The crooks are everywhere. You may not have heard of “Deed Fraud,” but it has become a real problem in some areas of the United States. There are several ways in which a crafty criminal can steal the deed to your property. Since the scam takes some time to put together, the scammers often target vacant homes. The vacant property could be empty for a variety of reasons: (1) the owner is now deceased; (2) it could be a Read More

A Spousal Allowance, technically known as an “Application and Assignment Year’s Allowance,” refers to the right that a person has to claim the personal property of his or her spouse after that spouse passes away. This tool allows the surviving spouse to access certain funds with priority over creditors and ahead of the longer timelines that come with the completion of a full estate administration. The surviving Read More

When you enter into an offer to purchase and contract for real property, you typically agree on a due diligence fee and an earnest money deposit. The due diligence period is when the buyer pays an agreed-upon amount to then gather information about the property and determine if the property they have contracted to buy is the right property and purchase for them. The earnest money deposit is an agreed-upon amount of Read More

If you are buying or selling a home in North Carolina, you may wonder who pays the taxes at the closing table. Taxes are one of the closing costs that both buyers and sellers have to pay to finalize the transaction. However, not all taxes are the same, and not all taxes are paid by the same party. In this blog post, we will explain the different types of taxes involved in a North Carolina real estate closing, and who Read More

The holidays can be stressful and trigger sad feelings, especially when you are going through a divorce. The holidays tend to remind people of the good times or how different your life is now. Here are 5 tips to help you cope with divorce and separation during the holidays: Recognize your emotions and honor them. Keep lines of communication open to family, friends and your therapist, and stay busy so you do not bear Read More

What is alimony? Alimony in North Carolina is an order for payment for the support and maintenance of a spouse or former spouse, periodically or in a lump sum amount for a specified or indefinite term, ordered in an action for divorce or an action for alimony without divorce. N.C. Gen. Stat. §50-16.1A(1). Alimony is not automatically awarded in divorce proceedings.  The court must first determine that one spouse is Read More

First, it is important to know your options in a custody case. The parents of shared children have the ability to negotiate and compromise to determine the best physical custody arrangement for their children. If the parents reach an agreement regarding child custody, a qualified family law attorney can draft a parenting agreement outlining the details of the child custody arrangement. If an agreement cannot be Read More

1. Create a parenting plan or holiday schedule with the children, in advance, even if it is a temporary arrangement to minimize stress during the holidays. A good idea to assist with this process is to go by the children’s school calendars if they are of school age or daycare schedule if applicable. 2. Try to put differences with your spouse aside, at least through the holidays, to make the holidays focused on your Read More

Have you ever wondered about your property’s history?  Not just the title search information from when you bought it, but going way, way back, as far as you can go? It has always fascinated me to imagine who was here before us; did anything historically important happen, or was it just a plot of ground occasionally tread over by ancient hunter-gatherers making their way to somewhere else? My maternal grandfather grew Read More

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