Estate Planning USA.com

My dad passed away a week ago. A few months prior to this, he discussed his will with my brother and me, stating that the estate is divided 50/50 between the two of us. The problem is, he didn’t sign the will. Now his girlfriend is planning on contesting it. She started discussing that will as soon as he died, which isn’t very good form, in my opinion. She brought it up a few times in my presence and it makes me rather uncomfortable. I don’t know. What are the grounds on which she can contest the will? She wasn’t very good to him, nor my brother and me. What should we do about this?
He told us that only my brother and me are in the will. I thought it was extremely crass for her to start mentioning her want to contest the will on the day he died. Not to mention insensitive.

I am planning to move to melbourne soon and i was wondering if i can secure a rental house before i actually move there so that when i get there it will be ready for me to move in. I know most agents dont let you apply for a house unless you’ve phisically been inside it and taken an application form, but that’s not an option for me as i live on the other side of the country. Does anybody know of any real estate agents in melbourne that will let me apply for a house that ive seen on their website and organise everything over the phone/fax and wire them the bond etc?? So that when i get there i can just get the keys from them and move in?
Is that even possible to do?

My grandparents have asked me to sell a house that they own that they no longer are able to keep it up. I plan on listing it on Craigslist and eBay. What steps will I need to go through once someone has shown interest in the property and wants to buy it, i.e, forms, procedures? Please be thorough as this is my first time dealing in real estate.
I have already tried going through two separate real estate agents, and was not happy at all. I want to sell this by myself.

Hi, I am after some advice on ending my lease early. I am 2 months into a new lease (been here 8 months). I have a wood heater, which I requested to be cleaned and they found problems-a week ago. So they are planning to put in a split system. On Thursday she asked me not to use the heater- the owners request.

I have 2 young children, 1 with a disability. And I went in on Friday to ask for a estimate on how long it will take. She was very rude. I have told them about 3 times I have no other form of heating. She just said oh well, i dont have a heater to give you, use doonas. Its like if A/C breaks down in summer (use fans).

I was just wondering where I stand as I have been told they must supply heating. The real estate are the worst I have ever seen. And I am paying $250 per week (country town avg rental $230/3br, avg price has gone down since I signed new lease, even though they upped it $20wk when I signed new lease) The house is in poor condition too. So I would like to end my lease early but dont know where i stand.

Thank you for any help you can give.

EDIT:Do you know how long they legally have to fix the heater before I take any action?

About 5 months ago we bought a home, we were informed that the property we were purchasing had public sewer. So we intended on staying in the home for a couple years than building. On our closing reports, MLS detail sheet, and property disclosure forms they all state we have PUBLIC sewer. We moved in December when there was snow we had a friend do our home inspection, everything was fine UNTIL it became warm. Our building plans were denied due to we DO NOT HAVE PUBLIC sewer we have a leech bed and septic tank therefor can not build. Do we have legal right to sue. The Real Estate Company wants to meet for Mediation. Were thinking of asking for a Septic inspection, Pump out and $5000 should we be asking for more? Our land is valued at $11,2000 and over 50% is not able to be built on!

I recently leased an apartment in Massachusetts, and though I have a landlord, the process was handled via a third party real estate company. I found the apartment in the realtor’s listings, and the realtor showed me the apartment, and was present when I signed the lease.

As part of the application process, I provided personal and financial information, including bank account information, credit report, etc. I also signed a privacy form to accompany that information, of course. That information should have stayed private, strictly between the realtor, landlord, and myself.

Upon moving into the house, I have discovered that no fewer than SIX of my neighbors are aware that I have a history of poor credit. The realtor shared much of my personal information with other neighbors and tenants.

I am furious, and feel I am owed a refund of the very large fee I paid to the real estate company. I plan to contact them, but am wondering if anyone has any experience in this?

From the developer’s Website:-"Hosur. The next satellite town for Bangalore.
Bangalore s high real estate prices have forced IT companies here to look beyond the city office space. And Hosur is all set to become the next IT destination. Located just 30 km form Electronic City ( a 30 minutes drive ), Hosur enjoys a proximity to Bangalore s talent pool. Relatively low land rates, a sound infrastructure and a pleasant climate make it a great alternative to Bangalore. The approval of a Hosur Special Economic Zone (The Hindu, Bangalore Edition, 3rd Oct 2006), plans for a software technology park, a floriculture park and further development of the infrastructure here will only quicken the moving in of IT companies. "

Is it Investing in Hosur now, is really like investing in Gurgaon ? What are the future prospects of the town?

I’m in the process of acquiring a 2-unit residential building with a partner and I’m going to have single-asset entity LLC formed for the property. I’m going to acquire this property with a personal mortgage and re-deed it to the LLC. Eventually, I’d like to pick up more properties under the same construct… once there’s a sustained income, I’ll get a new mortgage run through the business.

I plan on having partners contribute $XXX monthly into the business to establish a reserve/build equity. The only problem is that once there’s mutliple properties, I’m going to have to seperate the contributions and distribute the money into varying accounts.

Here’s what I’d like to do… I want to have a seperate LLC established for all capital contributions. Sort of acting as a management LLC so to speak and deposit rents and pay the mortgage through there.

Does anyone have any experience with doing this?
Sorry I’ll be more specific… All real estate would be held in a shell. For, as you pointed out, the liability issue. But what I’m thinking is.. could I have the specific property LLC owned by seperate LLC, have 100% of property equity pass through there, and have all capital contributions run through that parent company.

With respect to the "personal motgage"… Commercial property is tyupically lent at an 80% loan-to-value. Consumer loans (1-4 unit) are less stringent. As I don’t have 20% to put down and I have no historical cash flow, I’ll be taking out a consumer loan on the property and re-deed to the business after closing. After a year or so once there’s more equity in the property and there’s established rents, i’ll get refinance with the business as the borrower. Note that while the mortgage is held personally, despite the asset being deeded and reported with the LLC, I would still be personally liable.
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Al the properties will be owned equally by all partners. Rental real estate is better suited as a long term investment. although it will be a cash flow property, all income will be used as equity to fund other projects or strengthen the collateral position of the existing properties. A monthly capital contribution will be made by owners to further contribute equity to the project(s). There will not be distributions of retained earnings in the foreseeable future. I structure commercial loans for a living. I don’t need advie on structure, as mine is the most conducive for what I’m trying to accomplish. I need a response on my only question which is having a parent LLC to oversee all SAE LLCs

So we are buying our first home which is a bank owned foreclosure and I need help…I would like to know how I could eliminate some of the stresses?

I know its a tough market now, but we’ve been in the escrow for 2 months. We signed our final pile of docs two weeks ago and seller who is the bank has yet to sign off on their end. The title company can’t move on without their signatures and we can’t move on with anything. We can’t get planning on moving out of this place, planning on remodeling, etc. Its been so stressful and finally when I got relieved when the docs were signed and I was patient for a week but don’t understand why its taking 2 weeks to sign the docs. The seller’s agent says she did everything on her part and pretty much said to our agent ‘don’t call me everyday. I did everything I could’. We are kept in the dark.

We are at the point where we are ready to back out. I’ve been loosing sleep over this ‘not knowing’. We are considering signing a notice to perform form but our agent told us that this could sometimes push them to get things done but other times it can backfire too.

Please help!

I want to know if it is wiser to form a business partnership rather than just having one person collect money as a group to purchase and sell property. I would like to form a group of investors to purchase apartments for rentals, and buy commerical properties. In California what are my options for opening this type of business plan so that all the investors are equally protected?