Last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal online edition included an article, “Six Mistakes Housing Investors Make.”  Columnist Karen Blumenthal quite correctly describes six common mistakes people make when they consider investing in residential real estate. In today’s real estate market, though, another mistake investors make is to accept real estate escrow, closing and settlement services provided by an attorney or title company associated with the financial institution selling the property at or after a foreclosure.

We’ve blogged about the importance of having an experienced real estate attorney who understands state foreclosure law and practice represent purchasers of foreclosed property in our post Beware of the Dangers of Purchasing Foreclosure Real Estate.  Owner’s title insurance is particularly important for purchasers of foreclosed properties, too, as we said in Owners Title Insurance Remains Important and in Title Insurance Vital to Protecting Homebuyers.   Hiring an independent settlement attorney or agent and purchasing owner’s title insurance can help protect a rental property purchaser’s investment. We can’t help with those other six mistakes, though!

Ron Wiley, Jr., the author of this post, practices throughout Virginia in MartinWren, P.C.’s Residential and Commercial Real Estate Lawyers group.  For more information about this article, please contact Ron at 434-817-3100 or send him an email at wiley@martinwrenlaw.com.