Visitor Information - Real Estate

Escrow

By Connie Stevenson
Fidelity National Title

Escrow was originally from the word “Escrowl” which means stake holder. In a real estate escrow transaction the officer is the impartial third party that holds the conveyance document, i.e. deed from the seller to the buyer and awaits the necessary funds from buyer and buyer’s lender to be deposited into a trust account.

A title report is ordered from the title company.

This report does the following:

1. Verifies ownership of the property.
2. Obtains legal description of property.
3. Notes all documents recorded in regards to the property;

a. easements

b. covenants, conditions & restrictions and amendment(s) thereto

1. Real property taxes to be paid and prorated.
2. Association dues to be paid and prorated.
3. Amount on existing mortgages to satisfy payment in full.

Escrow works with the new lender to obtain clear lien checks for the buyer, supply title report and other documents required by lender to insure their loan will be in first position as a lien on the property second only to real property taxes.

There are differences from State to State regarding recording, costs and tax withholding for state capital gains taxes.

For Example: Hawaii has no county recorders so all documents must be recorded on the island of Oahu. Which changes the amount of time necessary from execution of documents to actual recording by about (3) days. There are also two separate recording systems in the State of Hawaii.

Land Court: Which demands more information for persons in the transfer of property. For example, full names must be used, initials will not be accepted except in the case of names in a trust. Another example is that if a person (owner of property) dies, divorces or marries, a petition to the land court must be made with certified copies of legal documents showing the change(s).

Bureau of Conveyance (more similar to mainland county recorder) Names may be as the owners wish – changes in status are handled basically with the title company.

There are more diverse concepts of properties in Hawaii leasehold, fee simple, co-ops and timeshare. So as you can see, choosing someone who is knowledgeable and also pleasant to work with can make the difference between a troublesome transaction or a transaction closed with akamai and aloha.