that’s not how we work here. That’s not how I work. And so I got a hold of the title company. I said, I’d like to see the tax cert. Well, the tax, that’s short for tax certificate. Well, in the tax cert, taxes are much higher. It should have been about 3, 000 back to our buyers.

And I said I’m, I’m wondering where your math is here. So I got a hold of the agent who was the buyer’s rep, and she’s excellent, and she works with a lot of veterans, Dana Buffen. She’s an amazing agent, and she called them up as well and said, Hey, how did you come up with your math? And the title company said, Well, we feel the taxes are going to drop next year, so we’re just not going to give you the money.

And I’m like, That’s not how that works. You have to give the prorated taxes. Now. They’re stealing from a veteran. Now, you ask yourself, why would a title company do this? Well, the title companies are tight with the seller. See, the title, the sellers choose that title company. So they have a loyalty. They’re supposed to be objective.

They’re supposed to be fair to everybody involved. The bottom line is, they’re fair to the people who give them money. Now, I’m leaving the name of the title company out of this transaction. Probably have lawyers that will come after me. I’ve gotten threatening phone calls before because I stand up for people.

But, that being said, They have a vested interest to take care of the sellers, and that agent is the seller’s agent is usually involved. There’s usually some money going back, back and forth on people saving money. So I caught this. We enforced it. They wouldn’t do it. They played a little. We were playing chicken.

It was a few hours for the closing, and I said, We’re going to light you up with Texas Department of Insurance, that’s who regulates insurance because they think they’re, they’re regulated by lenders. They’re not. They issue insurance. And TDI is a highly regulated business. We’re going to light you up with TDI, the Office of Veteran Affairs, there’s a host of federal agencies.

We’re going to light you up. Do you steal from my veteran? You’re going to get it. Well, guess what? They folded. We got the correct money. We got the right money for my, for my veterans and it was a victory for the home team. So. When you’re picking a lender, not all lenders are produced the equal. The question is, who’s doing your work at the end?

Is it just some salaried, punch in 9 to 5 person, like 99%? Or is there an actual person who has a vested interest in the loan, looking at every number, like I do, on my closings, and then fighting for you when there’s a problem? The answer is we’re extremely rare, but we shouldn’t be. It should be run like this, but this isn’t the most profitable.

It’s more expensive if I just delegate to somebody and pay them 15 an hour and they just process the paperwork, but then they don’t care. So, there it is. We caught the veterans, we caught the theft, we caught the title company, we enforced the law, and we got them their money, and our happy veterans left us a great review because they know we’re there to help them.

Hope this makes sense. I hope this helps first time home buyers, veterans VA loans, all of that comes into play here. Give us a call anytime 8 3 Have a good day and thank you for your service.