Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: Jan 25-31, 2026

[Wildwood]

Family can be the worst when it comes to business and especially real estate. It's good that your state requires a real estate attorney. I'm so happy for you and will be praying that all goes well with no delays and congrats on the big purge! There is nothing like moving that will make us part from things we'd otherwise hang on to.

The lawyer that screwed up the sale I mentioned did do real estate and did it well but he got in a bind of epic proportions and that was that. He either forgot or didn't care. It was up to the new owner to make sure everything on her end was followed up on and she was sharp enough to know she should have been paying property tax...especially after that many years. I was 300 hundred miles away and clueless that he hadn't finished up on his end.

Not everyone loved her and it was a choice piece of real estate that I had managed to get a variance of use on after many had failed before me. Someone was waiting on that property with baited breath besides her. It never went on the market when I sold it. She came by my shop one day needing something she was out of and I told her about it and gave her one week before I listed it and the price was firm. It was, for all practical purposes, commercial property in the historic downtown section of a popular southern tourist city on the Mississippi river and across the street from the tourist center. In less than two weeks, we'd closed and I was packing.

DH and I had paid cash for it, had no debt and sold it to get back to Arkansas and never looked back. We'd already started another business and could live anywhere we wanted...we were only thirty. When I was young I was a force to be reckoned with but I've fought so many battles since then that I pick them very carefully now. I may have one or two left in me but I'm saving them for something important.

 

[anna43]

krysyan, if the buyer wants an inspection, it is on them to arrange and pay for it at least under standard practices. Oops, I see you are the buyer. The survey should be done by the seller and a copy provided to you. If you are not using a realtor, then you would be wise to have an attorney review everything before signing even if it is a family transaction or maybe I should say especially if it's a family transaction. No surprises good, surprises bad.

Iowa law requires an abstract of title, and it needs to be updated by the seller and read by an attorney to assure clear title. We are not a title insurance state although I think title insurance is now being used here to some level. Realtors usually handle the closing although some attorneys do them.

 

[kyrsyan]

krysyan, if the buyer wants an inspection, it is on them to arrange and pay for it at least under standard practices. Oops, I see you are the buyer. The survey should be done by the seller and a copy provided to you. If you are not using a realtor, then you would be wise to have an attorney review everything before signing even if it is a family transaction or maybe I should say especially if it's a family transaction. No surprises good, surprises bad.

Iowa law requires an abstract of title, and it needs to be updated by the seller and read by an attorney to assure clear title. We are not a title insurance state although I think title insurance is now being used here to some level. Realtors usually handle the closing although some attorneys do them.

Neither me, nor the sellers, are concerned about an inspection. The mortgage company is insisting.

I discovered last night that AL requires a real estate attorney. It's amusing, and annoying. I already have done a full title search. And a probate court search because I wanted to be sure. After 17 years here, pretty sure there aren't any surprises.

They don't want to pay for a survey. Long story on that. But basics, for me, are the properties in this section of town are metes and bounds split of off a much older and larger property. The addition of roads and other things makes an accurate survey difficult to do.

I want the survey done because the town and I have clashed before on ROW. And new people coming into the career field of surveying don't have the knowledge or skills. It's a tangled mess. And the town is growing due to its location. I want to be sure of the property boundaries and any issues so that any needed documentation can be signed before the sale. Otherwise I probably won't get help if I need it. At this point, the property has been in family hands for 18 years so if there are boundary issues, they will be dead on arrival. But I don't want to get surprised by them when the apartment complex behind me decides to expand or sell. And they will.

And most of the properties in the town aren't surveyed. The last survey was done by the town in 1994. Fortunately, the person I contacted has done one for the high school and so he has a start point. Actually he's done several for local businesses which means I don't have to pay for all the legwork of locating original markers and pins that measurements were originally based on. It's still going to be the first survey done since the original purchase of this property so it's not cheap. But it's not the almost $2000 I was quoted a few years back.

Anyways, chores to get done. I hope you all have a good day.

 

[WanderLore]

Prayers for all you guys

God bless my good neighbors. One loan me up heater for the basement because my other one went out but my son got another one last night. Other neighbor got his propane blower out and got all the pipes running. Wonderful head of the library I used to volunteer at and her husband came out with the skid steer this morning and did the whole driveway and yard it's a ton